Week 12: Week 12 — The Informative/Explanatory Writing Task
Week of Mon, Feb 1 · week closes Sun, Feb 7
This week's items
Exact due times are in Canvas. Each week opens on its Monday and stays open. Practice is never late — but the MCAP window opens April 5, 2027, so keep pace.
Know these cold
- An informative/explanatory constructed response asks you to explain a topic using information from the passages, not to argue for your opinion.
- Read the prompt for its verb. "Explain how," "explain why," and "describe the effects" each call for a different focus, and your controlling idea should answer that exact question.
- Your introduction should name the topic and state a controlling idea: one sentence that tells readers what your explanation will show.
- Organize body paragraphs by idea, such as causes, effects, steps, or features, and open each with a topic sentence that connects back to the controlling idea.
- Develop each point with relevant facts, details, and quotations from both passages when the prompt asks for both, and name which passage each one comes from.
- After every piece of evidence, explain how it supports your point. Explanation, not quotation, is what makes a response well developed.
- Keep a formal, objective style: precise vocabulary from the topic, no slang, and no "I think" in an informative essay.
- Close with a conclusion that follows from the explanation, then proofread. The response earns a Written Expression score (0–4) and a Written Conventions score (0–3).
Meerk's quiz — open the Week 12 gate
10 questions, no time limit. One counted try: 85% opens the gate. Miss it and Meerk's Study Path opens: it teaches every miss back to you, then a mastery check — and it cannot finish before 25 minutes of real study. Then your second try opens. Work alone; the point is to know it, not to have seen it.
Stuck?
Raise your hand. Mr. James gets a message right away and can help you remotely. Nothing else is stored — just your last name, grade, and where you're stuck.
My Progress
Dinner Table Question
Ask at home: Pick something someone in our family knows how to do well, like a recipe, a repair, or a skill from work. Can you explain how it works, step by step, so someone else could follow it?
En español: Escojan algo que alguien de nuestra familia sepa hacer bien, como una receta, una reparación o una habilidad del trabajo. ¿Pueden explicar cómo funciona, paso a paso, para que otra persona pueda seguirlo?