What the work shows
a Writing: The student produces a report that:
• engages the reader by establishing a context, creating a persona, and otherwise developing reader interest;
• develops a controlling idea that conveys a perspective on the subject;
• creates an organizing structure appropriate to purpose, audience, and context;
• includes appropriate facts and details;
• excludes extraneous and inappropriate information;
• uses a range of appropriate strategies, such as providing facts and details, describing or analyzing the subject, narrating a relevant anecdote, comparing and contrasting, naming, explaining benefits or limitations, demonstrating claims or assertions, and providing a scenario to illustrate;
• provides a sense of closure to the writing.

The work engages the reader immediately with a provocative question and a humorous response.

The work establishes the persona of a knowledgeable person in the third paragraph when the student gives some of the scientific information behind the initial conversation.

This work sample illustrates a standard-setting performance for the following part of the standards:
a	Writing: Produce a report.

The work develops a controlling idea that conveys a perspective on the subject, i.e., that most of us have not been aware of the fact that flowers usually contain both the male and female reproductive organs. This phenomenon is explained throughout the work.

The work creates an organizing structure appropriate to a specific purpose, audience, and context. For example, the work makes the assumption that most people have limited knowledge on this topic, and, in order to help the novice reader, goes from the general (“Did you know fruits are ovaries?”) to the specific (the explanation of cross-pollination).

The student successfully engages and maintains the reader’s interest by addressing the audience directly as “you.”

The work incorporates information drawn from multiple sources. The student utilized two reference texts and interviewed two experts on the subject.

The work incorporates a range of appropriate strategies, such as:
the inclusion of numerous facts and details to explain the role of fruit in plant reproduction;
the use of simple, concrete language to explain the subject to a lay audience;
the use of humor in the initial conversation and throughout;
the use of a conversational tone which is successful in imparting scientific information while keeping the reader engaged; and
the use of metaphorical anecdotes and pedestrian terms to convey complicated information.
The work provides a sense of closure. After providing numerous details throughout the report concerning how flowers become fruit, the student explained at the end how some flowers have actually evolved to the point where they “look, smell, and feel like female bees,” thus further serving the process of pollination.

There are some errors in spelling (e.g., “pistol” instead of “pistil”), and usage (e.g., “it” instead of “its” at the bottom of page 14 and “flowers” instead of “flower” at the bottom of the third to the last paragraph).

The report contains some errors of science. The work does not stick with its original purpose—to explain how flowers become fruit. It digresses into an explanation of pollination and fertilization but does not fully explain this process either.

There are some errors in terminology, for example, the term “pistil” is generally no longer used and the stamen is not necessarily “yellow.” Also, in the second last sentence of the first page, the student used the term “bond” when “fuse” or “meld” would have been more appropriate words to describe the process of the sperm combining with the egg to form a totally new entity.

The description of the reproductive parts of the corn, the function of the wind in corn pollination, and the generalization that the stigma must come in contact with pollen grains from another flower in order to reproduce are incorrect.

Click to Enlarge