Common Core LiteracyGrades 9–10History & Social Studies

RH.9-10.6: Compare Authors’ Points of View

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.6 · Cluster: Craft and Structure.

The Official Wording

Compare the point of view of two or more authors for how they treat the same or similar topics, including which details they include and emphasize in their respective accounts.

Common Core State Standards, Grades 9-10, Reading: History & Social Studies · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026

What RH.9-10.6 Means in Plain English

Ninth and tenth graders set two accounts of one historical event side by side and ask how each author’s point of view decides what goes in, what gets stressed and what is left out. In 1894, a striking car builder stressed his rent and the company stressed its losses.

Middle school (RH.6-8.6) looked for clues to one author’s slant, like loaded words or facts left out. Ninth and tenth grade compare two or more authors on one topic. In eleventh and twelfth grade (RH.11-12.6), students evaluate differing views by testing each author’s claims, reasoning and evidence.

RH.9-10.6 I Can Statements

I can identify each author’s point of view on an event.
I can compare which details two authors include and emphasize.
I can explain why an author leaves out a particular detail.

RH.9-10.6 Worked Example

Both texts report the same wage cuts and rents, and the weak answer stops at saying the authors disagree.

Read the Story

Text 1, from a letter by a car builder in the company town of Pullman, Illinois, to a Chicago newspaper, June 1894 (invented): “Our wages were cut by a quarter last winter, and in some shops by more, but not one dollar came off the rent. The company takes the rent out of our pay before we ever see it.”Text 1: “After the rent was taken from my last pay, I had a few dollars to feed five people for two weeks. And all this while, the company still pays its stockholders their dividends.”Text 2, from a statement by the managers of the Pullman Palace Car Company, June 1894 (invented): “When orders for new cars vanished in the panic of last year, the company took contracts at a loss so that its men would not be idle.”Text 2: “As a landlord, the company asks only a fair return on its houses, which are cleaner, better drained and better built than any working people can rent in Chicago. A business cannot fix its rents by its wages.”

A short passage written for this page.

Question: Both authors write about the same wage cuts and rents. How does each author’s point of view shape which details they include, emphasize and leave out?

Not Yet“The worker thinks the company is unfair, and the company thinks it is being fair. They disagree about the strike.”It names the two sides but never looks at the details. It does not say what each text stresses, what each leaves out, or how the same facts about wages and rent are framed differently.

Meets the Standard“Both texts mention wages and rent, but each author picks the details that fit a point of view. The worker treats the company as employer and landlord at once, so he puts the pay cut and the rent in one sentence and stresses what is left: ‘a few dollars to feed five people for two weeks.’ He adds a detail the company never mentions, that it ‘still pays its stockholders their dividends.’ The managers keep their two roles apart. They present the wage cuts as a sacrifice, contracts taken ‘at a loss’ so the men ‘would not be idle,’ praise the houses as ‘cleaner, better drained and better built,’ and insist that a business ‘cannot fix its rents by its wages.’ They never say how much pay was left after rent, and the worker never mentions lost orders or the quality of the houses. Each leaves out the detail that would help the other side.”It compares the authors detail by detail: what both mention, how each frames the shared facts and what each leaves out, then explains those choices through each author’s point of view.

Question Stems to Use

What does each author want readers to believe about the strike?Which facts appear in both accounts? How does each author frame them?What does one author include that the other leaves out? Why might that be?Which detail does each author linger on or repeat?How would each account change if it included the other’s missing detail?

Common Mistakes with RH.9-10.6

Stopping at “they disagree”

“The worker is for the strike and the company is against it.”

Try this: Have students list the details each author includes, then circle the ones only that author mentions and explain the choice.

Treating one account as the whole truth

“The company was lying, so only the worker’s letter counts.”

Try this: Ask what each account gets right, then note that both can report accurate facts while choosing different ones to stress.

Missing emphasis inside a shared fact

Noting that both mention rent without seeing that one ties it to wages and the other separates them

Try this: Pick a fact both authors mention and compare the sentences around it, since framing a shared fact reveals point of view most clearly.

Where RH.9-10.6 Fits

Comes BeforeRH.6-8.6Spot loaded language and chosen or avoided facts that reveal one author’s point of view.

AlongsideRI.9-10.6Determine an author’s point of view and analyze the rhetoric that advances it.RH.9-10.9Compare treatments of the same topic in several primary and secondary sources.

Comes NextRH.11-12.6Evaluate differing points of view on an event by assessing claims, reasoning and evidence.

Practice RH.9-10.6

Quick Check

What detail does the worker include that the company’s statement leaves out?
That the company still paid its stockholders their dividends, and how little pay was left after rent.
How does the company explain the wage cuts?
Orders for new cars vanished in the panic, so it took contracts at a loss to keep its men working.
How do the two texts treat rent and wages differently?
The worker ties them together, with rent taken from cut pay, while the company says rents cannot be fixed by wages.

RH.9-10.6: Other Names

RH.9-10.6CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.6