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Common Core ELAGrades 9–10Reading: Informational

RI.9-10.4: Word Choice and Tone

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.9-10.4 · Cluster: Craft and Structure.

Get the T-ChartAll 41 Grades 9–10 ELA Standards

The Official Wording

Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone (e.g., how the language of a court opinion differs from that of a newspaper).

Common Core State Standards, Grades 9-10, Reading: Informational Text · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026

What RI.9-10.4 Means in Plain English

Ninth and tenth graders work out what words mean in a text, including legal or scientific terms and the feelings words carry, then add the choices up. A court ruling written by judges and the same ruling in a newspaper can share every fact and differ completely in tone.

Eighth grade (RI.8.4) looked at the impact of single word choices, including analogies and allusions. Ninth and tenth grade weigh their cumulative effect across a text. Eleventh and twelfth grade (RI.11-12.4) follow how an author refines one key term, like faction in Federalist No. 10.

RI.9-10.4 I Can Statements

  • I can explain technical terms as a text uses them.
  • I can describe the feelings a word carries beyond its definition.
  • I can explain how many word choices together build a tone.

RI.9-10.4 Worked Example

Two versions report the same 1963 ruling on the right to a lawyer, and the weak answer stops at formal and informal.

Read the Story
Version A, written in the language of a court opinion: The petitioner, charged in a Florida state court with a felony, requested that counsel be appointed to represent him. The trial court denied the request, as state law then permitted appointment only in capital cases. The petitioner conducted his own defense and was convicted.Version A: A defendant who cannot afford counsel stands before the court without the one safeguard that makes a fair trial possible. The assistance of counsel is fundamental, and the obligation to provide it binds the States. The judgment is reversed.Version B, written in the language of a newspaper: A Florida drifter who scrawled his appeal in pencil from a prison cell won a sweeping victory yesterday, as all nine justices agreed that poor defendants charged with serious crimes must be given a lawyer.Version B: Clarence Earl Gideon, 52, was serving five years for breaking into a pool hall. He had begged the judge for a lawyer and been turned down. Now thousands of prisoners convicted without one may get a second chance.
A short passage written for this page.
Question: Both versions report the same ruling. How do the word choices in each add up to its tone? Point to technical, connotative and figurative language.
Not Yet“Version A is formal and Version B is informal. Version A uses big words like ‘petitioner,’ and Version B is easier to read.”“Formal” and “informal” are labels, not analysis. The answer names one word, never explains what it means or does, and misses that the newspaper’s choices build sympathy for Gideon.
Meets the Standard“Version A builds a detached, authoritative tone. It never names Gideon. He is ‘the petitioner,’ the technical term for a person asking a higher court to review a case, and he ‘requested’ a lawyer. ‘Is fundamental’ and the flat ‘The judgment is reversed’ sound final, as if the law itself were speaking. Version B builds sympathy and drama. Gideon gets a name and an age, ‘scrawled’ and ‘in pencil’ make him a lone underdog, ‘begged’ turns a request into a plea, and ‘sweeping victory’ and ‘second chance’ frame the ruling as a triumph. One text makes the ruling impersonal and certain, and the other makes it a human story.”It analyzes several words in each version, explains a technical meaning and several connotations, and shows how the choices add up to two different tones for the same facts.
Question Stems to Use
What does this term mean in a legal setting? Would a newspaper use it?What feeling does this word carry that a plainer word would not?Which words name the person, and which turn him into a role?Add up the word choices in each version: what tone do they build together?Which version sounds certain, and which sounds moved? Which words do that?

Common Mistakes with RI.9-10.4

Stopping at formal and informal

“Version A is formal, and Version B is casual.”

Try this: Require students to name at least three words from each text and explain what each one adds before naming the tone.

Skipping technical meanings

Treating “petitioner” as a fancy word for “man”

Try this: Have students look up each legal term in context and ask why the writer chose it over a plainer word.

Analyzing words one at a time

A list of definitions that never says what the words build together

Try this: Close every analysis with one sentence naming the cumulative tone and the three word choices that do the most to create it.

Where RI.9-10.4 Fits

Comes BeforeRI.8.4Analyze the impact of word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies and allusions.
AlongsideL.9-10.5Interpret figures of speech and weigh the nuances of words with similar meanings.RH.9-10.4Determine the meaning of political, social and economic vocabulary in history texts.
Comes NextRI.11-12.4Analyze how an author uses and refines the meaning of a key term over a text.

Practice RI.9-10.4

Vocabulary Worksheet GeneratorFree ToolBuild a worksheet on the legal terms in a court opinion, such as petitioner, counsel and felony, before students compare it with a news story.Legal termsGrades 9-10In context
Make a Worksheet

Quick Check

  1. What does “petitioner” mean in Version A, and why does the writer use it instead of Gideon’s name?
  2. Which words in Version B build sympathy for Gideon?
  3. What tone does each version build overall?

RI.9-10.4: Other Names

RI.9-10.4CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.9-10.4

Common Core State Standards © Copyright 2010. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers. All rights reserved. Official wording from the Common Core State Standards PDFs at corestandards.org, last checked October 14, 2026. The explanation, I can statements, example, mistakes and practice on this page are EMStudio’s own, written beside the official wording. They are not part of the standard.