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Common Core ELAGrades 11–12Reading: Literature

RL.11-12.1: Cite Evidence and Find What the Text Leaves Open

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.1 · Cluster: Key Ideas and Details.

All 41 Grades 11–12 ELA Standards

The Official Wording

Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.

Common Core State Standards, Grades 11-12, Reading: Literature · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026

What RL.11-12.1 Means in Plain English

Juniors and seniors build a reading from strong, thorough evidence, then mark the places where the story refuses to settle the question. When a fisherman’s skiff drifts home empty, the boots and the money tin point two ways, and the best answer quotes both and names the gap.

In grades 9 and 10 (RL.9-10.1) students backed a reading with strong, thorough evidence. Grades 11 and 12 add knowing where that evidence runs out. This is the last band of the line, with no later code: meeting it by the end of grade 12 is college and career readiness.

RL.11-12.1 I Can Statements

  • I can quote strong evidence for my reading of a story.
  • I can support an inference with lines the text never states outright.
  • I can point to where a text leaves a question unresolved.

RL.11-12.1 Worked Example

A wife waits for a husband who never comes home, and the story hands her evidence for two different endings.

Read the Story
The skiff drifted in on the evening tide with no one in it, oars shipped, Joss’s boots in the bow, laced and set side by side.He could not swim. Every man on the island knew it, and every man said so to Hedda that week, as if it settled something.When the constable asked about money, she took down the tin from above the stove. It was empty. She said she had spent it on the roof, and he wrote that down, though the roof still leaked over the bed.Hedda kept his place at the table for a month. Then, without a word to anyone, she began writing letters she posted to the mainland.
A short passage written for this page.
Question: Did Joss drown, or did he leave? Cite the strongest evidence for each reading, and say where the story leaves the matter uncertain.
Not Yet“Joss drowned. The story says ‘He could not swim,’ and his boots were in the boat, so he must have fallen in.”It quotes real evidence, but for one reading only, and treats a fact the islanders repeat as proof. The tin, the lie about the roof and the letters never come up.
Meets the Standard“The story supports both endings and settles neither. For drowning: the empty skiff and ‘He could not swim.’ But the islanders say it ‘as if it settled something,’ which hints that it doesn’t. For leaving: the tin ‘was empty,’ and Hedda blames a roof that ‘still leaked over the bed,’ so she is covering for someone. Later she writes ‘letters she posted to the mainland.’ The boots, ‘laced and set side by side,’ fit a man walking into the water or a man staging it. The text never says who reads Hedda’s letters, and that silence is where the uncertainty lives.”It cites strong evidence for both readings, weighs the detail that cuts both ways, and names the exact place the text withholds an answer instead of forcing one.
Question Stems to Use
What does the text say outright, and what are you inferring?Which detail supports more than one reading?Where does the evidence for your reading run out?What does the text never tell us, and does the silence look deliberate?How would a reader arguing the opposite use this same passage?

Common Mistakes with RL.11-12.1

Forcing one answer

“Joss drowned. Case closed.”

Try this: Ask students to argue the reading they rejected for one paragraph, using the same passage, before they decide what the text settles.

Calling ambiguity a flaw

“The author never tells us what happened, so the ending is confusing.”

Try this: Teach that a deliberate gap is a choice, and have students explain what the story gains by withholding the answer.

Uncertain about everything

“We can’t really know anything about Joss.”

Try this: Separate what the text establishes, like the empty tin, from what it leaves open, and require evidence for both columns.

Where RL.11-12.1 Fits

Comes BeforeRL.9-10.1Cite strong and thorough evidence for what a text states and what it implies.
AlongsideRI.11-12.1Apply the same evidence standard, open questions included, to essays and speeches.RL.11-12.6Separate what a narrator states from what the author really means.
Comes NextW.11-12.9Draw evidence from literature into analytical writing that admits what stays open.SL.11-12.1Bring textual evidence to discussion and weigh the readings classmates defend.

Practice RL.11-12.1

Quick Check

  1. What is in the skiff when it drifts back?
  2. Why is Hedda’s explanation of the empty tin suspicious?
  3. What does the story never reveal?

RL.11-12.1: Other Names

RL.11-12.1CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.1

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.