Common Core LiteracyGrades 6–8Science & Technical

RST.6-8.5: How a Science Text Is Organized

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.6-8.5 · Cluster: Craft and Structure.

The Official Wording

Analyze the structure an author uses to organize a text, including how the major sections contribute to the whole and to an understanding of the topic.

Common Core State Standards, Grades 6-8, Reading: Science & Technical Subjects · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026

What RST.6-8.5 Means in Plain English

Students in grades 6 to 8 explain how a science text is put together and what each part adds. In a lab report, the hypothesis gives the conclusion something to test, and the procedure lets the reader judge the results.

Fifth graders (RI.5.5) compared the overall structures of two texts, such as cause and effect or problem and solution. Here students judge how each section serves the whole. In ninth and tenth grade (RST.9-10.5) they analyze how the key terms and concepts in a text relate.

RST.6-8.5 I Can Statements

I can name the sections of a science text and their jobs.
I can explain how one section depends on another.
I can explain what a missing section would cost the reader.

RST.6-8.5 Worked Example

Each section of this student lab report does one job, and the weak answer lists the headings without saying what any of them does.

Read the Story

Question: Does a racquetball’s temperature change how high it bounces?Hypothesis: If the ball is colder, it will bounce lower, because cold rubber is stiffer and less springy.Procedure: We kept one ball in a freezer at minus 15 °C, one at room temperature, 21 °C, and one in a 45 °C water bath, each for 20 minutes. We dropped each ball from 1 meter beside a meter stick, filmed it, and read the top of the first bounce. Three drops per ball.Results: Average bounce height was 41 cm for the frozen ball, 63 cm at room temperature and 70 cm for the warm ball.Conclusion: The data support the hypothesis, since bounce height rose with temperature. One weakness: the frozen ball warmed during its three drops, so its later bounces were higher. Next time we will return it to the freezer between drops.

A short passage written for this page.

Question: How is this report organized, and what does each section contribute to the whole? Why does the conclusion go back to the hypothesis and the procedure?

Not Yet“It goes question, hypothesis, procedure, results, conclusion. That is the order every lab report uses.”It lists the headings in order but never says what any section adds or how the conclusion depends on the sections before it.

Meets the Standard“The report follows the order of the investigation. The question names the one thing being tested, temperature. The hypothesis makes a prediction with a reason, stiffer cold rubber, so there is something to check. The procedure gives the temperatures, the 1-meter drop and the three drops per ball, so anyone could repeat it. The results give only the numbers, 41, 63 and 70 cm. The conclusion holds those numbers up against the hypothesis and finds they agree, then reaches back to the procedure to name a weakness, the frozen ball warming between drops.”It explains the job of every section, shows how each one depends on the one before, and notices that the conclusion reaches back to both the hypothesis and the procedure.

Question Stems to Use

What job does this section do that no other section does?Which earlier section does this one depend on?Why are the results kept separate from the conclusion?What would a reader lose if this section were missing?Where does the text return to an earlier part, and why?

Common Mistakes with RST.6-8.5

Listing headings as the analysis

“Question, hypothesis, procedure, results, conclusion.”

Try this: Have students write one “This section lets the reader…” sentence for every heading before they describe the order.

Treating sections as separate boxes

Describing the conclusion without noticing it answers the hypothesis and cites the procedure

Try this: Ask students to draw arrows between sections that refer to each other, then explain each arrow in one sentence.

Blurring results and conclusion

“The results and the conclusion are basically the same section.”

Try this: Sort sentences from a cut-up report into Results or Conclusion, with the rule that results report numbers and conclusions interpret them.

Where RST.6-8.5 Fits

Comes BeforeRI.5.5Compare the overall structure, such as cause and effect or problem and solution, of two or more texts.

AlongsideRI.8.5Analyze how the sentences of one paragraph develop and refine a key idea in nonfiction.WHST.6-8.2Organize explanatory writing with headings and sections, the same structure from the writer’s side.

Comes NextRST.9-10.5Analyze how the key terms and concepts of a science text relate, such as force, friction and energy.

Practice RST.6-8.5

Quick Check

What is the lab testing?
Whether a racquetball’s temperature changes how high it bounces.
What reason does the hypothesis give for its prediction?
Cold rubber is stiffer and less springy, so a colder ball should bounce lower.
What weakness does the conclusion name, and how will the group fix it?
The frozen ball warmed during its three drops, so its later bounces were higher. Next time they will return it to the freezer between drops.

RST.6-8.5: Other Names

RST.6-8.5CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.6-8.5