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Common Core ELA8th GradeWriting

W.8.5: Revise for Purpose and Audience

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.8.5 · Cluster: Production and Distribution of Writing.

All 41 8th Grade ELA Standards

The Official Wording

With some guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on how well purpose and audience have been addressed. (Editing for conventions should demonstrate command of Language standards 1-3 up to and including grade 8 here.)

Common Core State Standards, Grade 8, Writing · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026

What W.8.5 Means in Plain English

Eighth graders revise by asking whether a draft does its job for its reader, often after a partner conference. A board letter that opens with “you guys” gets a new register and a missing explanation, and editing catches grade 8 errors like a slide from active to passive voice.

Seventh grade (W.7.5) uses the same wording, with editing up to the grade 7 Language standards. Eighth grade raises that bar to verbals, voice and mood. Grades 9 to 10 (W.9-10.5) drop the guidance and support and ask writers to address what matters most for the purpose.

W.8.5 I Can Statements

  • I can use a partner’s feedback to revise for my purpose and audience.
  • I can try a new approach when a draft does not reach its reader.
  • I can edit for grade 8 conventions, including shifts in voice and mood.

W.8.5 Worked Example

Here the weak text is the first draft and the strong one is the same writer’s revision, after a partner said she could not tell who the letter was for.

Prompt

Revise this paragraph from your letter to the school board using your partner’s feedback: “I’m not sure who this is for. It sounds like you’re talking to me, and the board won’t know what Homework Café is.” Then edit it for shifts in verb voice and mood.

Not YetSo basically Homework Café is awesome and you guys should keep paying for it. Kids go there after school and their homework gets done by them. If the board would cut it, a lot of people would be really upset.This is the draft. It addresses the board as “you guys,” never explains what Homework Café is, and offers feelings instead of reasons a board could act on. It needs editing too: “gets done by them” slides from active to passive voice, and “If the board would cut it” puts the wrong mood in the if clause.
Meets the StandardHomework Café, the free after-school study room in the library, should stay in next year’s budget. Every weekday from 3:00 to 4:30, about forty students complete their assignments there with help from two teachers. For many of them, it is the only quiet place to work before evening. If the board were to cut the program, those students would lose both the space and the help. Keeping it open costs two teachers’ time for ninety minutes a day, a small price for that much finished work.Both of the partner’s points are answered: the board learns what Homework Café is in the first sentence, and “you guys” and “awesome” give way to the formal register a school board expects. The feelings became facts the board can weigh. Editing fixed the voice shift (students complete their assignments) and the mood (If the board were to cut).
Moves to Use
Restate the partner’s feedback as a question about purpose or audience.Revise content and order first: add what this reader is missing.Cut what sounds right to a friend but wrong to this reader.Edit last, for grade 8 conventions such as shifts in verb voice and mood.

Common Mistakes with W.8.5

Revising only the commas

A second draft identical to the first except for three added commas

Try this: Have students answer one question in the margin before touching punctuation: who reads this, and what do they still need?

Feedback about the writer, not the reader

A partner writes “I like your topic” and “Make it longer.”

Try this: Give partners one frame tied to audience, “As a board member, I would still want to know…”, and have the writer answer it.

Shifting voice or mood mid-sentence

“Kids go there after school and their homework gets done by them.”

Try this: Teach students to underline each verb in a sentence and check that voice and mood stay the same unless meaning requires a change.

Where W.8.5 Fits

Comes BeforeW.7.5The same process, with editing up to the grade 7 Language standards.
AlongsideL.8.1Recognize and correct inappropriate shifts in verb voice and mood, the editing this revision needed.W.8.4Fit development, organization and style to task, purpose and audience, the target every revision aims at.
Comes NextW.9-10.5Revise without the guidance clause, focusing on what is most significant for a specific purpose and audience.

Practice W.8.5

Quick Check

  1. What two problems did the writing partner point out?
  2. Find the shift in voice in the draft and how the revision fixes it.
  3. Why is “If the board were to cut the program” better than “If the board would cut it”?

W.8.5: Other Names

W.8.5CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.8.5

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.