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Common Core LiteracyGrades 6–8Writing

WHST.6-8.9: Use Evidence from Informational Texts

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.WHST.6-8.9 · Cluster: Research to Build and Present Knowledge.

All 29 Grades 6–8 Literacy Standards

The Official Wording

Draw evidence from informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.

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

What WHST.6-8.9 Means in Plain English

Students pull evidence from the informational texts of their subject, such as textbooks, primary documents and science articles, and put it to work in their own writing: to analyze what a source shows, reflect on what it means or support research. Each piece is quoted or named exactly, then explained.

Fifth graders (W.5.9) draw evidence from literary or informational texts. In history, science and technical classes the texts are informational, read with the RH and RST skills of grades 6 to 8. Grades 9 to 10 (WHST.9-10.9) keep the same wording and apply it to that band’s harder texts.

WHST.6-8.9 I Can Statements

  • I can find evidence in a textbook or primary source.
  • I can quote or name the exact detail I am using.
  • I can explain how the evidence supports my analysis.

WHST.6-8.9 Worked Example

Both students read the same rule sheet and the same textbook paragraph; only one made the documents do the arguing.

Prompt

History class: Using both texts, write a paragraph analyzing why factories like the Ashby Glass Works hired children in the 1890s. Text 1, from the textbook: “Factory owners often hired children because they could be paid a fraction of an adult’s wage, and children were less likely to complain or join a union.” Text 2, rules posted at the Ashby Glass Works in 1895, a document invented for this lesson: “Boys report at 5:30 in the evening and work until 3:30 in the morning. Carrying-in boys are paid 40 cents a night. Any boy who drops a piece of glass will have its cost taken from his pay. No talking on the floor.”

Not YetFactories hired children because it was a long time ago and there were no laws. The rules were really strict. Kids had to work at night. This shows child labor was bad.The paragraph gestures at the rule sheet but never quotes or names a detail from either text, and its first reason comes from neither. “Really strict” and “was bad” are reactions, not analysis: nothing explains why owners chose children.
Meets the StandardFactories like the Ashby Glass Works hired children mainly because children cost less and were easier to control. The textbook explains that children “could be paid a fraction of an adult’s wage,” and the Ashby rules show what that fraction looked like: a carrying-in boy earned 40 cents for a ten-hour night shift. The rules also took money back, since any boy who dropped a piece of glass had its cost taken from his pay, so one mistake could erase a night’s wages. A rule like “No talking on the floor” suggests the owners counted on obedience, which fits the textbook’s point that children were less likely to complain or join a union. Read together, the two texts show that hiring children was a business decision, and the boys paid for it with their sleep and their wages.Every claim rests on a named detail: a quoted phrase from the textbook, and the wage, shift hours, breakage rule and silence rule from the posted sheet. Each piece of evidence is followed by what it shows, the two texts are connected rather than summarized one after the other, and the last sentence draws a conclusion from both.
Moves to Use
Make a claim that answers the question before quoting anything.Quote short phrases or name exact details: the wage, the hours, the rule.Follow every piece of evidence with a sentence that explains it.Connect the two texts instead of summarizing them one by one.Use “suggests” when the evidence supports an inference, not a fact.

Common Mistakes with WHST.6-8.9

Evidence from outside the texts

“Factories hired children because there were no laws back then.”

Try this: Have students underline each reason in their draft and write beside it the text and line it came from.

The dropped quote

A quotation standing alone as its own sentence, with nothing before it and no explanation after

Try this: Require a sentence after every quotation that begins “This shows” or “This suggests” and names what the reader should notice.

Summary instead of analysis

One sentence retelling the textbook, one retelling the rule sheet, and nothing connecting them

Try this: Ask students to write one sentence that uses a detail from each text together, explaining what the pair shows that neither shows alone.

Where WHST.6-8.9 Fits

Comes BeforeW.5.9Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection and research.
AlongsideRH.6-8.1Cite specific evidence from primary and secondary sources, the reading half of this writing standard.RH.6-8.9Compare a primary source with a secondary source on the same topic, as this paragraph does with a rule sheet and a textbook.
Comes NextWHST.9-10.9The same work with the more complex informational texts of grades 9 and 10.

Practice WHST.6-8.9

Quick Check

  1. Which detail from the rule sheet shows what “a fraction of an adult’s wage” looked like?
  2. Where does the strong response connect the two texts rather than summarize them?
  3. Why is “because there were no laws” weak evidence for this assignment?

WHST.6-8.9: Other Names

WHST.6-8.9CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.WHST.6-8.9

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.