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South Carolina Standards

South Carolina English 4 ELA Standards

All 33 South Carolina English language arts standards for English 4, each explained in plain English. The official wording is in South Carolina Department of Education's document, linked at the end of this page.

33 standards

Overarching Expectations

6 standards
ELA.E4.OE.1
Read and write for academic and personal purposes over extended periods, like reading a British classic in full and writing a sustained senior research paper.
ELA.E4.OE.2
Build and share knowledge across media, like producing a multimedia presentation that blends text, video, images, and interactive elements.
ELA.E4.OE.3
Infer what a text leaves unsaid to understand it fully, like recognizing the social criticism hidden beneath a polite comedy of manners.
ELA.E4.OE.4
Work as a team and listen attentively, like building consensus on a group project or paraphrasing a classmate's view in a seminar.
ELA.E4.OE.5
Ground and defend your reasoning in cited evidence, like using two well-chosen quotations to support a thesis about a play's ending.
ELA.E4.OE.6
Deliver polished work in an accepted format, like a senior research paper or a professional email that follows standard conventions.

Applications of Reading

14 standards
ELA.E4.AOR.1.1
Evaluate and critique how varied viewpoints, context, and core elements combine to enrich meaning or style across texts, like a play retold by a minor character.
ELA.E4.AOR.1.2
Evaluate and critique an author's figurative language in one or more texts, like judging whether a poet's extended conceit truly deepens the poem.
ELA.E4.AOR.2.1
Evaluate and critique how universal themes develop in literature from different eras, places, or cultures, like the nature of power in Macbeth and a modern novel.
ELA.E4.AOR.2.2
Evaluate and critique how similar central ideas develop in historical speeches or essays from different eras, places, or cultures, like wartime speeches from two nations.
ELA.E4.AOR.3.1
Analyze the gap between stated and intended meaning in literature, like satire, sarcasm, understatement, or irony, and evaluate how it shapes content and style.
ELA.E4.AOR.4.1
Evaluate two or more texts on one topic by authors with opposing views and critique how well each author's rhetoric works, like speeches in a voting rights debate.
ELA.E4.AOR.5.1
Evaluate and critique how an author's diction, syntax, and structure create effects and shape a literary text's overall meaning, like a poem's broken lines.
ELA.E4.AOR.5.2
Evaluate and critique an informational text's structure and features and how the author could make it more effective, like reorganizing a report by cause and effect.
ELA.E4.AOR.5.3
Evaluate and critique several arguments on one topic, weighing each author's reasoning, rhetoric, claims, and use of information, like policy papers on climate.
ELA.E4.AOR.6.1
Summarize or paraphrase grade-level texts in your own words to sharpen understanding, like boiling a dense philosophical essay down to its core argument.
ELA.E4.AOR.7.1
Unlock the meaning of known, unfamiliar, and multiple-meaning words using context clues, prior knowledge, or references for exact meaning, pronunciation, and usage.
ELA.E4.AOR.8.1
Interpret how an author uses irony in context, how words with similar dictionary meanings differ in feel, and how word choice sets the tone of documents or news.
ELA.E4.AOR.9.1
Apply etymology to figure out or confirm the meaning of new words, like recognizing Old English and Norse roots in words from early British literature.
ELA.E4.AOR.10.1
Evaluate and critique the pros and cons of presenting ideas in different formats, like judging a film adaptation of a novel against the printed original.

Research

5 standards
ELA.E4.R.1.1
Carry out short and sustained research on questions or problems you pose yourself, using varied sources and narrowing the scope for your purpose and audience.
ELA.E4.R.1.2
Evaluate sources for credibility and relevance and use only reliable, on-topic ones, like judging a think tank's funding before citing its report.
ELA.E4.R.1.3
Evaluate research findings to decide which truly serve your topic and research purpose, like dropping a striking quote that does not support your thesis.
ELA.E4.R.1.4
Synthesize findings from many sources and arrange them logically for purpose and audience, like grouping studies that agree and disagree in a senior paper.
ELA.E4.R.1.5
Credit sources in a recognized academic style, like correct in-text citations and a works cited list in a senior thesis, so no idea is plagiarized.

Written and Oral Communications

8 standards
ELA.E4.C.1.1
Write an argument on topics or texts with informed claims and their stakes, weighing counterclaims fairly with strong evidence and minding the audience and its biases.
ELA.E4.C.2.1
Write informative essays analyzing complex texts so each idea builds on the last, developing the topic thoroughly with data and quotes in a formal, objective tone.
ELA.E4.C.3.1
Use narrative inside other writing to introduce an issue or support a claim, sequencing events to build a particular tone with precise language and a purposeful ending.
ELA.E4.C.4.1
Apply capitalization and punctuation rules deliberately in varied sentences, fix fragments and run-ons, and edit final drafts with print and digital resources.
ELA.E4.C.5.1
Refine writing through planning, editing, and feedback from adults and peers, revising for clarity and a fitting style, like a cover letter for a job or scholarship.
ELA.E4.C.7.1
Deliver findings and evidence effectively to varied audiences with sound organization, steady eye contact, valid reasoning, visuals, and multimedia you publish.
ELA.E4.C.8.1
Join discussions and team projects by responding with respect, extending others' points, disagreeing politely, and adjusting views with evidence, like in a mock trial.
ELA.E4.C.9.1
Evaluate and critique a live or recorded presentation's message, media choices, and evidence, and analyze the speaker's information for logical fallacies and bias.

The official South Carolina documents

The plain-English lines on this page are EMStudio's own explanations of South Carolina's standards, not the official wording, which South Carolina Department of Education publishes in the documents above. Codes and strand names identify each standard.