1. Chapter 1 Characteristics of Good Writing Grade 7 Common Core Writing Companion © Perfection Learning ® Reproduction permitted for classroom use only. 1 Evidence: Facts such as quotations, statistics, informed judgments, and logical reason. Annotating Text: Marking text for evidence to use in your writing.

2. Chapter 1 Characteristics of Good Writing Grade 7 Common Core Writing Companion © Perfection Learning ® Reproduction permitted for classroom use only. 2 Methods for Annotating Text: Underline key ideas and definitions. Circle unfamiliar terms. Draw arrows to connect related ideas. Number steps in a process or events in a story. Write questions about ideas you don’t understand. Write summaries of key ideas. Use stars, boxes and other marks to help you highlight features of the text. If you don’t own text, than makes on your own paper.

3. Chapter 1 Characteristics of Good Writing Grade 7 Common Core Writing Companion © Perfection Learning ® Reproduction permitted for classroom use only. 3 Activity 3A Identifying Textual Evidence (p. 10) Cool Papa Bell was one of the greatest baseball players of all time. He played from 1922 to 1950, during a time when professional baseball was divided into separate leagues for white and black players. Bell played in what were called the Negro Leagues. Underline three examples of textual evidence you could use in an essay about Bell for a local newspaper story about outstanding but little-known baseball players.

4. Chapter 1 Characteristics of Good Writing Grade 7 Common Core Writing Companion © Perfection Learning ® Reproduction permitted for classroom use only. 4 Activity 3A Identifying Textual Evidence (p. 10) [Cool Papa Bell] was the fastest man in all of baseball. He was like lightning. Cool Papa could circle the bases in twelve to thirteen seconds. One minute he was standing still on first base, and next thing you know, he was slowing up at third. More than once he scored from first base on a bunt. He was so fast, Jesse Owens, the Olympic sprinter, wouldn’t race him without his track shoes. Source: Nelson, Kadir. We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball. New York: Hyperion, 2008. Page 42. Print.

5. Chapter 1 Characteristics of Good Writing Grade 7 Common Core Writing Companion © Perfection Learning ® Reproduction permitted for classroom use only. 5 Activity 3A Identifying Textual Evidence (p. 10) [Cool Papa Bell] was the fastest man in all of baseball. He was like lightning. Cool Papa could circle the bases in twelve to thirteen seconds. One minute he was standing still on first base, and next thing you know, he was slowing up at third. More than once he scored from first base on a bunt. He was so fast, Jesse Owens, the Olympic sprinter, wouldn’t race him without his track shoes. Source: Nelson, Kadir. We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball. New York: Hyperion, 2008. Page 42. Print.