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In this vintage essay, Abigail expresses her thoughts and feelings about the songwriter and lead singer of the band the Counting Crows, who are still making music a quarter century on. She analyzes the themes in Adam Duritz’s songs from the '90's and offers her interpretation of symbolism present in them.

Amy Tan’s book The Joy Luck Club explores the relationships between four Chinese American daughters and their often-misunderstood, more traditional Chinese mothers. By sharing quotations from the book, Fawn, the author of this literary analysis, intends to show how, as they grew up, the daughters came to understand, respect, and appreciate their mothers more.

This historical profile presents accurate information about a famous person and is written in an active, lively manner. Alita, the writer, immersed herself in the life of Rosa Parks until she could “feel” the person and events. She found ways to communicate these feelings to readers.

This report is timely, revealing, and engaging; it flows smoothly with effective transitions between paragraphs. The author has clearly gained a thorough understanding of the subject.

Dylan, a second-grade writer, shares his very personal feelings in an honest, direct way. His first and last sentences tell the whole story; and the middle sentences give the reader important, heartfelt details about Dylan’s experience.

This is a fun story with lots of details.

This report was submitted by Brittany, a second grader. The ending of Brittany’s report shares exactly how she feels about her subject.

Second-grade writer Kirsten shares many interesting facts in her report. Notice how she ties everything together by mentioning the horse’s good eyesight in both the first and last paragraphs.

Second-grader Pheba wrote a small poem that tells in just a few words what her subject does and how she feels about it.

Austin, the second-grade writer of this expository paragraph, introduces his subject—how to be a good president—in an interesting way.

This book review is well organized and shares interesting details related to the book.

This writing shows that the writer has a real grasp of the meaning of a fable. It has some delightful details.

Jess uses his senses to describe winter in this poem.

This story is well organized, and the sentences flow smoothly. There are lots of details and excellent word choices.

This author brings excitement to her story when she paints a picture of her friend sprawled like a spider.

The writer’s descriptions in this narrative make it a vivid and memorable story.

The author’s personal voice comes through loud and clear in this friendly letter submitted by third-grader Andrea.

This short persuasive paragraph is based on a model that third-grader Rachel submitted. She begins her writing in a way that makes the reader want to keep reading. The reader wants to find out what decision she is talking about.

This model of “How-To” writing is based on a model submitted by Dagmary. She has decided to list the steps in her recipe instead of putting them in paragraph form.