The long composition on the Grade 10 ELA MCAS: complete overview - Massachusetts

The long composition is the essay task on the Grade 10 ELA MCAS: one extended, text-based response written to a prompt based on reading passages, hand-scored on two traits. This site breaks the task into six dot points. This overview maps the six skills, how they connect, and how to study them to earn Idea Development and Standard English Conventions.

The six long-composition skills

Each skill is a step in writing a strong text-based essay.

• Understanding the essay task. What the long composition is, why it is text-based, and the two traits it is scored on. See understanding the essay task.
• Analyzing the prompt and the writing mode. Identifying the mode and the required parts, and turning the prompt into a plan. See analyzing the prompt and mode.
• Developing a thesis or controlling idea. Writing a clear, specific statement that answers the prompt and sets up the essay. See developing a thesis or controlling idea.
• Using text evidence in the essay. Selecting, embedding, and explaining evidence with the point-evidence-explanation pattern. See using text evidence in the essay.
• Organizing the composition. Building a clear structure, ordering ideas logically, and linking paragraphs with transitions. See organizing the composition.
• The essay rubric and scoring. How the two-trait rubric works, what each trait rewards, and how to write toward the top. See the essay rubric and scoring.

The thread through every skill: a developed idea from the texts

Two ideas tie the module together. The first is that the essay is text-based: every move, the thesis, the evidence, the explanation, draws on the reading passages, so the reading skills supply the material for the writing. The second is the rubric: nearly all of these skills serve the larger trait, Idea Development, which rewards a clear central idea developed with explained, relevant evidence and organized logically; the language and revising skills serve the smaller trait, Standard English Conventions. Understanding the rubric turns the whole module into a set of concrete targets. The single highest-leverage habit is explaining evidence, the sentence after each quotation that links it to the idea, because that is what separates a top essay from a middle one.

How the skills build the essay

• Before writing: understand the task and the rubric, analyze the prompt for mode and required parts.
• While drafting: write a clear thesis, develop each point with embedded, explained evidence, and organize with an introduction, focused body paragraphs, and a conclusion.
• While revising: check focus and development for Idea Development, and proofread for Standard English Conventions.

How to study the long composition

1. Learn the task and the two-trait rubric first, so you write toward known targets.
2. Analyze the prompt every time, for the mode and every required part.
3. Write a clear thesis that answers the prompt and that the passages can support.
4. Use point-evidence-explanation, and remember the explanation is what earns Idea Development.
5. Practice under time with released prompts, score against the rubric, and target your weaker trait.

For the official exam materials

DESE publishes released test questions, computer-based practice tests, and scoring guides for the long composition, and the Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for English Language Arts and Literacy sets the standards. See the MCAS released test questions and practice tests page and the MCAS home page. Always study from the current released materials and scoring guides, because the rubric and item types are set by DESE.