Writing
The Writing domain of the Grade 3 OST ELA asks you to plan, draft, revise, and edit three kinds of writing: opinion, informative/explanatory, and narrative. Some questions ask you to choose the best opening, supporting sentence, linking word, or revision. Others ask you to improve a sentence or paragraph. The test rewards clear purpose, organized ideas, and evidence - not length.
Match the purpose to the structure
Opinion writing states a claim and gives reasons. Informative writing introduces a topic, groups related facts, and defines terms. Narrative writing tells a story with a situation, characters, a sequence of events, and a closure. Each purpose has its own linking words: opinion uses because, therefore, for example; informative uses also, another, in addition; narrative uses first, later, suddenly.
Plan, revise, edit
A quick plan - three boxes or a web - keeps each paragraph on one job. Revising changes ideas or organization: add a supporting detail, reorder events, clarify a sentence. Editing fixes conventions: capitalization, punctuation, spelling, subject-verb agreement. On revision questions, choose the change that improves meaning, not just the longest sentence.
Worked example
Prompt: Write an opinion about whether the school day should start later. Draft: "I think school should start later. Kids are tired. It would help." Which sentence best adds support? Reasoning: "When I get more sleep, I pay attention better in math" gives a reason and a result that supports the claim. "Sleep is good" repeats the idea; "Some kids ride the bus" is off-topic. The best revision adds evidence, not a new topic.
Traps that cost marks
Arguing both sides in an opinion piece; writing a narrative with no events; listing facts without grouping them; choosing a revision that only fixes spelling when the question asks for a better detail; leaving out a concluding statement.