2021 STAAR Grade 4 Writing Rationales
Item# Rationale
1 Option A is correct Making this revision creates a more effective opening for the story by emphasizing that the story is
going to be about fire ants.
Option B is incorrect The opening of the story is not improved by this revision because information that is unrelated to the
main subject of the story is provided.
Option C is incorrect Making this revision repeats the information in sentence 3, and this does not improve the opening of
the story.
Option D is incorrect Based on the context in the story, Daniel’s mom does not know what to do about the fire ants. The
opening of the story is not improved by this revision.
Texas Education Agency
Student Assessment Division
August 2021
2021 STAAR Grade 4 Writing Rationales
Item# Rationale
2 Option G is correct Adding this descriptive sentence effectively supports the information in sentence 10 because it helps
the reader visualize what the “swarm of ants” looks like as they “burst out from the top of the hill.”
Option F is incorrect The information included in this sentence is inaccurate because Daniel does not know what to do
about the ants.
Option H is incorrect An extraneous detail is included in this revision, which makes it ineffective.
Option J is incorrect Adding this sentence repeats the information in sentence 10 and does not provide additional
supportive details.
Texas Education Agency
Student Assessment Division
August 2021
2021 STAAR Grade 4 Writing Rationales
Item# Rationale
3 Option D is correct Replacing sentence 23 with this sentence improves the focus of this part of the story by clarifying
that the fun is over for Daniel and his family.
Option A is incorrect Including information that is not relevant to the ideas in the last paragraph makes this revision
ineffective.
Option B is incorrect The idea presented in this sentence is inaccurate because it is not logical that Daniel would be sad
that the fire ant attack is over.
Option C is incorrect The idea that the “party was going to be over soon for everyone” is not supported by the information
in the story, and the focus of the last paragraph is not improved.
Texas Education Agency
Student Assessment Division
August 2021
2021 STAAR Grade 4 Writing Rationales
Item# Rationale
4 Option H is correct Rearranging the ideas to clarify that Daniel’s mother makes a decision after consulting the Internet
eliminates the awkward phrasing in the sentence and clearly shows the connection of ideas.
Option F is incorrect The revision is incorrect and results in a run-on sentence, an error in which two or more clauses are
joined incorrectly.
Option G is incorrect The idea presented in this awkwardly constructed sentence results in a confusing sentence that is
inaccurate.
Option J is incorrect Leaving the sentence unchanged does not eliminate the awkward phrasing in the sentence.
Texas Education Agency
Student Assessment Division
August 2021
2021 STAAR Grade 4 Writing Rationales
Item# Rationale
5 Option D is correct Deleting sentence 9 removes an extraneous detail because “other kinds of brain conditions that
people can be born with” is irrelevant to Livy’s health problems, which is the focus of the paragraph.
Option A is incorrect Sentence 5 is important because it is used to introduce the idea that Livy was born with health
problems.
Option B is incorrect Sentence 7 is important because it is used to provide information about epilepsy.
Option C is incorrect Sentence 8 is not extraneous, as it is used to provide additional information about seizures.
Texas Education Agency
Student Assessment Division
August 2021
2021 STAAR Grade 4 Writing Rationales
Item# Rationale
6 Option G is correct Removing the phrase “where she drew” makes the sentence clearer and more concise by deleting
repeated information.
Option F is incorrect Making this revision changes some of the wording in the sentence, but it does not remove the
repeated information.
Option H is incorrect This revision results in unnecessary repetition of “painting,” and it also introduces a comma-splice
error, which occurs when two main clauses are connected with only a comma.
Option J is incorrect Leaving sentence 15 unchanged does not remove the redundant wording in the sentence.
Texas Education Agency
Student Assessment Division
August 2021
2021 STAAR Grade 4 Writing Rationales
Item# Rationale
7 Option A is correct A transition is a word, phrase, or sentence used to connect topics or ideas. Replacing sentence 19
with this sentence effectively transitions from the idea that Hailey helped her family by making
paintings and connects it to the idea that Hailey also found “other ways to raise money for her sister.”
Option B is incorrect Use of this sentence would indicate that “Hailey didn’t want help selling her paintings,” which is not
an idea that is supported by the information in the selection.
Option C is incorrect Although there is a reference to Hailey’s friend in sentence 21, the idea that Hailey’s friends wanted
“to help raise money” is not discussed in the fourth or fifth paragraph.
Option D is incorrect Use of this sentence is not an effective transition because it interrupts the logical flow of the ideas
presented in the fifth paragraph.
Texas Education Agency
Student Assessment Division
August 2021
2021 STAAR Grade 4 Writing Rationales
Item# Rationale
8 Option H is correct A closing sentence of a paragraph should capture the main idea of the paragraph or emphasize an
important message. By adding this sentence to the end of paragraph 7, the writer emphasizes the
significance of an event for Livy’s Hope.
Option F is incorrect The information in this sentence is extraneous and does not help close the paragraph.
Option G is incorrect The information included in this sentence does not help close the paragraph and is extraneous.
Option J is incorrect Including this unnecessary detail does not contribute to the ideas presented in the paragraph,
resulting in an ineffective closing sentence.
Texas Education Agency
Student Assessment Division
August 2021
2021 STAAR Grade 4 Writing Rationales
Item# Rationale
9 Option D is correct A comma-splice error occurs when two main clauses are connected with only a comma. Changing the
comma to a period and dividing sentence 3 into two complete sentences corrects the comma-splice
error.
Option A is incorrect Changing the comma to a period and adding “Because” introduces a sentence fragment, which is a
group of words that do not form a complete sentence.
Option B is incorrect The general structure of this sentence is correct, but changing “search” to “searching” creates an
error in verb tense.
Option C is incorrect Adding “and” after the comma corrects the comma-splice error, but inserting a period after “past” is
incorrect because it creates a sentence fragment.
Texas Education Agency
Student Assessment Division
August 2021
2021 STAAR Grade 4 Writing Rationales
Item# Rationale
10 Option G is correct A possessive noun shows possession by the addition of an apostrophe. Changing the plural noun
“Russias” to the possessive noun “Russia’s” corrects the grammatical error in the sentence.
Option F is incorrect Changing “are found” to “is found” creates an error in subject-verb agreement because “sculptures” is
a plural noun.
Option H is incorrect The spelling of “famous” is correct and should not be changed.
Option J is incorrect Leaving sentence 6 unchanged would not correct the misuse of the noun “Russias.”
Texas Education Agency
Student Assessment Division
August 2021
2021 STAAR Grade 4 Writing Rationales
Item# Rationale
11 Option C is correct The correct spelling of the word “earlier” should replace the incorrect spelling “earlyer.”
Option A is incorrect Changing “idea” to “ideas” results in the incorrect use of a plural noun.
Option B is incorrect A participle is a verb that is used to indicate a past or present action. Changing “had begun” to “had
began” results in a grammatical error because “begun” is the correct form for the past participle
tense of the verb.
Option D is incorrect Leaving sentence 8 unchanged would not correct the spelling error in the sentence.
Texas Education Agency
Student Assessment Division
August 2021
2021 STAAR Grade 4 Writing Rationales
Item# Rationale
12 Option F is correct Inserting quotation marks before “I” correctly completes the set of quotation marks used to indicate
the quotation from Polissky.
Option G is incorrect Changing “beautiful” to “beautifull” would introduce a spelling error.
Option H is incorrect The comma after “place” is used to separate a direct quotation from the rest of the sentence.
Removing the comma would create a punctuation error.
Option J is incorrect Leaving sentence 13 unchanged would not correct the punctuation error in the sentence.
Texas Education Agency
Student Assessment Division
August 2021
2021 STAAR Grade 4 Writing Rationales
Item# Rationale
13 Option A is correct Sentence 21 is a sentence fragment, which is a group of words that do not form a complete sentence.
Adding the subject “He” and changing the verb “wanting” to “wanted” creates a correct, complete
sentence.
Option B is incorrect Inserting a period after the word “area” results in a sentence fragment.
Option C is incorrect Inserting “they could” results in a run-on sentence, which is an error in which two or more clauses
are joined incorrectly.
Option D is incorrect Leaving sentence 21 unchanged would not correct the sentence fragment.
Texas Education Agency
Student Assessment Division
August 2021
2021 STAAR Grade 4 Writing Rationales
Item# Rationale
14 Option H is correct In sentence 25, there are two independent clauses, which are clauses that can stand alone as
complete sentences. When two independent clauses are joined together by a coordinating conjunction
such as “and,” a comma is necessary before the conjunction.
Option F is incorrect The spelling of “example” is correct and should not be changed.
Option G is incorrect Changing “became” to “becoming” introduces a grammatical error since an event that happened in
the past is being described in the sentence.
Option J is incorrect Changing “is now used” to “was now used” would introduce a verb tense error.
Texas Education Agency
Student Assessment Division
August 2021
2021 STAAR Grade 4 Writing Rationales
Item# Rationale
15 Option B is correct The first word in a quoted sentence is capitalized, so the word “we” should be changed to “We.”
Option A is incorrect Changing “says” to “say’s” would introduce a punctuation error.
Option C is incorrect Inserting a comma after the word “life” would introduce a punctuation error.
Option D is incorrect The spelling of “scratch” is correct and should not be changed.
Texas Education Agency
Student Assessment Division
August 2021
2021 STAAR Grade 4 Writing Rationales
Item# Rationale
16 Option H is correct The words “threw” and “through” are homophones, which are words that have the same
pronunciation but different meanings and/or spelling. Changing “threw” to “through” corrects the
error in the sentence since the passage from one point to another is being described.
Option F is incorrect Changing “looked” to “look” would introduce a verb-tense error.
Option G is incorrect The spelling of “tiny” is correct and should not be changed.
Option J is incorrect Changing the period to a question mark would introduce a punctuation error.
Texas Education Agency
Student Assessment Division
August 2021
2021 STAAR Grade 4 Writing Rationales
Item# Rationale
17 Option D is correct The sentence does not contain any grammatical, spelling, or punctuation errors and does not need to
be changed.
Option A is incorrect The spelling of “Remember” is correct and should not be changed.
Option B is incorrect The sentence is in the present tense, so “is” should not be changed to “was.”
Option C is incorrect Changing “walk” to “walking” introduces a grammatical error by using the incorrect verb form.
Texas Education Agency
Student Assessment Division
August 2021
2021 STAAR Grade 4 Writing Rationales
Item# Rationale
18 Option G is correct Changing “leans” to “leaned” corrects a grammatical error in sentence 10 and is consistent with the
verb tense used in the rest of the paragraph.
Option F is incorrect The word “its” is correctly used in the sentence and should not be changed.
Option H is incorrect The article “a” is the correct article to use with “cottonwood,” which begins with a consonant.
Option J is incorrect A comma is not needed to separate an independent clause, which is a clause that can stand alone as
a complete sentence, from a dependent clause, which is a clause that cannot stand alone as a
complete sentence.
Texas Education Agency
Student Assessment Division
August 2021
2021 STAAR Grade 4 Writing Rationales
Item# Rationale
19 Option C is correct Changing the period to a question mark corrects a punctuation error because Robert is asking Marcos
a question; therefore, sentence 13 should end with a question mark.
Option A is incorrect The spelling of “friend” is correct and should not be changed.
Option B is incorrect The comma is correctly used to separate a direct quotation from the rest of the sentence and should
not be deleted.
Option D is incorrect Leaving sentence 13 unchanged fails to correct the punctuation error.
Texas Education Agency
Student Assessment Division
August 2021
2021 STAAR Grade 4 Writing Rationales
Item# Rationale
20 Option F is correct Changing “differently” to “different” corrects a grammatical error in the sentence. The appearance of
the trees is being described, so the adjective “different” is appropriate, rather than the adverb
“differently,” which would be used to describe an action.
Option G is incorrect Changing “by” to “bye” creates a grammatical error. The words “by” and “bye” are homophones,
which are words that have the same pronunciation but different meanings and/or spelling. The
preposition “by” is used correctly in this sentence.
Option H is incorrect A possessive is a noun or a pronoun that shows possession by the addition of an apostrophe.
Changing “visitor’s” to “visitors” creates a grammatical error by replacing a possessive noun with a
plural noun.
Option J is incorrect Leaving sentence 23 unchanged would fail to correct the grammatical error in the sentence.
Texas Education Agency
Student Assessment Division
August 2021
2021 STAAR Grade 4 Writing Rationales
Item# Rationale
21 Option C is correct In sentence 29, there are two independent clauses, which are clauses that can stand alone as
complete sentences. A comma should be used along with the conjunction “and” to separate the two
clauses.
Option A is incorrect The verb “showed” is the correct verb form to use in this sentence and is consistent with the verb
tense used in the rest of the paragraph.
Option B is incorrect The pronoun “his” is used to refer to “Marcos” and is used correctly.
Option D is incorrect Inserting a period after “watched” creates a sentence fragment, which is a group of words that do not
form a complete sentence.
Texas Education Agency
Student Assessment Division
August 2021
2021 STAAR Grade 4 Writing Rationales
Item# Rationale
22 Option H is correct Changing “colorfull” to “colorful” corrects the spelling error in the sentence.
Option F is incorrect The word “it’s,” which is the contraction for “it is,” is correctly used in the sentence and should not be
changed.
Option G is incorrect Inserting a comma after “cliffs” creates a grammatical error because there are not two independent
clauses. An independent clause is a clause that can stand alone as a complete sentence.
Option J is incorrect Ending the sentence with a question mark would create a punctuation error because the sentence is a
statement rather than a question.
Texas Education Agency
Student Assessment Division
August 2021
2021 STAAR Grade 4 Writing Rationales
Item# Rationale
23 Option D is correct Inserting quotation marks after the comma correctly indicates that Marcos has finished speaking.
Option A is incorrect The word “And” is correctly capitalized at the beginning of the sentence.
Option B is incorrect Changing “of” to “off” creates a grammatical error. The word “off” refers to a state or a position and
“of” shows a relationship.
Option C is incorrect Inserting a comma creates a grammatical error because there are not two independent clauses. An
independent clause is a clause that can stand alone as a complete sentence.
Texas Education Agency
Student Assessment Division
August 2021
2021 STAAR Grade 4 Writing Rationales
Item# Rationale
24 Option F is correct Changing “grined” to “grinned” corrects the spelling error in the sentence.
Option G is incorrect The adverb “shyly” is correctly used to describe the way in which Marcos grinned.
Option H is incorrect The past tense verb “earned” is correctly used to refer to an action that took place in the past.
Option J is incorrect Leaving sentence 38 unchanged would fail to correct the spelling error.
Texas Education Agency
Student Assessment Division
August 2021
