Informative Writing - Early

Core Idea

Informative writing teaches a reader about a topic using facts, definitions, and details. Young writers learn to name the topic, give several facts about it, group related facts together, and end with a closing sentence. Unlike opinion writing, the goal is to explain what is true about something, not to argue for what the writer prefers. This is the elementary form of the expository writing students do in later grades.

How It's Best Learned

Let children write about topics they already know well, such as a pet, a sport, or a class science unit. Before writing, have them sort facts into groups on a simple organizer (for example, "what it looks like," "what it eats," "where it lives"). Read short nonfiction books aloud and point out how authors introduce a topic, use headings, and define words. Have children tell their facts aloud to a partner before they write.

Common Misconceptions

• Informative writing is just a list of random facts. (Good informative writing groups related facts and orders them so the reader can follow.)
• Putting "I think" or "I like" in an informative piece is fine. (Personal preferences belong in opinion writing; informative writing keeps the focus on facts about the topic.)
• Young writers cannot write informative texts until they can do research. (Children can write informative pieces from what they already know or have learned in class.)

Explainer

Informative writing answers the question "What should my reader know about this topic?" A child who writes about sharks might tell the reader that sharks are fish, that many have several rows of teeth, and that they live in oceans around the world. Each sentence gives the reader a fact.

Young writers usually follow a simple plan with three parts.

1. Introduce the topic. "Sharks are fish that live in the ocean."

2. Give facts and details, grouped together. Facts about a shark's body go together. Facts about what sharks eat go together.

3. Write a closing sentence. "Sharks are interesting animals that live in oceans around the world."

The key skill is grouping. Beginning writers often write facts in the order they remember them, so a sentence about teeth sits between two sentences about habitat. Teachers often use a graphic organizer with labeled boxes, such as "body," "food," and "home." The child writes facts in the boxes first and then writes one group at a time. This habit grows into paragraphing in later grades.

Informative writing also uses special tools borrowed from nonfiction books. Writers can add a definition ("A predator is an animal that hunts other animals"), a heading for each section, a labeled picture, or a linking word such as "also," "another," or "for example." These features help the reader find and understand information.

It helps to compare informative writing with opinion writing. In an opinion piece, the child says "I think sharks are scary because they have sharp teeth." In an informative piece, the child says "Many sharks have sharp teeth that they use to catch food." The second sentence reports a fact; the first shares a feeling. Children can practice by sorting sentences into "fact" and "opinion" piles.

Children do not need to research a topic to begin. They can write about something they already know, such as how to care for a pet or what they learned in a class unit on plants. As their reading grows, they start to add facts from books and to name where those facts came from. That step leads toward the expository essays and research writing of later grades.