INFORMATIVEEXPOSITORY WRITING INFORMATIVE WRITING Informative writing explains something

INFORMATIVE/EXPOSITORY WRITING

INFORMATIVE WRITING • Informative writing explains something, tells something, or gives directions. • For example, if you wrote about your favorite aunt, you would be writing an informative/expository essay telling us something about your aunt. Likewise, if you wrote an essay that gave directions for making a paper airplane, you would also be writing an informative/expository essay that gives directions.

ALL GOOD WRITING MUST CONTAIN • Unity: writing that is focused on one topic • Example: You can’t be writing about how cats are the most amazing thing of all time and also be explaining how to breed certain types of dogs. • Transitions: Use words which will help you move smoothly form one idea in your essay to the next idea. • Examples: first, another, most important, for example, on the other hand, etc. • Development: Give information that will make your essay interesting and fun to read. • Anecdotes: little short stories that create a picture in our minds when we read your essay. If you just said your favorite aunt was interesting without telling us about her, your paper would not be developed • Vivid detail and description

BEFORE YOU BEGIN, YOU MUST KNOW… • Topic—What you are going to write about • Direction—Which way you are going to write about your topic. • Three ideas, points, or reasons you are going to write about your subject • You will put these three things together in one sentence called your thesis sentence.

WHAT MAKES GOOD WRITING BETTER • Purpose: Follows prompt completely • Content: Develops your subject well • Audience: Appeals to your audience • Structure: Has logical progression and good closure • Thesis Sentence: Gives essay definite plan and strategy • Paragraphs: Do not contain unrelated sentences • Unity: Presents ideas that flow smoothly (called transition) • Show proficient command of grammar usage and mechanics • Varies Sentence structure to make writing more interesting

INFORMATIONAL TEXT FEATURES • Diagrams: help the reader understand a more detailed or simplified view of information. • Graphs/Charts/Tables: • Organize large amounts of information in a small space. • Helps the reader understand relationships among and between information. • Summarize and compare information. • Maps: Helps the reader understand where an event happens or how far away an event took place. • Timeline: Helps the reader understand important events in chronological order or time order and understand the order of events and how one event may have lead to another • Illustrations: . Helps the reader understand information in a visual way, understand the story, and understand an idea from the text that was unclear.

ORGANIZATIONAL AIDS • Bold print: signals that the word is important • Italics: Helps the reader understand that the word is important. • Titles: Identify the topic of the text, the main idea of the text. Also allows the reader to make connections between what you already know and the text. • Headings: Identify topics throughout the book/article. Divides the text into sections. • Subheadings: Allows for navigation through sections of text. Shows the main idea of each section of the text. • Captions: Help the reader understand what is shown in a photo or illustration or understand information that may or may not be in the text.

WHEN WRITING INFORMATION, YOU MUST CITE! • Whenever you include information that you researched, you must explain where you got the information from. • Whenever you cite or paraphrase information, you must put a citation after the information. • EXAMPLE: “Cats have fascinated people for thousands of years; they have been linked with magic and luck throughout history. ” (All About Cats) • At the end of your essay, you’ll need to include a Works Cited page • "All About Cats. " Cats For Kids. Reg Charity, n. d. Web. 4 Apr. 2017. <http: //www. cats. org. uk/cats-for-kids/about-cats>.