Developed Informational and Explanatory Writing
Write informative and explanatory texts that examine a topic and convey ideas clearly: organising information logically with headings and formatting, developing the topic with relevant facts, definitions, details, and quotations, and using precise vocabulary
What a learner can do afterwards
- Organise an explanatory essay with a clear introduction, logical body paragraphs, and a conclusion
- Develop a topic using well-chosen facts, definitions, concrete details, and quotations from sources
- Use domain-specific vocabulary and formatting (headings, graphics) to aid the reader's comprehension
1 · Read
Use your audience and planning skills to build an explanatory essay. A usual plan introduces the topic, develops related points in body paragraphs, and ends with a conclusion that brings the explanation together. Give each body paragraph one main focus. Use as many as the topic needs. Explain process stages in a useful order. You may draft the parts in any order; check their order in the finished essay.
Develop a paragraph's main point with relevant facts, definitions and concrete details. A fact can be checked; a definition explains a term. A quotation gives a source's exact words and can also contain a fact or definition. Credit borrowed information, including paraphrases. A citation lets readers trace a claim but does not prove it true. Check the source and explain how the information supports your point.
In this invented example, a school repair note reads, 'The gate opens inward.' You can quote those exact words and identify the repair note. Quotation marks show which words you borrowed. Writing 'The note reports that the gate opens to the inside' is a paraphrase, not a direct quotation. For a real explanation, use a real source and check its wording.
Headings name sections so readers can find information. Use them when they help the format; a short essay may not need them. Choose words that name the intended action or idea, and explain unfamiliar subject terms. A diagram should show a relation the text explains, such as the order of stages. Add a caption explaining what it shows.
This diagram shows the order of three stages in the practice library's borrowing process.
Check revisions against your notes. A definition explains what a term means; a concrete detail can add a time, place or action. Combine them only when both are supported. If practice notes define a waiting list and say its order follows sign-up time, keep both ideas. Do not change the rule or invent a number. In a real explanation, credit the source of the information.
Plan a clear order, develop points with relevant evidence, credit sources, and use precise words and helpful headings or diagrams.
Original lesson, practice questions and flashcards about explanatory writing, written for this dataset.
Five original readings about explanations, directions, evidence, paragraph focus and quotations, written for this dataset.
More to read
Give your explanation a clear question
Imagine explaining how a school chooses its lunchtime clubs. A list of every club, room and teacher could overwhelm readers. Begin with the question your explanation will answer: how does a club suggestion become an activity pupils can attend?
Collect information about the actual process. Keep the source beside each note so that you can check it later. Do not assume that another school's rules apply to yours.
Group notes by their job in the explanation. Suggestions, decisions and registration might need separate paragraphs. A detail about signing up belongs with registration, even if you discovered it while researching suggestions.
Introduce the question before explaining the stages. Finish by bringing the stages together. You can write the introduction after drafting the body if that helps you see what the explanation covers.
Ask a reader to describe the process after reading your draft. Their questions can reveal a missing link or an unexplained term.
Distinguish directions from explanations
Suppose a school garden has a seed-sharing box. Directions tell a visitor what to do: choose a labelled packet, record what was taken and close the box. An explanation could instead describe why the record helps the garden team plan its supplies.
Decide which job your writing needs to do. A reader following directions needs named objects and clear actions. A reader studying the system needs connections between its parts.
For either task, check the actual arrangement before writing. A direction to 'put it there' leaves both the object and place unclear. Name them using information you have observed or checked.
Number actions when their order matters. If the order is flexible, say so. Do not invent a restriction to make the writing look orderly.
Test directions by asking someone unfamiliar with the task to follow them. Test an explanation by asking the reader to explain the connections back to you. Revise the part that left them uncertain.
Check where each detail came from
Specific wording can make an explanation clearer, but each added detail needs support. Consider an invented observation note: 'The paper bridge bent when the fourth coin was added.'
A draft saying 'Something happened to the bridge' leaves out useful information. The note supports naming the bending and the fourth coin. It does not support claiming that every paper bridge fails under four coins.
The difference matters. One sentence describes an observation. The other makes a claim about many bridges that were not tested in the note.
Check names and technical terms too. If you use a word your reader may not know, explain it where it first matters. A difficult word does not improve a sentence merely by sounding technical.
After revising, compare the sentence with your evidence. Did you retain the conditions of the observation? Did you turn a possibility into a certainty or one example into a general rule? Repair those changes before polishing the wording.
Keep a paragraph focused
An explanation of a school concert might include rehearsing, arranging the hall and welcoming the audience. Give each body paragraph a main focus so readers can follow these related parts.
Write a short description of each paragraph's job beside the draft. Then check its sentences against that job. A sentence about chair positions may belong in the hall paragraph rather than the rehearsal paragraph.
Moving a useful detail can solve the problem. You do not have to delete it merely because it is in the wrong place.
Next, check how evidence supports the point. If a planning note gives a reason for leaving an aisle clear, explain that reason rather than dropping the note into the paragraph without comment.
Read the paragraph endings and beginnings together. Add a transition when readers need help seeing the relationship. The transition must fit the ideas: a phrase showing a result is unsuitable when the next paragraph merely describes another preparation task.
Check a quotation before using it
A quotation repeats a source's exact words. Before including one in an explanation, decide what those words help your reader understand.
Compare the quotation with the original passage. Keep words that limit the claim, such as 'sometimes' or 'in this test'. Removing a limit can make the source appear to say more than it does.
Read the surrounding sentences too. The quoted words might describe an idea the writer later questions. Presenting them as the writer's final conclusion would misrepresent the passage.
Identify the source and keep the details needed to locate it. Follow the reference format your assignment requests. If you explain the information in your own words instead, credit the source of the information there as well.
A citation makes the information traceable. It does not establish that the information is accurate. Check the source's knowledge, evidence and relevance, then explain how the borrowed material supports your paragraph.
2 · Watch
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Where it sits
Where this leads
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8 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.