Informative Writing: The Nifty Fifty Brochure

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Informative Writing and the Nifty Fifty

Just in case you didn't get quite that far in the Nifty Fifty, Juneau is the capital of Alaska and the brunt of a lot of jokes.

But in all seriousness, it is always helpful to learn new things in one class when you work with the same material in another. This lesson is designed to work in conjunction with coursework in American History that is currently focused on learning about the 50 states and their capitals.

The objective of this lesson is to write for the purpose of sharing factual or true information that does not express any opinion on the topic. This type of writing is called informative writing, and it falls under a more broad category of writing called expository writing.

Before you begin a piece of informative writing, you first need to make a few very important decisions. Even before you pick your topic, you need to know your audience and you need to know your purpose and mode of presentation.

You already know that you will be writing to inform, yet informative writing can take many forms. Take a moment to think about all the materials you may read, or at least quickly glimpse, on a daily basis that give information.

If you're having difficulty thinking of examples, it may be time to take a moment to investigate. Print Informative Writing in Every Room found in the Downloadable Resources in the right-hand sidebar.

Take a few minutes in each room of your house to look for various examples. Check out newspapers, product labels, text books — just about anything with words that may be lying around on a counter, a table, or a shelf.

Think about it; if its purpose is not to entertain, tell a story, or try to make you buy something or think a certain way, then it's informative.

Write down your findings on the graphic organizer. Make sure each item you have written down meets the criteria of simply providing information.

Once you have found a few good examples and have a sense of informative writing (you should have read a few non-biased news articles, instructions, ingredients lists, catalogues, and menus), you can begin thinking about your topic.