Informational Prewriting

Lesson Plan - Get It!

Audio:

Hello, and welcome to the series, The Writing Process: Informational Writing!

Each Related Lesson in the series, found in the right-hand sidebar, will focus on a different step of the writing process. It is important that you keep your writing at the end of each lesson, because you will need to have it available for the next step so you can add to it and make improvements. At the conclusion of the series, you will publish your writing and make it available for an audience of your choosing to read.

Let's get started!

Informational writing (sometimes called expository or explanatory writing), is nonfiction, factual writing. Informational writing is the type of writing you would usually see in newspapers, almanacs, and reference books. If you think about each of these types of writing, you will notice that this type of writing does not contain the writer's opinions or feelings.

In order to get a better understanding of informational writing, watch the Informational Writing for Kids- Episode 1: What Is It? Teaching Without Frills video below:

As you saw in the video, it is helpful to write about what you already know about. However, sometimes you may write about a topic you only know a little bit about if it is of interest to you. In this case, it may be necessary to do some research in order to learn enough to complete your writing piece.

If you are doing research, it is helpful to look for reliable sources. Watch this How to Know If a Source Is Reliable by Shmoop video to help you determine which resources are reliable and which are not:

Keep in mind as you are researching, that you want to look for reliable sources; it is important for you to make sure the information you are putting into your writing is accurate! Recall two ways from the video to determine if a source is reliable. Share your answer with your parent or teacher.

You may already be thinking about a topic that you are interested in researching, but before you choose a topic, move on to the next section and find out what type of informational writing you will be doing; this may lead you to choose a different topic!