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Social Studies 4: Informative Writing and Organized Research 191 Views
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Description:
Informative writing is all about sharing information in an easy-to-understand way, and it requires a precise organization of research to be successful. But with good preparation and planning, you'll be informing the heck out of your audience in no time.
Transcript
- 00:03
[Dino and Coop singing]
- 00:12
How do you make the number one disappear?
- 00:15
Add a G and it's “gone.” [The letter G is added to the front of 'one']
- 00:18
What's the easiest way to double your money?
- 00:20
Hold it in front of a mirror. [An arm holds a dollar bill up in front of a mirror]
Full Transcript
- 00:22
What has to be broken before you can use it?
- 00:25
An egg.
- 00:26
All of these are riddles – and while they do make you think, their ultimate job is really
- 00:31
to just flat-out confuse you. [A man and a woman looking confused]
- 00:32
In other words, they're the complete opposite of informative writing.
- 00:36
Informative writing is all about sharing information in an easy-to-understand way, and require [Coop pointing at a blackboard]
- 00:41
the organization of research to be successful.
- 00:44
But with good preparation and planning you'll
- 00:46
be informing the heck out of your audience in no time." [Boy on stage]
- 00:49
For starters, you'll want to make sure your paragraphs begin with strong topic sentences. [Large men wearing a 'topic sentence' vest towers over a crowd of people labelled 'paragraphs']
- 00:54
Any good topic sentence will clearly outline or identify two things: [Dino pointing at a blackboard]
- 00:57
The subject of the writing and the main idea of the writing.
- 01:00
Now you might be thinking the “subject” and the “main idea” sound like the same thing. [Boy looking confused]
- 01:05
But there's a slight difference.
- 01:07
The subject is simply the topic that your writing is focusing on. [Coop pointing at a blackboard]
- 01:10
So if you were writing an essay about the geography of Alaska, Hawaii and Washington
- 01:15
DC, then that would be your subject. [Pictures of the places appear]
- 01:17
Meanwhile, the “main idea” is what you want your readers to actually learn about [Dino pointing at a blackboard]
- 01:21
your subject.
- 01:22
So if we were to ask ourselves, “what do we want the readers to remember about the [Boy writing notes in class]
- 01:25
geography of Alaska, Hawaii and Washington DC?”
- 01:27
Our main idea might be we want our readers to remember the differences between the
- 01:31
geographic elements of those three places.
- 01:33
So that no one accidentally sets up a dog sleigh team in Hawaii [Woman dressed in a winter coat riding a dog sleigh down the beach]
- 01:37
A very strong topic sentence that includes both the subject [Strong man holding up weights labelled, subject and main idea]
- 01:40
and main idea might be:
- 01:42
“The distinct differences between Alaska, Hawaii and Washington, DC can be highlighted [The topic setence being written out]
- 01:47
by comparing their different geographic elements.”
- 01:49
By identifying our subject and our main idea, the process of writing our topic sentence [Police line up with two people wearing subject and main idea shirts]
- 01:53
becomes so much easier.
- 01:55
Once you've nailed your topic sentence down, the next step is to fill that paragraph to the brim [Boy typing on his laptop]
- 02:00
with details.
- 02:01
Always remember that every single sentence in a paragraph should support your topic sentence. [Coop pointing at a blackboard]
- 02:05
The topic sentence states your entire focus, so you never want to lose track of it.
- 02:10
Or go off on some meaningless tangent.
- 02:13
Which by the way, have you noticed that the Cherry Blossoms are in bloom, aren't they lovely.. [Girl looking at a Cherry Blossom tree]
- 02:17
In the case of our paragraph comparing Alaska, Hawaii and Washington DC, we might include
- 02:22
details about those places' climate, population, industry, or any other geographic elements [Guy surfing a big wave]
- 02:27
that we might want to compare.
- 02:29
Once you've hammered out all your details, it's time for your closing sentence. [Blacksmith hammering molten metal]
- 02:32
A good closing sentence restates your topic sentence in a new way, while also giving the [Dino pointing at a blackboard]
- 02:37
reader something to think about.
- 02:39
Once you're done the core writing, all that's left is to consider using some snazzy text [Three guys dressed in shiny suits]
- 02:43
features to spice it up a bit.
- 02:44
Got a cool title to catch the readers' eye?
- 02:47
Use it.
- 02:48
Think you could use some subheadings to better organize the information?
- 02:51
Go for it.
- 02:52
Have a photo, illustration or chart that helps to illustrate your point? [Picture of a dog and a cat lying together]
- 02:54
Add it in.
- 02:55
Just be sure that if you're going to add a photo, that it actually makes sense and adds [Man looking at a picture on Washington on his laptop]
- 02:59
to your writing.
- 03:00
A photo of Washington's landscape used to highlight the geography there?
- 03:04
Awesome.
- 03:05
A photo of the hotdog you ate on a class trip to Washington last year? [Picture of a giant hot dog]
- 03:08
Maybe not so helpful.
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