Inform and Explain
Whatiswritingtoinform?
Where do you find language that informs?
__•__Newspaper Article.
•Magazine Articles.
•Information Leaflets.
•Football Reports
•School report.
•Bullying incident in school.
•Testing a new product.
•Details from a meeting or a debate.
Writing to inform is ____unbiased ____and does not give a point of view. It can be very ‘dry’ to read and it is often uninspiring. It is very ____factual__. __
__However, you will be asked in this exam to write with a purpose. All your information must stem from the non-fiction texts. __
You will be assessed by how well you include this factual information.
Languagetechniques
When you are ‘writing to inform’, you must consider:
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Are you providing the right amount of detail? Remember your audience and what they need or want to know!
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Are the details, whether facts or opinions, relevant and clear?
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Have you answered the big questions: who, what, where, when, how and why? Remember that it is a factual account and not an opinion piece.
How should you write?
| Feature to be included | What does it mean? | What is an example? | |||
| Information should usually be given in the present tense. | Give information about what is happening now so use; it is, they are, we will. | Shoppers now spend £1.6 billion a year on plastic products. | |||
| Use third person format. | John, Susan, he, she, they | John Donald buys non-plastic items for health reasons. | |||
| Information is supported by facts. | Facts are thing that can be proved often shown by numerical evidence. | There are 400 different types of plastic. | |||
| Use impersonal voice when writing to inform | Do not speak to the reader by using you or we. Avoid giving personal opinions e.g. I think… | Recycling occurs in the UK. | |||
| Give a clear introduction | Use who, what, when and where in your intro | ||||
| The structure should be organised. | Paragraphs should have sub-headings and begin with a topic sentence. |
Exampletext
Simon Cowell is a TV personality. He has been a judge on television shows, such as ‘The X Factor’ and ‘Britain’s Got Talent’. Simon Cowell was born in 1959 in London. He has one child, who is called Eric, with his partner, Lauren Silverman.
__Note how the text is purely factual. It contains no opinions. __
Createyourownwritingandassess
Use the following titles to write your own practice essays:
- Write a letter informing your local government of an environmental issue.
- Write an email informing a company of a recent problem with a product.
- Write a speech to the headteacher informing them of the issues in your school.
- What is the difference between writing to inform and writing to explain?
- What are the language features of writing to inform?
- What are the language features of writing to explain?
- Where should all your facts come from?