What is Informative Writing? | Informative Writing for Kids

Informative writing aims to educate the reader on a topic or idea by providing facts and details. The word 'informative' itself contains 'inform,' meaning to officially tell someone something or give them information.

Good examples of informative writing topics include explaining how elephants live, how volcanoes are formed, the Egyptian pyramids, or how a cellphone is manufactured. These topics focus on dispensing factual knowledge.

A personal narrative, such as recounting a vacation experience involving an elephant, is not informative writing, even if it includes some elephant facts. Informative writing focuses on general facts, like an elephant's habitat and diet, rather than personal experiences.

Informative writings are non-fiction and provide facts and details without opinions. Examples include books about earth, turtles, rocks, and basketball. When trying to identify informative books in a selection, look for those that teach about a topic, like National Geographic, as opposed to fictional stories or historical fiction with fictional characters.

Informative writing often includes specific text features such as subtopics (often posed as questions), photos, maps, and graphs to help readers understand the content. It is also crucial to cite sources to avoid plagiarism, which is the act of stealing information from others without attribution. Finally, informative writing is characteristically full of facts and details about the subject.