22 Writing Explanatory Essays

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Narrative Writing

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English Language Arts:

Writing

Page 171 from Write Ahead

Sample Explanatory Essay

Have volunteers read each paragraph of this engaging model about Native American ironworkers and New York skyscrapers. Help them see the strategy the writer used to engage readers (asking a question, and then painting a picture of skyscrapers). Then point out how the thesis statement not only names the focus but also makes readers interested to find out more.

Help students see that each middle paragraph begins with a topic sentence that expresses a main point. The main point both supports the thesis statement and summarizes the details to come in the paragraph.

After you finish reading through the model (on the next page), lead a discussion of it using the suggestions below.

Also show students other examples of high school explanatory writing.

State Standard Reference:

LAFS Standard:

LAFS.910.RI.1.1

TEKS Standard:

110.36.c.4.F, 110.36.c.5.C, 110.36.c.7.D, 110.36.c.7.E, 110.37.c.4.F, 110.37.c.5.C, 110.37.c.7.D, 110.37.c.7.E

NE ELA Standard:

LA 10.1.6.g

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Reading Writing

Page 172 from Write Ahead

Sample Explanatory Essay (Cont.)

Have volunteers finish reading the paragraphs in the sample essay. Then lead a discussion of it, using prompts like the following:

Why is this topic so interesting? (It combines contrasting things: great Mohawk warriors with industrial-age technology, people known for living with nature with people packed into dense urban environments. The model also focuses on a little-known and fascinating piece of U.S. history.)
What are the main points of the essay, and how do they support the focus? (Mohawk men had to prove themselves, the courage and agility required by fur trapping made Mohawks great at steel working, Mohawks built the skyscrapers of the turn of the 1900's; these main points explain a little-known part of American history.)
What details in this essay were most surprising to you?
How do surprising details keep you engaged? (You naturally want to find things out; curiosity drives the reading process.)

Ask students what surprising facts they know about life in your city, your state, or your nation. Get the ball rolling by sharing one of your own surprising facts.

(For example, before movies, people used to line up to look at panorama paintings that were 40 feet tall and 500 feet wide and displayed in round barns across the nation. A company in Wisconsin employed classically trained German artists to work in large teams to paint scenes from the Civil War and the Bible, which would be displayed for months in a city, drawing large crowds. After the people stopped coming, the canvas would be rolled up on a 40-foot-long spool and sent to another city with a round barn to be displayed. A portion of one such painting remains in Gettysburg to commemorate the battle there.)

Show your students how truth really is stranger—and more interesting—than fiction.

Let your discussion guide students to possible topics for their own explanatory essays.

State Standard Reference:

LAFS Standard:

LAFS.910.RI.1.1

TEKS Standard:

110.36.c.4.F, 110.36.c.5.C, 110.36.c.7.D, 110.36.c.7.E, 110.37.c.4.F, 110.37.c.5.C, 110.37.c.7.D, 110.37.c.7.E

NE ELA Standard:

LA 10.1.6.g

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Reading Writing

Page 173 from Write Ahead

Prewriting

Help students use the PAST questions to analyze the writing situation.

The Purpose is to explain a topic in a way that engages readers.
The Audience is you and the student's classmates.
The Subject is a topic that interests the student.
The Type of writing is an explanatory essay.

Then lead students through the topic-selection strategies. Point them also to pages 44–45 for more topic ideas.

Afterward, download and distribute the KWL Chart to help students reflect on their prior knowledge of the topic and organize questions for research.

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KWL Chart

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Writing Process Prewriting

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Page 174 from Write Ahead

Forming a Thesis Statement and Organizing Support

Remind students of the structure of explanatory writing (page 170), with a clear focus (thesis) supported by main points and details. This page will help them gather and organize the parts of their writing.

Lead students through the process of creating a strong thesis statement. In a single sentence, the thesis statement should name the subject and provide an interesting thought or feeling about it. Of course, the rest of the essay then should explore that thesis with main points and details to explain the main points.

Show your students that the outline at the bottom of the page does exactly that. It provides the thesis (at the top), records each main point (with Roman numerals), and gives supporting details (with letters). Outlines may seem like frustrating diversions on the road to writing a first draft, but help students realize that if they have a well-written outline, they already have their thesis statement, topic sentences, and main details. All that remains is to flesh out the writing into an essay form.

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Writing Process Prewriting

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Page 175 from Write Ahead

Writing

Use this page to support students as they draft their explanatory essays. The top and bottom parts of the page provide specific strategies that students can use to open and close their essays. Review these strategies and examples and encourage students to use them to invite their readers in and leave them with something to think about.

Of course, the middle part delivers the content that readers seek. If students have gathered and organized information during prewriting (pages 174–175), the drafting phase should roll out effortlessly.

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Writing Process Writing

Page 176 from Write Ahead

Revising

Use this page to support students as they make improvements to their writing. Specifically, help students understand how to layer details, presenting a concept, explaining it, and giving an example. You use this approach every day in class, so students should be quite familiar with this way to present information.

To support students in their revisions, download and distribute the Explanatory Revising Checklist. You can also provide students the Response Sheet to help them review the work of peers and provide constructive criticism.

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Revising Writing Process

Page 177 from Write Ahead

Editing

Use this page to teach your students the critical skill of creating parallel structure. Tell them it is like a teeter-totter. If two 6-year-old girls are riding it, it works. If a 6-year old girl is on one side and a Sumo wrestler on the other, it doesn't work. Basically, when ideas are joined by the coordinating conjunction and or or, they must be equal ideas. Both must be the same part of speech (noun and noun, verb or verb), the same type of phrase (prepositional phrase and prepositional phrase, infinitive or infinitive), or the same kind of clause (independent and independent, dependent or dependent). Once students understand parallel structure, they will be better able to organize their writing and their thinking. Have students make sure their writing is parallel in structure.

Provide students the Explanatory Editing Checklist to guide their work. As an alternative, you could download and distribute the general Editing Checklist.

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State Standard Reference:

LAFS Standard:

LAFS.910.W.2.5

TEKS Standard:

110.36.c.9.A, 110.36.c.9.C, 110.36.c.9.D, 110.37.c.9.A, 110.37.c.9.C, 110.37.c.9.D

NE ELA Standard:

LA 10.2.1, LA 10.2.1.a, LA 10.2.1.e, LA 10.2.1.f, LA 10.2.1.h

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Editing

Page 178 from Write Ahead

Evaluating Explanatory Essays

Download and distribute the Explanatory Assessment Rubric when it comes time for students to evaluate their work. (You might also provide this rubric at the beginning of the writing process so that students know the target they are shooting for.) Assign a grading scale, such as 1 (Not at all) to 6 (Completely). The cumulative score can then be multiplied by 3 to reach a percentage (with a perfect score of 108—an A+, or 8 points of extra credit).

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Explanatory Assessment Rubric

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