Explanatory texts generally go beyond simple ‘description’ in that they include information about causes, motives or reasons. Explanations and reports are sometimes confused when children are asked to ‘explain’ and they actually provide a report, e.g. what they did (or what happened) but not how and why. Although some children’s dictionaries do include an encyclopaedia-like explanation, others are inaccurately categorised as explanation texts when they simply define a word’s meaning.
Like all text types, explanatory texts vary widely and are often found combined with other text types.
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Purpose:
To explain how or why, e.g. to explain the processes involved in natural/social phenomena or to explain why something is the way it is.
Link to:
Year 2 Non-fiction - Unit 2 - Explanations
Year 2 Non-fiction - Unit 3 - Information texts
Year 4 Non-fiction - Unit 3 - Explanation
Year 6 revision unit 2
Progression paper on explanatory texts
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| Generic structure | Language features | Knowledge for the writer |
- A general statement to introduce the topic being explained. (In the winter some animals hibernate.)
- The steps or phases in a process are explained logically, in order. (When the nights get longer... because the temperature begins to drop....so the hedgehog looks for a safe place to hide.)
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- Written in simple present tense. (Hedgehogs wake up again in the spring.)
- Use of temporal connectives, e.g. first, then, after that, finally.
- Use of causal connectives, e.g. so, because of this.
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- Choose a title that shows what you are explaining, perhaps using why or how. (How do hedgehogs survive the winter? Why does it get dark at night?)
- Decide whether you need to include images or other features to help your reader, e.g. diagrams, photographs, a flow chart, a text box, captions, a list or a glossary.
- Use the first paragraph to introduce what you will be explaining.
- Plan the steps in your explanation and check that you have included any necessary information about how and why things happen as they do.
- Add a few interesting details.
- Interest the reader by talking directly to them (You’ll be surprised to know that ... Have you ever thought about the way that ...?) or by relating the subject to their own experience at the end (So next time you see a pile of dead leaves in the autumn ...).
- Re-read your explanation as if you know nothing at all about the subject. Check that there are no gaps in the information.
- Remember that you can adapt explanatory texts or combine them with other text types to make them work effectively for your audience and purpose.
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