Writing Basics
This is what you should write at the very top of an explanation text.
This short section appears right after the title and should grab the reader's attention while explaining what the text is about.
What is the introduction or hook?
These are the two main ways you can write a hook to grab your reader's attention.
What is a rhetorical question or an interesting fact?
Also acceptable: Wonder or factWords like "as," "eventually," and "finally" are examples of these connectives that show the order of events.
What are temporal connectives (or time connectives)?
Also acceptable: Transition words
These are the two verb forms you should use when writing an explanation text: this tense and this point of view.
What are present tense and third person?
This final paragraph brings the explanation to a close and often links the topic back to this.
What is a conclusion?
These two types of visual aids are particularly helpful in explanation essays for science or history.
What are diagrams or visuals.
The introduction should end by stating the purpose for writing by giving this.
What is your central claim?
An explanation text tells your audience these two things about a topic: how something works or ___.
What is why something happens?
Every explanation paragraph should begin with one of these, which introduces a category of explanation.
What is a clear topic sentence?
When providing examples in your explanation paragraphs, you must also do this to show how they relate to your claim.
What is explain them?
The conclusion should do this to the information provided in the explanation writing and connect back to the introduction.
What is sum up (or summarize)?
An explanation text should be clear, interesting, and logically ordered by these three things.
What are stages, sub-topics, or categories of information?
After your topic sentence, you need to provide these from the text and explain how they relate to your claim.
What are examples?
In a standard explanation text structure, you should have at least this many explanation paragraphs in the body.
What is two?
This fancy term means "thinking about thinking" and helps us understand what's going on when we write effective explanation texts.
What is metacognition?
Using words like "we" and "you" in your explanation text makes the writing feel more engaging; these are called this.
What are personal pronouns?
After your hook, you should make a general statement about this aspect of the topic or give an insight to set the mood.
What is the importance of the topic?
The words "because" and "as a result" are examples of these types of connectives that explain why something happens.
What are cause and effect connectives?
Also acceptable: Transition words/phrases
To make your conclusion effective, you must link it to this and end with a bang.
What is a real world experience (or everyday life)?