Grade by Grade
D. Composition: Expressing Ideas and Creating Texts · Creating Complex Texts

Informational Writing: Explanatory Reports and Feature Articles

D2.1 D1.3 D1.4 A3.1About 50 minutes
Learning goals
  • I can draft an informational text that explains how or why something happens.
  • I can use research, summarized in my own words and credited, to support my writing.
  • I can use text features and a clear text structure to help readers understand.
  • I can write a feature article with an engaging lead and a human-interest angle.

Words to know

informational text
A text that gives facts about a real topic.
explanatory report
An informational text that explains how or why something happens.
feature article
A longer magazine or news article that explores a topic or person in depth, often with interesting stories and quotations.
lead
The opening sentences of an article, written to hook the reader.
text features
Parts that help readers find and understand information, like headings, diagrams, captions, bold words and glossaries.
technical vocabulary
Special words used in a subject, like photosynthesis or condensation.
objective
Sticking to facts, without the writer's personal opinions.

Remember from Grade 5

In Grade 5 you wrote compare-and-contrast texts and news articles with headlines, leads and the 5 Ws, and you kept news writing objective.

In Grade 6 you'll write longer, more complex informational texts:

  • Explanatory reports that explain how or why, using cause-and-effect or sequence structure.
  • Feature articles that go deeper into a topic or person, with an engaging lead and quotations.

Both use your research skills: summarizing in your own words and crediting sources.

The parts of an explanatory report

  1. Title that tells the topic.
  2. Introduction: hook the reader and say what will be explained.
  3. Body sections with subheadings: explain each step or cause in order. Use time and cause words: first, next, as a result, because, therefore, this causes.
  4. Text features: a labelled diagram, a flow chart, bold technical words with definitions, captions.
  5. Conclusion: sum up and tell why it matters.
  6. Sources list.

What makes a feature article different?

A news article gives the most important facts first and quickly. A feature article can begin with a scene, a question or a person's story, and it explores the why and human side of a topic. It often includes quotations from interviews.

TitleIntroductionSubheadingSubheadingDiagramCaption
Layout of an explanatory report page: title, introduction, subheadings with paragraphs, and a diagram with a caption.
Worked example

Let's draft an explanatory paragraph using cause and effect

Topic: Why do lakes in Ontario freeze from the top down? Research summary (in your own words): Water is densest at about 4 °C. Colder water near 0 °C is lighter, so it stays at the top. Ice is even lighter than liquid water, so it floats.

  1. Topic sentence: Lakes freeze from the top down because of how water behaves as it cools.
  2. Cause 1: In fall, the surface water cools and sinks, because water gets heavier as it cools toward 4 °C. This keeps happening until the whole lake is about 4 °C.
  3. Cause 2: Water colder than 4 °C becomes lighter, so it stays near the surface.
  4. Effect: As a result, the coldest water is on top, and that is where ice forms first. Ice floats, so it stays on the surface.
  5. Why it matters: The ice acts like a lid, so the water underneath stays liquid and fish can survive the winter.
  6. Credit: add your sources to the sources list.

A cause-and-effect paragraph with a clear topic sentence, linking words (because, so, as a result) and an ending that tells why it matters.

Fall: surface water coolsand sinks, until the wholelake is about 4 °C1Water colder than 4 °Cis lighter, so itstays on top2Ice forms on top first,and ice floats, soit stays there3The ice is a lid: waterunderneath stays liquidand fish survive4
The cause-and-effect chain from the example paragraph. Each effect becomes the cause of the next step, which is why words like because and as a result fit so well.
Worked example

Let's write a feature article lead

Topic: a community garden that people from many cultures share.

  1. Option 1, a scene: On a warm Saturday in July, the community garden on Elm Street is buzzing. Mr. Okafor waters his tomatoes while two sisters pick bok choy for dinner.
  2. Option 2, a question: What can a small patch of soil teach a whole neighbourhood?
  3. Option 3, a quotation: "Here, everyone shares," says Ms. Lavoie, who has gardened here for six summers.
  4. Choose the lead that best fits the angle of the article: the idea that the garden brings people together.

Any of these leads works. A feature lead draws readers in with a scene, a question or a voice, then the article explains and explores. (The people here are pretend; real articles quote real interviews, with permission.)

Same story, two forms

If a news article told The Three Little Pigs: "Wolf destroys two homes; brick house holds."

If a feature article told it: "On a windy morning, a pig stacked one more brick and wondered if anyone would ever thank her..."

Keep it in your own words

Use your summaries from your research notes, not copied sentences. If a source says something perfectly, quote it and credit it: According to the museum's website, "..."

Define technical vocabulary the first time you use it, or add a glossary.

Hands-on activity

Kitchen science explainer

You need: an ice cube tray, water, a freezer, paper and a pencil. (Ask a grown-up before using the freezer.)

  1. Fill a few spaces in an ice cube tray with water and put it in the freezer.
  2. Check every 30 minutes for 2 hours. Write what you see: where does the ice form first? (Usually on the top surface and the edges.)
  3. Look up why water freezes in a reliable source, like a library science book. Write a two-sentence summary in your own words.
  4. Write a short explanatory report: title, introduction, two subheadings, a labelled diagram, and a conclusion.
  5. Use at least three cause-and-effect words: because, so, as a result, therefore.
  6. Add your source at the end.

Your turn

1

What does an explanatory report explain?

2

Name four text features.

3

List four cause-and-effect linking words.

4

How is a feature article's lead different from a news article's lead?

5

What should you do the first time you use a technical word like condensation?

6

Write a topic sentence for a paragraph explaining why we have seasons.

7

Is this sentence objective? Snowy owls are the most beautiful birds in the world.

More practice: warm-up

1

What is an informational text?

2

What do subheadings do?

3

What is a caption?

4

What goes at the end of a report that used research?

5

What does objective mean?

More practice: on your own

1

Put in order for an explanation of how maple syrup is made: boil the sap; collect sap in early spring; tap the tree; bottle the syrup.

2

Write a feature article lead (a scene) about a winter carnival in your community.

3

Why might a flow chart help readers understand the water cycle better than words alone?

4

Rewrite to be objective: The amazing new library opened yesterday and it's awesome.

5

Explain the difference between using a quotation and using a summary in a report.

Challenge

1

Plan an explanatory report on How do salmon find their way back to the river where they hatched? Give a title, three subheadings, one text feature and the kind of sources you would use.

2

A student's report says: Wolves are dangerous and bad. Explain two problems and fix it.

3

Explain how a feature article about a local Indigenous artist should be researched and written respectfully.

Check your understanding

Quiz

1.

What does an explanatory report do?

2.

Which is a cause-and-effect linking word?

3.

Which lead fits a feature article?

4.

Which is a text feature?

5.

What should you do with a technical word?

6.

Which sentence is objective?

For parents and teachers

Big idea (D2.1): Grade 6 students draft complex informational and expository texts. This lesson uses research summaries and source records (D1.3) and organizes information with text structures and features (D1.4). Writing about topics from science and social studies connects to A3.1 (applying language skills across subjects).

How to help at home:

  • Read kids' science or nature magazines together and point out leads, subheadings and diagrams.
  • Ask how and why questions about everyday things, then look up the answers in reliable sources together.
  • Ask your child to explain something to you as if you were a younger sibling.

Common difficulties:

  • Copying from sources. Return to summarizing in their own words.
  • Opinions slipping in. Ask: Is that a fact you can check?
  • Missing linking words. Explanations need because, so, as a result.

Safety note: supervise use of the freezer and any kitchen equipment. The science facts in examples (water densest near 4 °C, ice floats) are standard; check details in a reliable source for your child's own report.