SEVEN STEPS INFORMATIVE WRITING TEACHER RESOURCES

Informative writing classifies, describes and gives factual information about people, animals, things or phenomena … but no one said it had to be boring! Learning to write an informative text that engages the audience is a skill that becomes increasingly important both at school and beyond.
In this introductory video Jen McVeity, creator of the Seven Steps to Writing Success, sets the scene for the Informative Writing Course. She demonstrates how the Seven Steps techniques can be applied to informative texts to help inject fun into informative writing lessons. Each Step works in isolation, so you can introduce them in any order based on the needs of your students. Click on the links below to get started.

Step One | Plan For Success | There are two parts to planning an effective informative text. The first part involves brainstorming and researching the topic and the second part involves sorting and ordering your research to form a clear plan.

Students often rush into writing. They think it is important to put down pages and pages of words, but a long text does not equal a good text! The secret to great writing lies in the thinking.
If you have done great research, you’ll have lots of information – the key is to know what information to use and how to organise it logically.
Jen Richards runs a word kitchen where she cooks up copy-writing and content marketing for food businesses around Australia. In this role, she writes a whole range of different types of informative texts including blogs, recipes, social media posts, cookbooks, marketing material, menus and packaging.
These are the core downloadable resources for Step 1: Plan for Success. Use these as a starting point, then click on the ‘More Resources’ button to access our ever-expanding Resource Library.

Step Two | Sizzling Starts | The introduction is your first opportunity to engage your reader. A great Sizzling Start needs to orient and inform the reader, but it also needs to make them want to read more.

First impressions count! In Informative Writing, introductions need to give your reader a quick insight into the topic, but even more importantly they are the hook to make your reader want to read more. You only have a few sentences to reach out to them and make an impression so don’t waste them.
Making Your Reader Care From the Very First Page | Michelle Scott Tucker | Biographer
and
How to Find Your Sizzling Start | Mark Greenwood | Author
​These are the core downloadable resources for Step 2: Sizzling Starts. Use these as a starting point, then click on the ‘More Resources’ button to access our ever-expanding Resource Library.

Step Three | Tightening the Tension | To build tension and momentum in an informative text you need to order your sections correctly to build to a crescendo. Save your strongest section until the end to have maximum impact on your reader.

Informative texts can be real nail-biters. Don’t believe me, then go watch David Attenborough’s footage of a baby iguana trying to escape the hungry racer snakes from Planet Earth II.
​​Finding Moments of Tension and Clash Richard Leigh | Filmmaker
​These are the core downloadable resources for Step 3: Tightening Tension. Use these as a starting point, then click on the ‘More Resources’ button to access our ever-expanding Resource Library.

Step Four | Dynamic Dialogue | Dialogue is not just a narrative technique. It can be used in Informative Writing to move the action along; convey information; present different points of view; or alter the voice, pace or tone of the text.

​Using real words by real people is so much stronger than simply stating facts.
Bringing Writing to Life | Liz McLachlan | Journalist and Finding the Telling Phrase | Michelle Scott Tucker | Biographer
These are the core downloadable resources for Step 4: Dynamic Dialogue. Use these as a starting point, then click on the ‘More Resources’ button to access our ever-expanding Resource Library.

Step Five | Show, don't Tell | Seeing is believing – teach your students how to show information rather than just listing facts.

Facts are important, but facts just tell. Strong writers engage their readers by showing them why they should care about a topic.
Evoking the Viewer's Emotions | Stephen Curtain | Filmmaker and Giving Readers a Sense of the Destination | Justine Costigan & Carrie Hutchinson | Travel Writers
These are the core downloadable resources for Step 5: Show, Don’t Tell. Use these as a starting point, then click on the ‘More Resources’ button to access our ever-expanding Resource Library.

Step Six | Ban The Boring | Ban the traditional dry list of facts and inject some creativity into Informative Writing.

Good news! Once most of the Seven Steps techniques are mastered, lots of the boring writing will be gone. Now comes the interesting part, Banning the Boring at the end of the writing process.
​Editing − Shaping and Finessing Your Work | Jen Richards | Food Writer and Editing − Much More than Just a Spell Check | Jo Stewart | Author and Editor
These are the core downloadable resources for Step 6: Ban the Boring. Use these as a starting point, then click on the ‘More Resources’ button to access our ever-expanding Resource Library.

Step Seven | Ending With Impact | The conclusion is your final opportunity to make a lasting impression on the reader, so don’t waste it summarising what you have already said. Linking back to your introduction, ending with a call to action or making your reader think are all great ways to end an informative text.

The key to great writing is to know your ending before you start writing. A conclusion doesn’t just repeat what has already been said. It wraps up the text and gives it a powerful punch.
Crafting the Perfect Ending | Richard Leigh | Filmmaker
These are the core downloadable resources for Step 7: Endings with Impact. Use these as a starting point, then click on the ‘More Resources’ button to access our ever-expanding Resource Library.

Step Eight | Putting it all Together | Once students have mastered each of the Steps (or at least the core Steps 1, 2, 3 and 7) it is time to teach them how to ‘Put It All Together’ in a complete text.

The Seven Steps breaks down writing into small, manageable chunks, but the ultimate goal of course is for students to write a complete text. So when will students be ready to do this?
These are the core downloadable resources for Putting It All Together. Use these as a starting point, then click on the ‘More Resources’ button to access our ever-expanding Resource Library.