Purpose: Structure:

• To explain the processes • General statement to introduce the

involved in nature topic – ‘In Autumn some birds migrate’
• To explain how something • Information about the subject
works • A series of logical steps explaining how
• To explain the way things are or why something works/happens
….’because hours of daylight shorten’
• Steps continue until the explanation is
complete

EXPLANATIONS

Writer’s knowledge:
• Decide whether charts,
pictures, tables, flow-charts
will help to explain
Language features:
• Question titles are good – ‘Why
• Present tense
do flowers have perfume?’
• Time and sequence
• Organise the writing to explain
connectives: first, then,
• Add interesting information
next, after a while, several
• Relate subject to reader by
months later, in early
using ‘you’. ‘Have you ever
spring, eventually
noticed…?’
• Causal connectives:
• Glossary for technical language
because, so, this causes
• Ask yourself if it is clear to
anyone who knows nothing
about the subject

Examples:
• Life-cycles of frogs and plants
• What causes the seasons?
• How did the Romans build their roads?
• What happens when a volcano erupts?