How to Teach the 4 Types of Writing: Narrative, Informative, Persuasive, and Descriptive

You tell your students they’re going to write an informative paragraph—and several immediately ask, "What does informative mean again?" Teaching the four types of writing can be especially helpful at the beginning of the school year. Introducing these terms early prevents confusion and gives students a foundation you can refer back to during future reading and writing lessons. 

Four Types of Writing

Narrative Writing

Narrative writing tells a story. It typically includes characters, a setting, events, and a sequence. Encourage students to ask themselves: “Will I be writing about something that happened to me... or about something that could happen to a character?”

Informative Writing

Informative writing teaches the reader about a topic or explains something. It often includes facts. Students can ask: “Will I be trying to teach the reading something?”

Persuasive Writing

Persuasive writing attempts to convince the reader. It typically includes opinion words. Encourage students to ask themselves: “Will I be trying to convince the reader to do something... or to think the way I think?”

Descriptive Writing

Descriptive writing uses details to help the reader clearly imagine a person, place, object, or experience. It often contains many adjectives. Students can ask: “Will I be trying to describe something in a way that helps the reader picture it clearly?”

Connecting Writing to Reading

One of the best ways to help students understand different types of writing is to let them see plenty of examples.

• What clues tell us that a passage is narrative?
• How is an informative paragraph different from a persuasive one?
• What makes a piece of writing descriptive?

Giving students opportunities to read, compare, discuss, and classify examples helps make these abstract writing terms much more concrete.

It also encourages students to think about an author’s purpose and notice the choices writers make—which can ultimately help them make more intentional choices in their own writing.

Aspects that Often Confuse Students

Point of Confusion: Students sometimes see facts and then automatically assume that it is an informative piece of writing. 

Solution: Show students sample paragraphs that contain facts, but are persuasive, description, or narrative. For example, persuasive pieces often use facts as evidence to support their argument. A persuasive piece might be written to try to convince kids to limit how much soda they drink. In this piece, a good writer would point out facts to support their argument- like how drinking too much soda is known to lead to a higher number of cavities and dehydration.

Point of Confusion: Students might be confused between descriptive pieces and narrative pieces that use a lot of description.

Solution: Remind students that descriptive pieces are usually focused on a singular topic, like the beach. In contrast, a narrative piece contains characters, events, and ongoing action. Furthermore, strong narrative pieces will contain plot elements (the exposition/introduction, the rising action, the climax, the falling action, and the resolution).

A Ready-to-Go Resource

Want to teach all four without creating the examples and practice passages yourself? I have already created a constructed-response presentation with examples and practice for my own students. It is part of a small Type of Writing bundle that includes posters, a worksheet, an interactive notebook option, and a 2-day lesson plan. Click on the link below to take a closer look at it in my TPT store.

As you can see by the example slides shown below, I used soccer players and goals to try to hook my sports-loving students. It includes TEN sample paragraphs to analyze.

Narrative. Informative. Persuasive. Descriptive. 

Give your students the tools they need to tell the difference—and a writing vocabulary they can use all year long. ✏️

~Deb

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Leave a Comment 3rd grade, 4th grade, PowerPoints, reading, Writing