Writing WorkshopExpository Writing: Informative Report
Assignment: Write an informative report about a historical subject. (Your audience is your teacher, classmates, and other students in your school.)
Informative Report: Assignment
What part of history do you think is exciting—the people, the places, the buildings, the battles? For this report, you’ll have a chance to learn more about your favorite historical figure, event, or issue.
Informative Report: Prewriting
Choosing a Subject
Finding and Evaluating Sources
Taking Notes
Writing a Thesis Statement
Organizing the Report
Getting Started
Assignment
Feature Menu
To choose a subject for your report, start by thinking about historical figures who interest you.
Informative ReportPrewriting: Choosing a Subject
Mohandas K. Gandhi
Mother Teresa
Thomas A. Edison
Marie Curie
Nelson Mandela Can you list some others?
Next, think about historical sites, objects, or events that interest you.
Informative ReportPrewriting: Choosing a Subject
The Declaration of Independence
Civil War Battle Sites
Purchase of Alaska
The Civil Rights Movement
Once you have chosen a topic, write a question to guide your research. Otherwise, your topic may be too broad and unmanageable.
Informative ReportPrewriting: Choosing a Subject
Too broad
How did Gandhi develop his philosophy of nonviolent resistance?
Mohandas K. Gandhi
Question
The American Civil War
What role did navies play in the Civil War?
Too broad
Question
Freewriting is a good way to begin exploring your question. You might already know more than you think you do.
Informative ReportPrewriting: Choosing a Subject
How did this individual contribute to history?
Gandhi led a mostly peaceful movement that helped win independence for India from the British.
Why is this historical event important and memorable?
Gandhi’s belief in nonviolent approaches to causing social and political change influenced many leaders, including Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Informative ReportPrewriting: Finding and Evaluating Sources
Plan to use at least three sources for your report.
Whenever possible, use some primary sources such as
maps diaries letters
Primary sources were written by people who experienced an historical event firsthand.
Informative ReportPrewriting: Finding and Evaluating Sources
Secondary sources are interpretations of primary materials. Some examples are
encyclopedia entries
documentariesnewspaper articles
Secondary sources are written by people who did not experience an event firsthand.
Is the source factual
(nonfiction)?
Is the source factual
(nonfiction)?
Evaluate your sources before you use them for your report. Ask yourself these questions:
Informative ReportPrewriting: Finding and Evaluating Sources
Is the information up-to-date?
Is the information up-to-date?
Is the information trustworthy?
Is the information trustworthy?
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Source list for Gandhi paper
1. “Gandhi, Mohandas Karamchand,” World Book Encyclopedia, Vol. 8, pp. 24-25.
2. http://www.mkgandhi.org/bio5000/bio5index.htm (biographical information)
As you take notes, keep a list of your sources.
Informative ReportPrewriting: Taking Notes
Give every source a number. Numbering your sources will make it easy to keep your notes organized.
1, page 24
Gandhi’s type of social action was based on courage, truth, and nonviolence. He said nonviolence took courage. He called his method Satyagraha.
Record each fact or idea on a separate card or slip of paper.
Informative ReportPrewriting: Taking Notes
Write the source number and page number on the card.
Summarize the information.
Plagiarism is using someone else’s words or ideas as if they were your own.
Informative ReportPrewriting: Taking Notes
1, page 24
“Gandhi developed a method of direct social action, based upon principles of courage, nonviolence, and truth, which he called Satyagraha.”
If you copy something word for word—even on a note card—be sure to put quotation marks around it.
It’s usually better to paraphrase—or restate—information in your own words.
To avoid plagiarism, you will need to credit the source of the information, even if you put it in your own words.
Informative ReportPrewriting: Taking Notes
1, page 24
“Gandhi developed a method of direct social action, based upon principles of courage, nonviolence, and truth, which he called Satyagraha.”
According to the World Book Encyclopedia, Gandhi created Satyagraha—a way of resisting authority without resorting to violence.
Stay focused on your question as you research and take notes.
Informative ReportPrewriting: Taking Notes
1, page 24
Indira Gandhi was not related to M.K. Gandhi, but she became the first woman prime minister of India. She was assassinated in 1984.
This is an interesting fact, but . . .
it doesn’t have anything to do with Mohandas Gandhi’s philosophy of nonviolence.
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Informative ReportPrewriting: Writing a Thesis Statement
Your thesis statement tells what the point of the paper will be.
To develop your thesis statement, start by answering your original research question.
How did Gandhi develop his philosophy of nonviolent resistance?
Question
Thesis Gandhi’s nonviolent philosophy grew out of his religious beliefs and his personal experience with discrimination.
Informative ReportPrewriting: Writing a Thesis Statement
You might need to ask a series of questions before you arrive at a good thesis statement.
Question
Answer Ships were used to blockade harbors, and there were also several major battles.
What role did navies play in the Civil War?
Did any of the battles have lasting significance?
Question
The battle between the two ironclad warships, the Confederate Merrimack and the Union Monitor, showed that wooden warships had become outdated.
Thesis
Informative ReportPrewriting: Writing a Thesis Statement
The thesis statement usually appears in the introductory paragraph.
Before the Civil War, American naval campaigns were fought in wood warships. The course of naval history changed, however, in 1862, when a battle between two ironclad warships, the Confederate Merrimack and the Union Monitor, showed that wooden warships had become outdated.
The thesis states both the topic of the paperand the most important conclusion you’ve reached.
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Organize important information into an outline.
Start by sorting your notes into major categories.
Informative ReportPrewriting: Organizing the Report
Then, divide your categories into subcategories. Each subcategory will be developed into a full paragraph.
Ironclads
Merrimack Monitor the battle
Wooden ships Ironclads
Decide how you will organize your information.
Event 1
Informative ReportPrewriting: Organizing the Report
Chronological (time) order
Order of importance
Event 2 Event 3
Most important idea
Important idea
Least important idea
Informative ReportPrewriting: Organizing the Report
Introduction
Body
Conclusion
Hooks reader’s interest; clearly identifies subject of report.
Discusses each main idea in one or more paragraphs; supports each main idea with facts, examples, and quotations.
Summarizes or restates main idea(s); draws conclusions.
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Informative ReportDrafting: Getting Started
Go ahead! History is made by people with new and different ideas.
Your research may lead you in a different direction than the one you had in mind—to different questions or even to a different conclusion.
Writing WorkshopExpository Writing: Informative Report
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