Session 14: Structuring Investigative Pieces & Leading the Reader with Key Transitions Now it’s time to bring together all the bits and pieces of research, the short and long writing you’ve been doing, and put them into a cohesive, mesmerizing, investigative piece. You must ask yourself: How will this piece go?

Today’s Teaching Point When you are writing non-fiction that both tells a story and teaches, that text needs to be organized so your readers can follow you. One way journalists might organize an investigative piece is into parts: an anecdote, background information, and next steps. Then you should use sophisticated transitions to lead the reader through these parts, acting like a tour guide for your reader.

Structuring Investigative Pieces Whenever you draft, it helps to have a clear structure in mind- just like whenever you cook, it helps to have a recipe in mind. It can be confusing to figure out how to structure your writing, and there are many options. Let’s look at one method together.

Structuring an Investigative Piece One helpful way to think about putting this type of writing together is to think of it as having three main parts. Anecdote (Narrative) Background Information (Explanatory) Next Steps (Argument) Please get out “The Trouble with Sleep Texting.”

“The Trouble With Sleep Texting” Structure Part 1: Anecdote (narrative) story about premed student who sleep texts Part 2: Background Information (explanation) quotes from experts and information about the topic Part 3: Next Steps (argument) discusses solutions, calls reader to action *You’ll want to make sure you have all these parts in your piece!

Sorting Information into Categories When you write complex texts, you are taking your reader on a tour of your topic. The people on your tour expect you to keep them organized and make sure they don’t get lost. One way to do that is to use sophisticated transitions that lead into or out of different parts of a piece. Anecdote/True Story Background Information: Survey Results Background Information: Interview Background Information: Expert Quotes Background Information: Statistics and Research Next Steps

Setting Tasks for Significant Work Journalists, with their pens and cameras, inspired the world to act in response to the horrors during World War II. Journalists, with their vivid descriptions and commentary about riots and police, spread the momentum on civil disobedience during the American civil rights movement. Journalists today use their writing to speak to politicians and to shape the laws and policies that govern us all.

Time to Reflect & Share Take a minute to think of the work that you would like your writing to do in the world. Then share that idea with your partner. Examples: I want my writing to help people see that not all teens are out to make trouble. Actually, very few of them are. I want my writing to help more school leaders see that banning backpacks during the school day is a mistake. Turn and Talk

To Write a News Story, Journalists… Organize their writing and use sophisticated transitions to lead their readers across the parts of their piece.

Work Time Take 3 of the surveys from my weebly page to help your classmates. Then, use the rest of class today to finish drafting your piece. Add in the new research, interview answers, survey results, transitions, etc… Make sure that you have an anecdote, background information and a call to action! Your draft should be finished by tomorrow! 1.5-2 pages in length!