1. Explanatory/ Informative Essay
What is it?
How do I write one?
Make sure you thoroughly understand the question!
Analyze a character: What he says, What he does, How people react to him, how he treats people, how he performs, how successful is he, what motivates him, what are his goals, personality, .
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8. What is It?
The purpose of an explanatory/informative essay is to explain something to the reader or give the reader information.
It’s an essay, so it has the typical structure of an essay: introduction, body, and conclusion.
It is text-dependent. This means that you must support your ideas with specific details from the texts you are writing about.

9. Be a writing PRO! Pull apart the prompt. Read the two texts.
Read the prompt. Circle key words.
What is the prompt asking you to do?
Write an informative essay explaining what is happening to the sea stars and why. Be sure to use facts and details from both passages to support your essay. Follow conventions of standard written English.
Read the two texts.
Remember your prompt. What information are you looking for.

10. Organize Your Thoughts
Be a Writing P R O
Pull Apart the Prompt
Read the Two Texts
Organize Your Thoughts

11. Be a writing PRO! Organize your thoughts. Topic: Wasting Syndrome
1st paragraph – Introduction
2nd paragraph – What is wasting syndrome?
3rd paragraph – How wasting syndrome effects sea stars.
4th paragraph – Why are sea stars getting wasting syndrome?
5th paragraph - Conclusion

13. INTRODUCTION
The 1st paragraph is called the introduction. The introduction includes a hook and a topic/introductory sentence. The hook should grab the reader’s attention. The topic/introductory sentence should include the main idea of the essay.

14. Types of Hooks
1. Ask a question….then answer it with a statement containing the main idea. Purpose: Makes the reader curious 2. Surprising fact….provide a shocking fact about the main idea and then state the main idea. Purpose: Surprises the reader 3. Description….paints a picture of the main idea using descriptive words. Purpose: Helps the reader visualize what the essay will be about

15. Ask a question
When you think of a sea star, what do you think of? Maybe you think of a graceful sea creature lying on the beach. Unfortunately, this is not the case for sea stars infected with wasting syndrome.

16. Surprising fact
In recent years, millions of sea stars have died from a mysterious disease. The disease is called wasting syndrome.

17. Description
Twisting arms, soft bodies covered with white sores, this is not exactly what you picture when you think of a sea star. This describes a sea star suffering from wasting syndrome.

18. Body
After the introduction, a good essay has a body of several paragraphs that support the main idea.
Main Idea Sentence (Point/Reason)
Set a focus for the paragraph.
Make sure you can support the idea with specific text evidence.

19. Body Evidence (Proof of Point)
Cite evidence from the text to support your main idea sentence.
Begin with an evidence based term.
Use the author’s last name in your evidence or the title of the passage you found your information. If the author’s name is not listed, use the title of the passage in “ “.
Explain (Explanation/Elaboration of Evidence)
Explain how the evidence you used supports your main idea sentence.
Sentence starters: This shows…..or this is because….

20. by Johnson
by Johnson
by Pearson
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22. Body paragraph
Wasting syndrome is a disease killing massive numbers of sea stars. Scientists have found that wasting syndrome is caused by a virus. According to the text by Wilson, “It’s a type of densovirus, similar to viruses that affect insects, sea urchins, and other invertebrates.” This shows that wasting syndrome is actually a virus that sea stars become infected with.

23. Practice
Refer back to the original organization. The next paragraph’s topic is how wasting syndrome effects sea stars. Write it! Be sure to include a main idea sentence, evidence, and an explanation. HINT: Both Wilson and Smith discussed the effects of wasting syndrome.

24. Sample Paragraph 3
Sea stars infected with wasting syndrome suffer from horrible effects until they die. Based on what I read in the text by Wilson, sea stars with wasting syndrome move slowly and white sores cover their bodies. Sadly, the body of a sea star turns into a “gooey mess” and dies. In Smith’s article, he states that the body twists and white marks form on the sea star’s body. The animal dies soon after its arms fall off and softens. This shows the horrific effects wasting syndrome has on sea stars.

25. Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4 addresses the why of the prompt. Why are sea stars getting wasting syndrome? What 3 things do you need to include in your paragraph? Write it!

26. Sample Paragraph 4
Wasting syndrome has effected many sea stars because it spreads so quickly. There are several possible reasons why the disease spreads so quickly. One reason is overpopulation. In Wilson’s passage, he discussed that one cause might be how close together the sea stars live with one another. Humans may be to blame because of “pollution, warming waters due to climate change, or more acidity in the oceans.” This shows that the rapid spread of wasting syndrome could be due to natural or man made causes.

27. DO NOT INCLUDE ANY NEW INFORMATION!
The conclusion
1. Use a transition word or phrase.
Clearly,
Obviously,
In conclusion,
All in all,
2. Restate the topic/introductory sentence. (Look back to your introduction.)
3. Tie it back to your hook.
DO NOT INCLUDE ANY NEW INFORMATION!

28. Sample Conclusion
Clearly, sea stars infected with wasting syndrome face a horrible fate. Hopefully, the spread of wasting syndrome will soon be discovered, and we can once again admire these graceful sea creatures lying on the beach.