Writing Terms Your Third Grade Students Should Know

I can remember back when I was in school we didn’t do a whole lot of writing, and when we did it was mainly to just “write a story about…”. I don’t remember any explicit writing instruction and I definitely don’t remember learning about different types of writing (narrative, opinion, or informational).

Writing instruction today is really an art form! Teachers are tasked with so much when teaching students how to write.

There are some specific writing terms that would be helpful for students to know as they navigate learning about the different types of writing. Here is a list of terms that I would consider “must knows” as you teach your students to write effectively…

Writing Terms Your Students Should Know

• narrative: writing that has a story; includes characters and a plot; has a beginning, middle, and end

• opinion: writing that is meant to communicate how the writer feels about a topic or idea

• expository: informational writing; writing to explain, inform, or describe

• topic: general subject of a paragraph or essay

• lead: opening sentence(s) or paragraph in a writing piece; its purpose is to grab and hold the reader’s attention

• hook: usually the opening sentence that tries to grab and hold the reader’s attention so that they want to read on

• detail: information that supports an idea; bits of information that help the reader understand better

• transition words / phrases: the words that help connect (or link) ideas, phrases, sentences, or paragraphs; helps writing to flow better

• elaborate: describe; to explain something in greater detail; makes writing more interesting to read

• precise: clear, easy to understand words; exact and accurate

• body: the middle section of writing between the introduction and the conclusion

• conclusion: the sentence(s) or paragraph that bring the writing to an end

I hope this set of posters will be helpful to you!

You might also be interested in the following writing activities for your classroom…