1. Explanation Texts
How and Why?

2. What are explanations? There are two types of explanation:
How do things work?
Why do things happen?

3. How do things work? How does a plane fly? How does a car engine work?
How does a pigeon find its way home?
How do you fly a hot air balloon?
How is honey made?
How do they print bank notes?

4. Why do things happen? Why did we go to war in 1939?
Why does the moon seem to change shape?
Why do we pay tax?
Why was there an earthquake in Haiti?
Why do we count in the way we do?
Why are there 60 seconds in 1 minute?

5. How do you write an explanation?
Structure is very important
Plan
Sequence ideas so that they are in the correct order
This needs a lot of thought
How are you going to introduce your explanation?
How are you going to conclude your explanation?

6. What Am I Looking For? Sentence structure Connectives Passive voice
Time
Cause and effect
Passive voice
Present tense
Sequence explaining clearly about your chosen subject.

7. Example: Recycling Glass Bottles
Intro
Introduction – Glass bottles
What are they made from? How do we get the materials?
Collection
What happens to old glass bottles?
Recycling old glass. Collection and crushing.
Processed
What happens to the crushed glass?
Bottle factory – silica sand – melted – lower temperature

8. Example: Recycling Glass Bottles
Manufacture
How are the bottles made?
Hot liquid glass – machinery - bottles
Conclusion
Advantage of recycling glass – why do we do it?

9. Introduction Make it interesting Make it informative Question
Complex sentence using “because”
Make it informative
Write about something you know about

10. How do car engines work?
For over 100 years, people have been getting about using cars. Prior to the invention of the motor car, all but the adventurous stayed within a few miles of where they were born but once the car had become common place, people felt empowered to travel to far flung places and explore the world. This would never have happened without the invention of the motor car so how does it work?