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Types of Writing for Kids: Essential Styles and Tips to Help Your Kids Master Them

Certain types of writing for kids can indeed be confusing. Not for children, but for parents. Whether it’s narrative storytelling, an informative or argumentative essay, each has its challenges. I know that families may want to confront them with a one-size-fits-all approach. Yet, is it the right strategy, or should you consider multiple ones for different types of writing? Let’s explore what each type means and how you can help your child master them.

Key points

• During school, kids learn four different types of writing: narrative, informational, persuasive, and descriptive.
• When parents understand these types, they can identify where kids need support or targeted intervention.
• Parents can resort to tutoring platforms like Brighterly that offer personalized lessons and teach writing via prompts and games.
• Depending on the writing goal and style, there are various strategies to use when teaching writing skills at home.

What are the types of writing for kids?

The types of writing for kids refer to narrative, informational, persuasive, and descriptive writing: narrative writing is about telling a story; informational – aims to help explain facts or concepts; persuasive – allows learning how to convince a reader; descriptive writing has the goal of depicting a certain picture to the reader.

Why do writing types for kids matter? 

The writing types help to identify where your children may need intervention or assistance. For instance, a kid may be great at storytelling but be significantly behind in explaining things. Such an imbalance will have an impact on informational writing for kids, affecting their future development.

How writing tutors help kids master different types of writing

One of the excellent solutions for parents is to hire tutors. 

Brighterly math and reading platform is a great example of how personalized lessons with tutors keep children involved in learning and master skills.

Here’s how it works:

• First of all, Brighterly’s reading and writing tutors personalize each lesson for your child. As a tutor, I’ve seen that kids are more attentive and engaged with one-on-one guidance. 
• Secondly, a tutor can help a child improve writing skills by breaking tasks into simple steps. They can focus on outlining facts for an informational essay or help with a clear structure first if working on an argumentative essay.
• Thirdly, tutors support children and make learning engaging. They would use games and prompts, sketching, and small debates to spark brainstorming or practice persuasion.

In the end, personalized tutoring allows for targeted feedback on many things, from story structure and goals to word choice and style. That way, a kid is likely to be confident and significantly improve writing skills in the short term.

4 types of writing – main categories

• Narrative writing 
• Informational writing
• Persuasive writing
• Descriptive writing

Narrative writing for kids

Narrative writing is about telling a story, either fiction or nonfiction. It’s pretty common for kids, as they know what the story is from fairy tales, books, and films. They know that it has a specific structure: beginning, the middle, and the end. 

Moreover, narrative writing for kids is concerned with the elements of a story, including a plot, conflict, characters, and setting. In a way, narrative writing is a great way to improve creative skills, reflect on and share experiences, and gain confidence. 

What are examples of narrative writing?

• Novels and stories for young adults
• Creating myths and fairy tales
• Writing memoirs and creative anecdotes

In particular, narrative writing for kids may take the following form:

Imagine a kid writes a story, “The Day I Met a Tiger.” There, children will aim to add key  elements of a story and share the experience. The zoo would be the setting, the kid and the tiger would be the main characters, and the plot and the conflict would provide what happened. 

In narrative writing, a kid would practice using their voice and style and become more creative and confident. For it to happen, kids should know how to tell a story from different points of view and know the constituents of the plot and types of characters.

Informational writing for kids

Informational writing, also called expository, follows a different goal. Instead of telling a story, it aims to explain facts or ideas via writing. That’s a kind of writing that answers a specific question and gives the basis for the explanation of the topic. 

What does informational writing for kids consist of? 

• It should have a clear order, facts, and definitions. 
• It often includes no personal opinions. 

When kids learn this writing type, they focus on structuring their work, having an intro, body paragraphs with facts, and a summary.

In the end, it teaches kids to gather information and present it. That’s why those who are great at informational writing are good at writing reports or making how-to guides. 

The examples of informational writing are summaries and abstracts, articles around news, history, topics, or figures.

For instance, a kid might have an assignment “Write about your favorite animal.” There, they will write about facts about elephants, their size, habits, and habitat. If the assignment is “How to Bake Cookies”, a kid will need to write clear steps and ingredients. 

Yet, in both cases, they will need to focus on facts and text organization. 

Persuasive writing for kids

Persuasive writing, also called argumentative writing, follows a goal of convincing a reader of a certain point of view or idea.

Just as the previous type, this one requires organization and clarity. However, it focuses on making a claim and supporting it with reasons and examples. 

Besides, such writing may involve using a strong verb, emotional appeal, and facts to back up the arguments. So, persuasive writing teaches children to think critically and use words to express ideas.

What are good examples of persuasive writing for kids?

• Reviews on movies or books 
• Opinion essays
• Articles for the debates.

Let’s imagine a kid would write an essay on a topic like “Why Every Classroom Should Have a Pet.” In that case, a kid will write an opinion piece, where they would state their position, provide a list of reasons to persuade a reader, and back them up with examples.

As an argumentative essay would need to persuade, the article will have a clear structure and ideas, not to mention convincing arguments.

Descriptive writing for kids

Descriptive writing is about creating a clear description or picture of something in the readers’ minds. Compared to expository writing, it focuses on the senses of a writer and contemplates sharing what a writer sees, hears, smells, tastes, and feels. 

This writing type allows kids to learn figurative language and use precise word choice. Instead of sharing facts or arguing, descriptive writing presents a subject through imagery. 

It often appears to be a part of narrative stories or creative writing as it aims to replicate the places or situations that may be a part of the setting, while using the senses.

What is a great example of descriptive writing for kids?

Imagine a task to describe a day at the beach: instead of writing “The beach was nice”, a kid would focus on writing descriptive paragraphs like “The sand felt warm under my toes, and I heard how the waves gently crashed on the shore.” The use of descriptive words like ‘warm’ and ‘gently’ or of sensory details allows kids to learn how to use their feelings to describe something. 

The other examples may include describing a pet, a character, or writing a poem about a favorite park.

Writing types for kids: How to help at home

How to help kids with narrative writing

When considering narrative writing for kids, you should understand that kids often love telling stories. What they struggle with is organization, gaps in sequence, word choice, and clarity in conflicts or endings.

Strategies to develop narrative writing for kids

• Turn everyday moments into stories. In particular, ask the kids to tell how the day is and focus on chronological order and emotions.
• Use story maps and charts. They can help define the structure and determine clearly the beginning, middle, and end of a story.
• Brainstorm ideas and characters together. When brainstorming, you can encourage imaginative details by underlining emotions, motives, and senses.
• Reading and retelling stories together. It’s a primary strategy to improve writing skills, as kids can discuss plots and characters and use them in their own stories.
• Using storytelling games. Story dice, “what if,” and other games can make narrative practice fun.

As a result, these tips can help your child practice using story elements, develop characters, and turn storytelling into a fun habit.

How to improve informational writing skills

In terms of informational writing for kids, the issues may appear in describing, organizing, and explaining facts. A child may list the facts but miss details and key stats, or fail to answer why a specific fact matters.

What are good techniques to improve informational writing for kids?

• Pick a favorite hobby or animal of a child and research fun facts together.
• Use outlines to support the logic and structure. 
• Practice writing paragraphs with a clear topic, sentence structure, and the use of bullet points.
• Offer texts, videos, and educational content with facts and ideas to read and watch before writing about a certain topic. 
• Talk about how they present facts and analysis, explain how to work with sources, and where to find facts.
• Practice short stories or how-to assignments on joint activities like cooking.
• Teach that there may be different pieces of knowledge, showing easy facts and more complicated data. 

On the whole, to support informational writing for kids, you can teach them how to work with facts and provide ways to organize them visually, using charts or diagrams. 

How to support persuasive writing practice

Persuasive writing can be tricky, as kids need to offer strong reasons, not just statements. For a parent, it’s important to show how to start their argument and show the ways to convince others who disagree. So, kids should learn how to use evidence and not just emotions.

The good ways to improve persuasive writing for kids

• Encourage persuasive writing by discussing fun topics. They can include ice cream favours, characters, or films; your goal is to ensure the child explains their choice.
• Help them learn the usage of specific phrases. Show how to use because, for example, it would be good to show how to connect arguments to ideas.
• Make them practice persuasive writing via short letters. Pick a rule, like bedtime or eating habits, that they do not agree with and ask them to write an analytical letter to you or a family member on why it should be changed. 
• Role-play debates on silly topics. If used in persuasive writing for kids, debates help students build argument skills. 
• Show examples of great persuasive writing. Find interesting articles and opinion pieces in the news or ads, and discuss how they are convincing. You can introduce the concepts of credibility, logic, and emotion with them.
• When checking, use checklists. Apply checklists and rubric meters to check whether they use claims and evidence.

Parents can do these activities at home together with their kids to teach them how to organize thoughts, back up opinions with reasons, and be confident in sharing them. 

How to strengthen descriptive writing skills

What’s important in descriptive writing skills for kids? The main challenge is that kids rely on basic words, like big, small, or nice, and leave out sensory details and metaphors. It makes a descriptive piece look like a list of characteristics with no imagery.

Methods to improve descriptive writing for kids

• Turn descriptive writing into a sensory adventure. Have a walk and note together what you see, hear, smell, and feel. During a dinner, ask them to describe the taste of the food.
• Try a “five senses” chart at home. You can apply it to different objects, for intance, you can describe a pear by texture, color, sound, and taste.
• Find a great description in a book and read it together. It will help them not only imagine but also learn tricks that authors use.
• Provide fun and relatable prompts. Let’s say a prompt, “ Name a pet without naming it,” can encourage them to use interesting details.
• Practice metaphors together. Turn finding similes and metaphors into a game: a parent picks an object, and the child tries to use figurative language to describe it, or vice versa.

As a result, introducing descriptive writing for kids can take time. Your goal there is to help your child paint a clear picture with their words and make the practice more engaging.

Why does learning different types of writing matter for kids?

Different types of writing matter as they become instruments to build strong communication skills, improve critical thinking and reasoning, and develop empathy and creativity. Besides, each writing type can target different skills. 

• Storytelling and narrative writing support imagination.
• Informational type offers a framework to improve clarity and logical thinking.
• Argumentative or persuasive writing improves the ability to share and use reasons to back arguments.
• Descriptive writing is great for building vocabulary and being more creative.

The importance of writing skills for kids lies in their connection to children’s future success. As writing is a core part of almost every school subject, it prepares kids for jobs and real life.

Conclusion

So, what are the types of writing? There are narrative, informational, persuasive, and descriptive writing types. If you understand the difference, you can identify where your kids need support and guide them effectively in their writing learning.

There, narrative writing can be improved via storytelling prompts and maps. Informational and persuasive writing skills can be supported by outlines, checklists, and debates. 

Lastly, descriptive writing thrives with the practice of sensory activities and enlarging vocabulary. Ultimately, consistent practice and reading matter as they help kids become confident and use writing outside of school.

However, if you’re still in doubt about how to help child with writing, think of personalized tutoring. With Brighterly, your child can strengthen every skill or target specific ones through fun, customized lessons. Book free lesson to try and see the difference.