Grade by Grade
D. Composition: Expressing Ideas and Creating Texts · Composing Complex Texts: Research, Story, Argument, Analysis and Media

Informational Writing: News Articles and Transforming Data

D2.1 A3.1 A2.4About 55 minutes
Learning goals
  • I can write a news article with a lead that answers the 5 Ws and H, organized as an inverted pyramid.
  • I can use quotations and attribution accurately and keep an objective tone.
  • I can transform information from one form to another, such as from text to a table, a graph or an infographic.
  • I can choose the right kind of graph and design it honestly, so it doesn't mislead.

Words to know

informational text
A text whose main purpose is to give readers accurate facts about a topic.
lead
The opening sentence or paragraph of a news article, with the most important facts.
inverted pyramid
A news structure that puts the most important information first and the least important last.
attribution
Saying who provided a fact or quotation: organizers said, according to the food bank.
feature article
A longer informational article that explores a topic or person in depth, often with a creative lead.
transform
Change information from one form into another, such as from sentences to a graph.
infographic
A visual text that combines short text, numbers, graphs and icons to explain information quickly.
misleading graph
A graph designed in a way that gives a false impression, for example by not starting the scale at zero.

Remember from Grade 7

In Grade 7 you wrote informational research reports that synthesized several sources, used the quotation sandwich, credited sources with signal phrases, kept an objective tone and used text features such as headings and sidebars.

In Grade 8 you'll write in a form you see every day: the news article. The curriculum also asks you to use media, tools and strategies to transform information, so you'll turn numbers in an article into a table, a graph and an infographic.

How a news article works

A news article answers six questions: who, what, when, where, why and how (the 5 Ws and H). The most important answers go in the lead, the first sentence.

The rest is organized as an inverted pyramid: key details and quotations next, extra background last. Editors used to cut long articles from the bottom, and online readers often stop after a few lines, so the top has to carry the story.

Lead: the most important facts(who, what, when, where, why, how)Key detailsand quotationsExtras
The inverted pyramid: news articles put the most important information first, so readers who stop early still get the main facts.

A model news article

Maple Ridge Students Collect 1,240 Kilograms of Food for Local Food Bank (a pretend news article written for this site)

Students at Maple Ridge Public School collected 1,240 kilograms of food for the Riverside Community Food Bank during a two-week drive that ended last week, organizers said.

The drive was run by the school's Grade 8 student council, which set a goal of 1,000 kilograms. Each class weighed its donations on a bathroom scale every afternoon and posted the totals on a chart outside the office.

"We thought 1,000 was a stretch," said student council president Lucas Bérubé. "By the second Monday, the Grade 7s and 8s were racing each other."

Grade 8 classes collected the most, at 375 kilograms, followed by Grade 7 with 330.

Food bank coordinator Amina Yusuf said donations often slow down after the winter holidays. "Canned protein, like beans and fish, is what we run out of first," she said. "This will help families well into February."

The student council plans to hold another drive in the spring.

Worked example

Let's analyze the model article

Find the 5 Ws and H, the structure and the attribution.

  1. Lead (one sentence): Who: students at Maple Ridge Public School. What: collected 1,240 kg of food. For whom: the Riverside Community Food Bank. When: a two-week drive that ended last week. Where: at the school.
  2. How is in paragraph 2 (classes weighed donations daily and posted totals). Why it matters is in the food bank coordinator's quotation: donations slow after the holidays.
  3. Quotations come from two different perspectives: a student organizer and the food bank. Each is attributed (said student council president Lucas Bérubé).
  4. Objective tone: no I or we, no opinion words like amazing. The excitement comes from the quotations, not the reporter.
  5. Inverted pyramid: the last line (future plans) could be cut without losing the main story.

The article is short paragraphs, facts first, quotations attributed, opinions kept to the people quoted.

GradeFood collected (kg)
Grade 4140
Grade 5185
Grade 6210
Grade 7330
Grade 8375
Total1,240
Transforming the article's numbers into a table (Grade 4 to 6 totals are from the student council's chart, also pretend). Check: 140 + 185 + 210 + 330 + 375 = 1,240.
140Gr 4185Gr 5210Gr 6330Gr 7375Gr 8kg
Food collected by grade (kg), from the pretend article's data. The bars start at zero so their heights compare fairly.

Choose the right visual

  • Bar graph: compare amounts across categories (kilograms by grade).
  • Line graph: show change over time (kilograms collected each day of the drive).
  • Circle (pie) graph: show parts of one whole (what share of the total each grade collected). Parts must add up to 100%.
  • Table: show exact numbers when readers need to look things up.
  • Infographic: combine a headline, a few key numbers, a simple graph and icons for readers who will only glance.

Keep graphs honest

A graph can mislead even with true numbers:

  • A bar graph whose scale starts at 300 instead of 0 would make Grade 8 (375) look more than twice as big as Grade 7 (330).
  • Missing labels or units leave readers guessing.
  • 3-D effects and pictures of different sizes can distort comparisons.

Always give a title, labelled axes, units and the source of the data.

Honest: scale starts at 00100200300400330 kgGr 7375 kgGr 8Misleading: starts at 300300325350375400330 kgGr 7375 kgGr 8Gr 8 bar is a little tallerGr 8 bar looks 2.5 times taller
The same two numbers graphed twice. Starting the scale at 300 turns a 45 kg difference into what looks like a huge gap.
Worked example

Let's plan an infographic from the article

Transform the article into an infographic for the school's front hall.

  1. Headline (big): 1,240 kg of food for our neighbours! (An infographic for students can be a little more upbeat than the news article, but every number must still be true.)
  2. One key comparison: Goal: 1,000 kg. Result: 1,240 kg. Shown as two bars, starting at zero.
  3. Bar graph by grade, labelled in kilograms.
  4. One quotation from the food bank about why it matters.
  5. An icon of a can or a box for each section, plus alt text if it's posted online, such as Bar graph: Grade 8 collected 375 kg, the most of any grade.
  6. Credit line: Data: Maple Ridge student council.

Same information, new form, chosen for readers who glance at it while walking by.

News or feature?

A news article reports a recent event, facts first. A feature article explores a person, place or issue in more depth and can open with a scene or anecdote (At 3:30 every afternoon, Lucas Bérubé dragged a bathroom scale down the Grade 8 hallway...). Both are informational and both need accurate facts and attributed quotations.

Just for fun

Funny but true: headlines are written in their own shorthand, sometimes called headlinese. Little words like a and the vanish, and yesterday's news gets a present-tense verb, which is why headlines sound like a robot in a hurry: Students Top Food Drive Goal.

Hands-on activity

Pantry data reporter

You need: a kitchen pantry or cupboard (or the fridge door), paper, a pencil, a ruler.

  1. Collect data: count the items in your pantry by category (cans, boxes, jars, bags, other). Record the counts in a table.
  2. Transform it: draw a bar graph with a title, labelled axes and a scale that starts at zero.
  3. Interview a family member: What do we run out of first? Why? Write down one exact quotation.
  4. Write a news article (150 to 250 words) about your pantry as if it were news: a lead with the 5 Ws and H, the inverted pyramid, the attributed quotation and an objective tone.
  5. Challenge: redraw your graph with the scale starting at a higher number and compare. Which one gives a false impression?

Your turn

1

What are the 5 Ws and H?

2

Where does the most important information go in a news article?

3

What is attribution? Give an example from the model article.

4

Which graph would best show how much food was collected each day of the drive?

5

Why does the bar graph's scale need to start at zero?

6

Rewrite in an objective tone for a news article: Our amazing school totally crushed the food drive!

7

What percent of the total did Grade 8 collect? Round to the nearest whole percent. (375 out of 1,240)

More practice: warm-up

1

What is a lead?

2

Which graph shows parts of one whole?

3

What is an infographic?

4

Should a news reporter write I think in a news article?

5

Name two labels every graph needs.

More practice: on your own

1

Write a news lead for this event: Yesterday, 45 volunteers planted 300 trees along Mill Creek in Riverside, organized by the Riverside Naturalists Club, to reduce erosion.

2

How many more kilograms did Grade 7 collect than Grade 5? By what percent was the goal beaten?

3

A graph of the food drive starts its scale at 300 kg. Which grades would even appear, and what false impression would it give?

4

Turn this first-person sentence into a feature-article lead with a scene: I interviewed the food bank coordinator about winter donations.

5

Explain how transforming information into a graph helps readers, and one thing a graph can lose.

Challenge

1

Write a complete 5-paragraph news article (about 120 words) about a pretend school event, with a lead, a how paragraph, two attributed quotations from different people and an extra detail at the end.

2

Pretend data: a winter coat drive collected 12 coats in week 1, 30 in week 2, 45 in week 3 and 33 in week 4. Choose a graph, explain why, and write one sentence an article could say about the trend.

3

A company's ad shows a bar graph where its cereal's sugar bar looks half the height of a rival's, but the numbers say 9 g and 11 g. Explain what's going on and how you'd redraw it.

Check your understanding

Quiz

1.

What goes in the lead of a news article?

2.

The inverted pyramid means…

3.

Which is correct attribution?

4.

Which graph best shows how a total changed over four weeks?

5.

Why can a graph whose scale starts at 300 be misleading?

6.

Turning a news article's numbers into a bar graph is an example of…

For parents and teachers

Big ideas (D2.1): Grade 8 students draft complex informational texts and use a variety of media, tools and strategies to transform information and communicate ideas. Transforming data into tables and graphs connects to the Grade 8 math data strand (A3.1), and analyzing graph and infographic conventions connects to media literacy (A2.4).

How to help at home:

  • Read a local news article together and find the 5 Ws and H in the lead.
  • Point out graphs in flyers, news or ads and ask: Does the scale start at zero?
  • Help with the pantry activity; it's real data your child can report on.

Common difficulties:

  • Burying the lead (starting with background).
  • Adding opinion in the reporter's voice.
  • Graphs without labels or units, or scales that don't start at zero.

The article, school, people and numbers are invented for teaching.