Features of informative texts: headings, facts & diagrams
English · Year 7
Name: ______________________Date: ____________
Informative texts are built to help readers find and understand facts quickly. Headings and subheadings break the text into clear sections. Diagrams, tables and images present information visually, often more efficiently than a paragraph of text. Facts are stated clearly and objectively, usually without emotive or persuasive language. Recognising these features helps you navigate and understand information texts like textbooks, reports and articles.
Example
A textbook chapter on the water cycle might use a heading ("The Water Cycle"), a labelled diagram showing evaporation and precipitation, and short factual paragraphs under each subheading — all designed to make the facts easy to find and understand.
Key terms
Heading/subheading:
A short title that introduces a section of a text.
Diagram:
A visual representation of information, often showing how something works or relates.
Questions
1. Headings and subheadings mainly help a reader:
Get confused
Navigate and find information quickly
Ignore the text
Add punctuation
2. A diagram is:
A type of punctuation
A visual representation of information
A persuasive technique
A type of comma
3. Informative texts are mainly built to:
Persuade the reader
Help readers find and understand facts
Tell a fictional story
Confuse the reader
4. Facts in informative texts are usually stated:
With heavy emotive language
Clearly and objectively
As opinions
As questions only
5. Which of these is a typical feature of an informative text?
A rhetorical question every sentence
Clear headings and factual information
A narrative complication
Emotive persuasive language
6. A labelled diagram in a textbook mainly helps:
Replace all the text
Show information visually alongside the text
Confuse the reader
Add persuasive techniques
7. Tables in informative texts are used to:
Tell a story
Organise information clearly
Persuade the reader emotionally
Replace headings
8. Which is most likely to appear in an informative textbook chapter?
A heading like "The Water Cycle" followed by facts
A rhetorical question every line
A narrative complication
Only emotive language
9. Skimming the headings of an informative text before reading in full mainly helps a reader:
Understand the overall structure and topics covered
Avoid ever reading the text
Learn nothing useful
Replace the need for facts
10. A diagram showing the stages of the water cycle would most likely appear in:
A persuasive speech
An informative science text
A poem
A narrative story
11. Which sentence sounds most like it belongs in an informative text?
This shocking process will change how you see water forever!
Evaporation occurs when water is heated and turns into vapour.
Water is obviously the best substance on Earth.
Isn't water just amazing?
12. Subheadings within a long informative text mainly help by:
Breaking the content into manageable, findable sections
Removing all factual content
Replacing diagrams entirely
Making the text one giant paragraph
13. A well-designed diagram usually includes:
No labels at all
Clear labels explaining each part
Only emotive language
A narrative complication
14. Which feature would you expect LEAST in an informative text?
A labelled diagram
A clear heading
Strong emotive persuasive language
An objective statement of facts
15. A textbook chapter uses a heading, three subheadings, two diagrams and factual paragraphs under each. This structure is designed mainly to:
Make the information easier to locate, understand and reference
Confuse the reader intentionally
Persuade the reader emotionally
Tell an engaging story
16. Comparing a diagram-based explanation of a process to a purely text-based one, the diagram often has the advantage of:
Being more emotionally persuasive
Showing relationships and steps more quickly and clearly
Replacing the need for accuracy
Being more narrative in style
17. If an informative text suddenly includes strongly emotive, persuasive language, this might suggest:
It has shifted purpose toward persuasion, or is blending purposes
It is still purely informative
Diagrams are unnecessary now
The text is a narrative
18. Why might a writer choose a table over a paragraph to present several related statistics?
Tables are always required by law
A table lets readers compare figures quickly and clearly
Paragraphs can never contain numbers
Tables remove the need for accuracy
19. Effective headings in an informative text should:
Be vague and unrelated to the content
Clearly indicate what each section covers
Always be a full sentence
Be written in the smallest font available
20. Recognising the typical features of informative texts (headings, diagrams, objective facts) mainly helps a reader:
Read fiction more effectively
Locate and evaluate factual information efficiently
Ignore all text structure
Understand only persuasive writing
Answer key (parent copy)
1. Navigate and find information quickly
2. A visual representation of information
3. Help readers find and understand facts
4. Clearly and objectively
5. Clear headings and factual information
6. Show information visually alongside the text
7. Organise information clearly
8. A heading like "The Water Cycle" followed by facts
9. Understand the overall structure and topics covered
10. An informative science text
11. Evaporation occurs when water is heated and turns into vapour.
12. Breaking the content into manageable, findable sections
13. Clear labels explaining each part
14. Strong emotive persuasive language
15. Make the information easier to locate, understand and reference
16. Showing relationships and steps more quickly and clearly
17. It has shifted purpose toward persuasion, or is blending purposes
18. A table lets readers compare figures quickly and clearly
19. Clearly indicate what each section covers
20. Locate and evaluate factual information efficiently