A quick search of this blog’s archive shows that one of the topics I’ve discussed most is text structures. Those posts date back all the way to 2009.

Back then, I was just shooting in the dark. I knew structure was a critical element in nonfiction writing, especially when it has an expository writing style, but I didn’t really know how to think about it or talk about it in a meaningful way.

My first meaty posts on the topic were in Fall 2013, and they were explorations of the grade 3 and 4 Common Core ELA standards. To say that Common Core changed and expanded my thinking about nonfiction craft would be an understatement. Suddenly, it gave me terminology to discuss the challenges I was facing in my writing. It also gave me a cadre of tools for my writer’s tool box.

Now, whenever I start thinking about a new book, I have five text structures to try on for size. And if none of them seems quite right, I’m now more confident about inventing a one-of-a-kind text structure that’s a perfect fit for the information I want to share and the way I want to present it.

Because I’m no longer shooting in the dark, my writing process is so, so, SO much more efficient than it was in the past. That’s why Marlene Correia and I devote an entire chapter to text structures in 5 Kinds of Nonfiction: Enriching Reading and Writing Instruction with Children’s Books.