There are so many ways for children to express themselves through writing and so many ways authors share their ideas.

Here are the 17 most popular writing genres and some examples. Learn more about these genres and encourage your child to try something new.

Here are the 17 Most Popular Writing Genres Organized by mode (category):

Nonfiction/Informational

1) All-about books – These texts teach the reader all about a topic. All-about books are often based on the writer’s personal experiences; however, they can also include research.

National Geographic has awesome all-about books for many different interests and many different reading levels! We also love The Science of Living Things series.

3) How-to – These texts explain how to do something like a recipe or directions.

 We love our Raddish Kids subscription for this.

Some fun how-to books:

How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World by Marjorie Priceman

Peanut Butter and Jelly by Nadine Bernard Westcott

Pizza Pat by Rita Goldman Gelman

Check out this great post containing some fun things you could do at home with your child to practice how-to writing.

4) Biography – These are books that tell the story of a person. Biographies are often about written as a narrative.

With over 200 titles to choose from, The Who Was and Who Is series offers a ton of biographies. Your child is bound to find someone they’d like to learn about. The books are well-written and make biographies fun for kids. There is even a Who Was? Show. Check out their website to learn more.

For younger kids, check out the Little People, Big Dreams series with a large selection of books to choose from.

Narrative

5) Personal narrative – These texts are a true story from the author’s life and the author’s perspective. In classrooms that use Writer’s Workshop to teach the writing process, these texts can often be referred to as “small moments.”

Check out Going Solo by Roald Dahl, author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The BFG.

6) Realistic Fiction – A story that the author creates that could happen. The author chooses the characters, plot, and/or setting.

Classic examples include Charlotte’s Webb, The Swiss Family Robinson, and To Kill a Mockingbird.

7) Memoir– A true story that could be presented in an essay form. Some memoirs are written in a way that the author is trying to persuade the reader to feel a certain way about something that happened in the author’s life.

Check out the award-winning, Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson.

My childhood favorite, Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell is an example of historical fiction. The American Girl:Beforever series offers many historical fiction texts covering many different time periods and locations.

Opinion/Persuasive

9) Review – A piece in which the author presents their praise and/or criticism of a particular subject. Reviews can range in length like a quick review on an Amazon product to a detailed cookbook review blog post.

10) Argument – The author makes a claim and then provides reasons for that claim. The reasons are backed with information from credible sources. The author will present the reasons, or evidence, and then explain how the reasons support the claim. The author may include a counter-claim, or a claim that is contradictory to the original claim.

Here is a simple example from our daughter (at the age of 5):

This kid-friendly site (Mocomi) contains many examples of famous speeches and offers some context for the speech.

12) Essay – A piece that typically presents a series of thoughts on a topic with a clearly stated thesis demonstrating a specific viewpoint. Even though essays are written with a slant toward a particular opinion, essays typically include both sides of an argument, so the reader can form their own opinion.

Check out this great post on supporting your child’s essay writing.

This post has 25 Great Essay topics for kids.

13) Editorial – An article that is written by an editor or on behalf of an editor. In an editorial, the author gives an opinion on a topic. Editorials often appear in newspapers.

Poetry

14) Free verse – Poems written without rhyme or meter and do not follow a specific structure.

15) Narrative – A poem or collection of poems that tells a story.

16) Haiku – Short, three-line poems originating in Japan that typically follow a specific pattern: 17 syllables written in a 5/7/5 syllable count. Haiku poems often focus on images from nature.

An example: a poem from Basho Matsuo (1644-1694)

            An old silent pond…

            A frog jumps into the pond,

splash! Silence again.

17) Found poem – A poem that uses words from another text that is reshaped into a poem.

Here is an example of a found poem from a piece of text provided by ReadWriteThink.org.

 Additional Genres

This list does not share all writing genres, only the most frequently used and most frequently referenced. There are other writing genres and many texts are written as hybrids (using features from more than one genre in a single text). Please use this list as a reference point knowing that authors make choices that don’t always fit the typical pattern.

Encourage your child to use features from different genres to enhance their writing.

Support your child in noticing the genre of a text and when authors use different genres in their texts.

Examples of hybrid texts:

Fly Guy Presents Series by Tedd Arnold

Surprising Sharks by Nicola Davies

Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai

A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park

Jennifer Serravallo, author of The Writing Strategies, states

“There are numerous genre-bending examples, and at times dividing things by genre is artificial. Fiction can teach us about life, the word, and people – it’s not strictly informational writing that teaches. Poetry can be narrative…or informational. Narrative can be used to elaborate within an informational text” (2017, p. 7).

Have fun writing in new and interesting ways!

Leave a comment with other resources you have or if you would like to know more about a specific genre.

References:

Calkins, L. M. (1986). The art of teaching writing. Heinemann Educational Books Inc., 70 Court St., Portsmouth, NH 03801.

Serravallo, J. (2017). The writing strategies book. Heinemann Educational Books Inc., 70 Court St., Portsmouth, NH 03801.