This week’s focus is on the three main types of writing emphasized in the Common Core:

1.  Narrative Writing:  personal narrative, fiction, historical fiction, fantasy, narrative memoir, biography, narrative nonfiction

2.  Persuasive/Opinion/Argument Writing:  persuasive letter, review, personal essay, persuasive essay, literary essay, historical essay, petition, editorial, op-ed column

3.  Informational and Functional/Procedural Writing:  fact sheet, news article, feature article, blog, website, report, analytical memo, research report, nonfiction book, how-to book, directions, recipe, lab report

According to the Common Core Standards the three types of writing are shared across all disciplines, with a larger portion on Persuasive/Opinion/Argument Writing and Informational Writing at the high school level.  

They state the following in support of a shared responsibiity to teaching writing:
“To build a foundation for college and career readiness, students need to learn to use writing as a way of offering and supporting opinions, demonstrating understanding of the subjects they are studying,and conveying real and imagined experiences and events.  They learn to appreciate that a key purpose of writing is to communicate clearly to an external, sometimes unfamiliar audience, and they begin to adapt the form and content of their writing to accomplish a particular task and purpose.”

Looking at your own discipline and the types of writing students are asked to do, how much of it already falls within the range of informational writing and persuasive writing?  Are there any new forms of writing you would think about introducing after viewing the above list of options?