TL;DR: Informational text is writing whose job is to inform, explain or report. Under DepEd's MATATAG English curriculum, it is one of four Key Stage 3 subdomains alongside literary, academic and transactional texts, and it splits into non-journalistic texts (expository writing), journalistic texts (news, press releases and features) and academic texts. Grade 7 English names four expository structures by name: sequence or process, comparison and contrast, cause and effect, and problem and solution. From Grades 7 to 10 the curriculum sets roughly 70 percent of reading as informational, up from 30 percent in the early grades, and the assessment sequence is always the same: examine the structure, evaluate the text, then compose and publish one of your own.
If you searched for informational text examples, you are probably staring at a worksheet that asks you to identify a structure, or at a composition task that asks you to write one. This guide gives you both: the taxonomy DepEd actually uses, and short annotated examples where every choice is explained. Where the examples are made up, they are labelled as such. For the wider curriculum this sits inside, see our MATATAG curriculum guide and the DepEd English curriculum guide.
What Does DepEd Count as Informational Text?
Informational text is one of four text subdomains DepEd names for Key Stage 3 (Grades 7 to 10) in the MATATAG English curriculum, alongside literary texts, academic texts and transactional texts. Within informational text, the Key Stage 3 standard names three families.
| Family | What it covers | Everyday examples |
|---|---|---|
| Non-journalistic | Expository writing that explains or informs | Encyclopaedia entries, manuals, science explainers, how-to guides |
| Journalistic | Reporting produced for publication | News reports, press releases, feature articles |
| Academic | Formal writing produced for study | Expository essays, reports, research writing |
The Key Stage 3 standard is that by the end of Grade 10 learners can critically analyse and evaluate the style, form and features of literary, informational and transactional texts, and can compose and publish multimedia texts of their own. That second half matters. In this curriculum, informational text is not only something you read; it is something you are expected to produce.
Why Does Junior High School Read So Much Non-Fiction?
Because the curriculum deliberately shifts the balance as learners move up. MATATAG sets the proportion of literary to informational texts by key stage: about 70 percent literary in Kindergarten to Grade 3, an even 50-50 split in Grades 4 to 6, and about 30 percent literary to 70 percent informational in Grades 7 to 10.
| Key Stage | Grades | Literary | Informational |
|---|---|---|---|
| Key Stage 1 | K to 3 | 70% | 30% |
| Key Stage 2 | 4 to 6 | 50% | 50% |
| Key Stage 3 | 7 to 10 | 30% | 70% |
The reasoning is straightforward: almost everything an adult reads for work, study or civic life is informational, and the skills it demands, such as separating fact from claim and judging whether a source is credible, are different from the skills a short story demands.
The Four Expository Structures, and How to Spot Them
Grade 7 English names four structures for non-journalistic expository text. Identifying which one a passage uses is usually the fastest way into an unfamiliar text, because the structure tells you what question the writer set out to answer.
| Structure | The question it answers | Signal words | What the reader should end up with |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sequence / process | In what order does this happen? | first, next, then, after that, finally, meanwhile | An ordered list of steps or events |
| Comparison and contrast | How are these alike and different? | both, similarly, likewise, however, whereas, unlike, on the other hand | A set of matched points, not two separate descriptions |
| Cause and effect | Why did this happen, and what followed? | because, since, as a result, consequently, therefore, due to, leads to | A chain linking a cause to its effect |
| Problem and solution | What is wrong, and what would fix it? | the problem is, one difficulty, to address this, one solution, this would reduce | A named problem, a proposed fix, and a reason the fix should work |
A caution worth carrying into an exam: signal words are evidence, not proof. A passage can use "however" once and still be a cause-and-effect text. Ask what the whole passage is doing before you commit to an answer.
Worked Example 1: A Problem-Solution Text, Annotated
The passage below is illustrative. It was written for this guide, contains no statistics, and describes no real school. Use it to see the moves, not as a source.
Easing the lunchtime queue at the school canteen
Every recess and lunch break, the same difficulty repeats itself at the school canteen: a single queue forms at one counter, and many learners spend most of their break standing in it rather than eating. The problem is not the amount of food available but the way learners reach it.
Two conditions produce the queue. First, all transactions, from buying a full meal to buying a single sachet of juice, pass through the same counter. Second, every grade level breaks at the same time, so demand arrives in one wave rather than spreading across the hour.
One workable solution is to split the counter by transaction type, with a separate express counter for pre-packed items and drinks. A second, which the school can pair with the first, is to stagger break times by grade level so that demand arrives in two smaller waves.
Both measures address the causes named above rather than the symptom. Splitting the counter removes short transactions from the main queue, and staggering breaks reduces the size of the wave that any counter has to absorb. Neither requires new equipment, which is why they are proposed ahead of any structural change to the canteen itself.
Why each paragraph is there:
- Paragraph 1 names the problem and rules out a wrong diagnosis. Saying what the problem is not is a standard move; it stops the reader solving the wrong thing.
- Paragraph 2 gives the causes, numbered. A problem-solution text that skips causes produces solutions the reader has no reason to trust. The numbering also gives the writer something to point back to later.
- Paragraph 3 proposes solutions that map one-to-one onto the causes. Two causes, two solutions, in the same order. This is the part markers look for.
- Paragraph 4 justifies the solutions and states a constraint. "Neither requires new equipment" is the feasibility test. A solution paragraph with no feasibility test reads as a wish.
Worked Example 2: The Same Content, Two Structures
Illustrative again. Notice how choosing a structure changes almost every sentence, even though the subject does not.
Comparison and contrast:
Both the jeepney and the tricycle carry learners to school over short distances, and both charge by distance rather than by time. They differ in capacity and in route. A jeepney runs a fixed route and seats many passengers, so a learner whose school sits along that route pays little and rides directly. A tricycle has no fixed route and carries few passengers, so it reaches side streets a jeepney never enters, but the learner pays more for that flexibility.
Cause and effect:
Because most jeepney routes are fixed along main roads, learners whose homes sit on interior streets cannot board one near their house. As a result, they either walk to the nearest main road or hire a tricycle for the first stretch of the trip. Where households cannot absorb the extra tricycle fare, the consequence is a longer walk and an earlier departure from home.
The comparison text sets two things side by side on matched points, capacity and route, and never leaves one described without the other. The cause-and-effect text builds a chain: fixed routes, therefore no nearby boarding point, therefore a walk or an extra fare. If you are asked to identify a structure, ask which of these two shapes the passage has.
How Journalistic Texts Differ
Grade 7 Quarter 3 sets news and press releases and features as its journalistic text foci, and the differences between them are practical rather than decorative.
| Text type | Opening move | Order of information | Written by |
|---|---|---|---|
| News report | A lead answering who, what, when, where, why and how | Most important first, then decreasing importance | A reporter, for readers |
| Press release | An announcement in the organisation's own words | Announcement, supporting detail, quotable statement, contact details | The organisation itself, for the media |
| Feature | A scene, anecdote or person | Narrative shape, with the point often arriving later | A writer, for readers with time |
The reason a news report front-loads everything is editorial: a reader who stops after one paragraph should still know what happened, and an editor cutting for space cuts from the bottom. A press release, by contrast, exists to be reused, which is why it carries a quotable statement and a contact line that no news article would need.
What the Curriculum Asks You to Do With Them
The Grade 7 informational text competencies run in a fixed order, and the order tells you what a full unit of work looks like: examine text structures and linguistic features, examine how visual elements carry meaning, extract and synthesise significant information, distinguish facts from claims and opinions, analyse propaganda techniques, judge the credibility and timeliness of a source, and analyse how non-linear texts such as graphs, charts, infographics and graphic organisers summarise a text. Only after all of that does the composition sequence begin: choose a text type for your purpose and audience, organise your information, set your thesis, compose, apply multimodal elements, revise for coherence, revise for cohesion, edit, and publish.
Two practical consequences. First, evaluation is assessed before composition, so an answer that only summarises a passage will not score where the task asked you to evaluate it. Second, "publish" is a real competency, not a figure of speech: the expected output is a finished multimodal text with an identified audience. For the graphs and infographics half of this, see our companion guide on non-linear text.
How to Write an Informational Text: Seven Steps
- Name your purpose and audience in one sentence before writing anything. "To explain to Grade 7 classmates why the canteen queue forms" is a purpose; "about the canteen" is not.
- Pick a structure to match the purpose. If your purpose sentence contains "why", you probably need cause and effect. If it contains "how", sequence or process. If it contains "should", problem and solution.
- Collect your information first, and note where each fact came from. You will need the sources for the credibility competency anyway.
- Outline in the shape of the structure you chose, not in the order you found things.
- Write the thesis or controlling idea as one sentence and keep it visible while drafting. Every paragraph either supports it or gets cut.
- Add a visual only where it does work text cannot, and reference it in the prose.
- Revise twice, separately: once for coherence, meaning the logic of the whole, and once for cohesion, meaning the diction, transitions and sentence-level joins. The curriculum treats these as two competencies because they are two different jobs.
Common Mistakes
- Naming a structure without evidence. Point to the signal words and to the shape of the whole passage, not one transition word.
- A comparison text that is two descriptions. If paragraph one is all about A and paragraph two is all about B, with no matched points, it is not a comparison text yet.
- Solutions with no causes. Problem-solution writing collapses the moment a reader asks why the proposed fix should work.
- Treating a feature article as fiction. Narrative technique does not license invented detail.
- Charts pasted in without reference. If the prose never mentions the figure, the figure is not part of the text.
Disclaimer: curriculum competencies and their coverage per quarter are set by DepEd and are revised from time to time. Confirm current requirements with your teacher or against the official curriculum guide before relying on this for graded work. For how the wider K to 12 programme is organised, see our K to 12 curriculum guide.
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