INFORMATIVE WRITING

The following passage was written by Lyn Quitman Troyka in her 1990 edition of Simon and Schuster Handbook for Writers, Prentice Hall international, London. This was aimed at giving concrete example of writing clear, complete, accurate, and verifiable report. Notice that the writing piece contains very little bias, and the information can be counter-checked. The focus is on the subject.

"In 1914 in what is now Addo Park in South Africa, a hunter by the name of Pretorious was asked to exterminate a herd of 140 elephants. He killed all but 20, and those survivors became so cunning at evading him that he was forced to abandon the hunt. The area became a preserve in 1930, and the elephants have been protected ever since. Nevertheless, elephants now four generations removed from those Pretorious hunted remain shy and strangely nocturnal. Young elephants evedently learn from the adults' trumpeting alarm calls to avoid humans" (Troyka 4-5).