This document provides examples of different types of factual writing, including instruction manuals, articles, leaflets, and how-to guides. It explains that all factual writing should be concise, clear, accurate, and avoid ambiguity to prevent confusing the reader. Additionally, the language used should be unbiased and formal. References may be included to provide more information for readers. Accuracy is especially important for instruction manuals, articles, medical leaflets, and how-to guides, as readers rely on the information provided.

1. Factual Writing
Tom Brett

3. Instruction Manual
• This is an example of a factual guide about how to work an object. Factual guides
are preferably short and simple so they don’t confuse the reader with too many
overly complicated instructions, this provides a sense of clarity and conciseness.
This particular guide does this very well, short and simple instructions are used,
this is because they are giving instructions on how to work a toy, this means that
the instructions and words used will be child friendly. Plus each different
instruction has a detailed image that helps to explain the task the reader has to
perform.
• Accuracy and avoiding ambiguity is just as important when creating a factual
instruction guide because you don’t want to give away false instructions that can
be vital when you get closer to the final product. The instructions should be clear
and should give the correct information, it should also sound like it knows what its
saying otherwise the reader might get confused because they are unsure with
what they want to do.
• The language used is unbiased and has a formal register this is because there is no
way this can be biased as it is just an instruction manual about one specific
children’s toy. Formal register is used because it is easier to read and understand,
especially when the audience is at a young age.

5. Article
• This is an example of a factual article that covers multiple different facts
about wolf packs and why they are interesting and important. There are
similar factors between an article and an instruction manual. Both an
instruction manual and an article have to be accurate because a lot of
people will read it in hope to gain more knowledge about the subject. An
article also has to have clarity, this is because there are a lot of words in an
article and it tends to be quite formal and an important part to a
newspaper or a magazine, this means that a lot of people will be reading
it, some might have better reading skills than others but if the text isn’t
clear then not many people will read it, this will create a bad reputation
with the magazine/newspaper which will eventually mean that people will
stop buying their products. The language used in this example is accurate
and clear, however other audiences might not be able to understand some
of the specific terms used because of the dialect that is in the text,
because this is an article about wildlife not everyone is going to
understand what the article is saying.

7. Leaflet
• This is a leaflet explaining how to treat a medical condition, this
specific leaflet will have to be accurate and clear because it’s a
matter of helping peoples health which is a very important task to
create and perform. Fortunately this example is both clear and
accurate with its text and its images as well. Other leaflets might
not be as clear or as accurate because leaflets are sometimes quite
informal, especially when compared to articles and instruction
manuals, this is because leaflets tend to be used as a handout from
companies that give a brief overview of a product or a topic. This
leaflet is unbiased because as explained earlier it has been made
for medical purposes, so there are no opinions but just facts about
how you can help treat the disease. Some leaflets might be biased if
they were political because they would be used to persuade the
reader. Leaflets will regularly mention references to the source such
as websites or locations so the reader can find out more, this is
extremely common on medical leaflets.

9. How to guide
• This is an example of a how to guide, how to guides are very similar to
instruction manuals, and so will follow the same rules and practices that
instruction manuals do. How to guides need to have clarity, accuracy,
unbiased language, and occasionally a reference to the source. How to
guides need to be clear so that the reader can follow the steps properly
and have confidence and understanding in what they are doing, in this
example it is following a recipe. How to guides will also need to be
accurate because if the reader is following the information then they need
to be reading the right thing and be following the steps correctly,
especially if it is a recipe because they will want the food to be
appropriate for other people to eat as well. How to guides will normally
have unbiased language anyway because there is not much chance for
someone to express their opinion through steps and instructions. This
specific example has a reference to the original source through a link to a
website, other guides might have images or text from the original source
as well.