The Railway Children
By Edith Nesbit

Chapter I, The Beginning of Things

They were not railway children to begin with. I don't suppose they had ever thought about railways except as a means of getting to Maskelyne and Cook's, the Pantomime, Zoological Gardens, and Madame Tussaud's. They were just ordinary suburban children, and they lived with their Father and Mother in an ordinary red-brick-fronted villa, with coloured glass in the front door, a tiled passage that was called a hall, a bath-room with hot and cold water, electric bells, French windows, and a good deal of white paint, and 'every modern convenience', as the house-agents say.

There were three of them. Roberta was the eldest. Of course, Mothers never have favourites, but if their Mother HAD had a favourite, it might have been Roberta. Next came Peter, who wished to be an Engineer when he grew up; and the youngest was Phyllis, who meant extremely well.

Mother did not spend all her time in paying dull calls to dull ladies, and sitting dully at home waiting for dull ladies to pay calls to her. She was almost always there, ready to play with the children, and read to them, and help them to do their home-lessons. Besides this she used to write stories for them while they were at school, and read them aloud after tea, and she always made up funny pieces of poetry for their birthdays and for other great occasions, such as the christening of the new kittens, or the refurnishing of the doll's house, or the time when they were getting over the mumps.

These three lucky children always had everything they needed: pretty clothes, good fires, a lovely nursery with heaps of toys, and a Mother Goose wall-paper. They had a kind and merry nursemaid, and a dog who was called James, and who was their very own. They also had a Father who was just perfect—never cross, never unjust, and always ready for a game—at least, if at any time he was NOT ready, he always had an excellent reason for it, and explained the reason to the children so interestingly and funnily that they felt sure he couldn't help himself.

You will think that they ought to have been very happy. And so they were, but they did not know HOW happy till the pretty life in the Red Villa was over and done with, and they had to live a very different life indeed.

The dreadful change came quite suddenly.

(Informational Response)

Review the excerpt above. Answer the following question in a well-developed paragraph.

Question

The Railway Children
By Edith Nesbit

Chapter I, The Beginning of Things

They were not railway children to begin with. I don't suppose they had ever thought about railways except as a means of getting to Maskelyne and Cook's, the Pantomime, Zoological Gardens, and Madame Tussaud's. They were just ordinary suburban children, and they lived with their Father and Mother in an ordinary red-brick-fronted villa, with coloured glass in the front door, a tiled passage that was called a hall, a bath-room with hot and cold water, electric bells, French windows, and a good deal of white paint, and 'every modern convenience', as the house-agents say.

There were three of them. Roberta was the eldest. Of course, Mothers never have favourites, but if their Mother HAD had a favourite, it might have been Roberta. Next came Peter, who wished to be an Engineer when he grew up; and the youngest was Phyllis, who meant extremely well.

Mother did not spend all her time in paying dull calls to dull ladies, and sitting dully at home waiting for dull ladies to pay calls to her. She was almost always there, ready to play with the children, and read to them, and help them to do their home-lessons. Besides this she used to write stories for them while they were at school, and read them aloud after tea, and she always made up funny pieces of poetry for their birthdays and for other great occasions, such as the christening of the new kittens, or the refurnishing of the doll's house, or the time when they were getting over the mumps.

These three lucky children always had everything they needed: pretty clothes, good fires, a lovely nursery with heaps of toys, and a Mother Goose wall-paper. They had a kind and merry nursemaid, and a dog who was called James, and who was their very own. They also had a Father who was just perfect—never cross, never unjust, and always ready for a game—at least, if at any time he was NOT ready, he always had an excellent reason for it, and explained the reason to the children so interestingly and funnily that they felt sure he couldn't help himself.

You will think that they ought to have been very happy. And so they were, but they did not know HOW happy till the pretty life in the Red Villa was over and done with, and they had to live a very different life indeed.

The dreadful change came quite suddenly.

(Informational Response)

Review the excerpt above. Answer the following question in a well-developed paragraph.

Gucchi · Answer

How does the story describe the ideal life? What details create a sense of perfection? Be sure to use information and details from the excerpt to support and explain your answer.

**Be sure to re-state the question in your topic sentence and use specific examples and details from the story to support your answers. Proofread your work before submitting.

Gucchi · Answer

can someone give me some tips on how to write an informational response?

Gucchi · Answer

and also what does "**Be sure to re-state the question in your topic sentence" mean. what question is it talking about?

SmokeyBrown · Answer

When writing an informational response, it's important to present good evidence to support your points and to organize your information in way that makes sense and is easy to follow.

For this response, we have specific questions that we'll answer: "How does the story describe the ideal life? What details create a sense of perfection?" That should give us some idea of what kind of information to pay attention to in the reading passage. As for the organization of how you want to present your argument--and, of course, what you want your argument to be--that's more open ended and up to you to decide.

To "restate the question" would be to signal to your audience what you're going to be answering. For example, if the question was "What is the best kind of cat?" a topic sentence that restates this question could be something like "Based on overwhelming evidence and personal preference, the best kind of cat is the Russian Blue" (a bit of a silly example, I don't know what the best kind of cat is). But that's the idea, just to present your topic based on the question(s) you're trying to answer

Gucchi · Answer

@smokeybrown wrote:

When writing an informational response, it's important to present good evidence to support your points and to organize your information in way that makes sense and is easy to follow. For this response, we have specific questions that we'll answer: "How does the story describe the ideal life? What details create a sense of perfection?" That should give us some idea of what kind of information to pay attention to in the reading passage. As for the organization of how you want to present your argument--and, of course, what you want your argument to be--that's more open ended and up to you to decide. To "restate the question" would be to signal to your audience what you're going to be answering. For example, if the question was "What is the best kind of cat?" a topic sentence that restates this question could be something like "Based on overwhelming evidence and personal preference, the best kind of cat is the Russian Blue" (a bit of a silly example, I don't know what the best kind of cat is). But that's the idea, just to present your topic based on the question(s) you're trying to answer

Thank you so much for this

SmokeyBrown · Answer

No worries, I hope it helps!

Gucchi · Answer

@smokeybrown wrote:

No worries, I hope it helps!

one more thing, how big would a informational response be? is it all one big paragraph, or broken into separate paragraphs?

SmokeyBrown · Answer

I think the length would depend on the context, like the complexity of the question you're trying to answer or how much information you want to present.
It's possible you could answer the question in one paragraph, but it might make sense to organize your writing into several paragraphs, depending on how you make your argument.

Since you aren't given any specific guidelines for this assignment, I think you should do what makes sense to you. I'm sure the length of writing you end up with will turn out ok, as long as it makes sense for the points you're trying to get across

Gucchi · Answer

okay

Gucchi · Answer

@smokeybrown is this a good topic to start with?

"The Railway Children" by Edith Nesbit discusses the life of a family that have a perfect life in the suburbs.

Gucchi · Answer

ive done way more than this just wanted to make sure my topic was good enough

SmokeyBrown · Answer

That's a pretty good topic sentence, I think. It does restate the question in a way, and it also introduces the subject of your argument. It certainly works!

SmokeyBrown · Answer

I think I'll be signing off for the day soon. It seems like you're in pretty good shape so far. Best of luck with the rest of your assignment!