Although many students believe that an informative essay is the simplest type of written assignment, they might be mistaken. Teachers often call informative essays challenging and demanding. A student should educate their audience on a specific problem by not just describing it but also providing accurate examples. In this article, you’ll find an instruction on how to write a good informative essay.
What Is an Informative Essay?
By its definition, an informative essay is a type of a written assignment given to the high school or college students; such piece aims to educate and inform the audience on a given topic. Although you can’t convince someone to change their beliefs (like in a persuasive essay), you still are allowed to share your thoughts on a given issue.
In general, when writing an informative essay, you should:
- Inform your readers or listeners about a certain problem they aren’t aware of.
- Explain the importance of the problem.
- Present data from the latest researches conducted on your topic.
- Compare different viewpoints if the subject of your essay is controversial.
- Provide analysis of a cause-and-effect relationship.
Note that the purpose of your essay is to give answers to the key questions while explaining the given topic in detail.
How to Start an Informative Essay?
Before you actually start the process of writing, there are some important things you should do. You’ll need to choose the essay’s topic, create a thesis statement, write the first draft, and do thorough research. Here’s a short step-by-step guide for these stages:
- Choosing a topic. Choosing the right topic for your informative essay may be challenging. Often, teachers provide a list of potential topics suggesting students pick one of them. If not, students should choose a topic to their own discretion. To come up with a good one, you may look through the lists of informative essay topics online, ask your teacher or a counselor for advice or brainstorm together with the group mates. In any case, it’s crucial to conduct thorough research on your potential topic to make sure that you’ll have enough credible and up-to-date related material to work with. If you have several topics to choose from, opt for the one which would be the most beneficial for your audience.
- Creating a thesis statement. When phrasing a statement of your future informative essay, remember to make it convincing and sound. All information and examples provided in your work should prove that the described problem is important and worth discussing. Aim to persuade your listeners in the significance of the issue from the first lines of your essay.
- Writing a draft. Once you are set with the subject of your future essay, it’s time to write the first rough draft. It should include questions and real-life examples related to your topic. An initial draft should become a backbone of your essay; by developing it, you can write a detailed outline and later – the final text itself.
- Researching on the subject. With the draft ready, you can stick to it when researching your topic online or in the college library. Remember that sources which you choose should be relevant and credible. Besides, they should be up-to-date which means they can’t be older than five years. If you are working in the library, it’s worth starting with textbooks and moving through to scholarly articles and journals. One more good way to pick information is interviewing people and experts on the issue.
What You Should Know About an Informative Essay Structure
After thorough research, it’s time to create an outline, but before you start writing, you should learn what the structure of your future work is. As all student essays, an informative essay should have three basic parts: an introduction (with a catchy hook), the main body, and a conclusion. The topic of the essay should be its title. To conclude the piece, you should restate its thesis. Make sure you stick to the right writing format required by your teacher.
- Introduction. Here you should present your topic and grab the attention of the audience with a focusing hook phrase. Start with a general idea that corresponds to the essay’s thesis. Gradually, make it more specific. Provide some key terminology and background information. Finish the introduction with the thesis.
- The body. The essay’s main part should present the necessary materials and information to the audience. Use several sources, various facts, statistics, and expert judgments. Ensure all facts to be accurate and organize them logically on the stage of writing an outline.
- The conclusion. In the final part, you should summarize the facts that speak on behalf and against your thesis. Make sure not to introduce any new ideas or information in the essay’s conclusion. Your purpose is to sum up and round off your work.
How to Write an Informative Essay Outline?
An outline works both as a plan of your actions and as contents of your essay. It helps you stay organized and not get lost in your notes and sources. To write a good outline, you should develop your initial draft and stick to the structure introduction – main body – conclusion described above. Although writing an outline is optional, experts recommend doing it to save you from the writer’s block.
A Few More Informative Essay Tips
Here are a few more short pieces of advice on writing informative essays. Your work should be based on at least 4 credible sources and be three to five pages long. If you wonder how many paragraphs in an informative essay, the answer is simple: every paragraph of the main body should contain a line of educational facts. As in other types of informative writing, you should opt for a formal academic style and avoid speaking from your personal experience.
How to Write an Informative Paper Worth an 'A'?
The main advice to the students writing an informative essay is to make it impartial and objective. This assignment is all about explaining complicated material in a simple way. With enough time, scrupulous research, and precise planning you’ll create a perfect piece. Also you can hire our professional essay writer if you need help with your informative essay.
