An informative essay is a type of academic writing where you educate the reader, providing the info based on facts and reliable sources.

Yeah, we know. Essays. Again.

What should you do if your professor assigns this sort of academic writing? How can you produce an informative essay that is worthy of an A+?

Here is the definitive guide to writing informative essays, including ideas on selecting a topic, creating an outline, organizing it step by step, and examples to check for better essay writing.

What exactly is an informative essay?

“An informative essay is a type of academic paper you write to provide readers with facts from reliable sources, thus educating them about a subject, a thing, an event, or a concept.”

Informative essays are not about your perspective or point of view. Your purpose here is to inform the reader rather than persuade them: explain a phrase, analyze data, offer a how-to guide on something, or compare/contrast two subjects.

Textbooks, booklets, and brochures are examples of such literature – materials that neutrally instruct a reader. You should create an informative essay in a neutral tone, avoiding the use of first-person pronouns (I, we).

Sounds too difficult?

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When writing an informative essay, keep your audience's degree of understanding in mind. Over-explaining ideas and words to those who are already experts in the area are unnecessary, but it is acceptable if you write for novices.

Purpose

An informative essay's goal is to educate the reader by presenting information and clear explanations on the subject.

You don't argue or try to convince; instead, you exchange words and statistics, compare and contrast facts about the issue, describe and explain how to accomplish something, and so on.

Your purpose is to provide detailed information on a topic to the reader. They should feel knowledgeable after reading your article.

“Fun fact: You're reading an informative essay on how to write an informative essay. The purpose is to educate you about the process. We share terms and facts, describe, and explain them step by step, willing to provide in-depth information on the issue.”

The issue with informative essays is that they resemble two other sorts of essays: narrative and expository. Some academics even regard them as the same form of writing, however, minor variances exist between all three:

Students sometimes mistake informative essays with expository essays since both serve the same purpose: to educate and explain something to readers. But:

• An expository essay defines a single side of an issue, which looks like the first step to writing an argumentative essay.

• In its turn, informative papers are less complicated, requiring less research and focusing on general info about an issue.

Types

Many sorts of academic papers can be related to an informative essay since their objective is to offer information and educate the reader. We've previously discussed narrative and expository writing, with key distinctions:

Narrative essays are about personal experiences and points of view, but expository essays are about explaining something rather than simply delivering information about it.

The following are five types that might be informative essays as long as they only present information rather than attempting to persuade a reader about something:

There are five categories of informative essays:

1. Cause-effect essays: give the connection between two things. These essays can be argumentative if you establish cause and effect, but they are informative if you analyze connections.

2. Descriptive essays: tell about a person, event, or situation to make readers imagine it.

3. Process essays: explain how something appeared or how to do this or that thing.

4. Compare-contrast essays: tell about the similarities and differences between two related things.

5. Problem-solution essays: describe a problem and share solutions to it. These essays can be persuasive if you try to represent one solution better than others, but they are informative if you present various possible solutions.

The Structure of an Informative Essay

It is similar to a normal five-paragraph essay:

You begin with an introduction, write a few (typically three) paragraphs to explain the major ideas and support them with evidence and data, and conclude with a summary of all the assertions, restating a thesis, and offering some last views.

• Introduction: hook, background, thesis statement.

• Body: 3 paragraphs, each representing an idea supported with evidence and facts.

• Conclusion: the summary of all ideas, restated thesis, and final thoughts on the topic.

In the essay's beginning, you catch the reader so they want to keep reading, offer some background information on the issue, and provide a thesis statement that explains the aim of your article.

You tell the audience about some key thoughts about the issue in body paragraphs. Consider presenting at least three statements, and remember to back them up with facts from trustworthy sources so that readers can realize it's something they can trust.

Your objective is to offer as much detail as feasible. A person should feel as if they have learned something new after reading your article.

Wrap up the topics in your essay conclusion by restating your argument and giving some last remarks to give readers a feeling of completion.

Writing an Informative Essay

The five key steps to preparing an A-worthy informative essay are outlined here. Make sure you don't forget any; else, your entire paper won't be as good as it may be:

Choose and Research Your Topic

Of course, your teacher might prescribe a specific topic for your informative essay. In this instance, you should perform the following:

• Ensure you understand a task inside out: Confirm the required length and other topic parameters; know how you need to cite sources; follow the formatting requirements; ensure you know the due date.

• Conduct research on the assigned topic: Consider reputable sources like academic knowledge bases or publications, university libraries, government agencies, or other .edu resources. Say no to Wikipedia!

However, it is now normal practice for teachers to grant pupils freedom of choice, encouraging them to pick their essay topic.

Teachers do this to make your job more enjoyable: after all, it's simpler to write about something you're interested in and understand.

Furthermore, it allows a teacher to assess a student's critical thinking, self-reliance, and capacity to prioritize.

Choosing an informative essay topic is more difficult than it appears.

The goal is to give knowledge on a subject so that you can write about anything that comes to mind. That is the issue: how can you determine if your idea is worth considering?

• Don’t take too broad topics: With tons of information available, it will be impossible to cover everything in one essay.

• Avoid too specific topics: You won’t find enough facts and references to cover in your essay.

• Consider topics about some critical issues: social, environmental, technological, etc.

• Find a topic that’s interesting for you so you’d enjoy the process of research and writing.

P.S. Don't forget to check out the list of informative essay themes we've included in the following portion of this blog article for ideas!

Write an Outline

When you've decided on a topic and begin researching facts, statistics, and references for it, make an effort to take notes and organize everything in an essay outline.

Feel free to use a piece of paper or type notes on a computer, but try to keep everything in one spot.

An opening, three key paragraphs, and a conclusion will comprise your essay plan. Make a list of the information you'll need for each paragraph, including any ideas or references you want to utilize.

It will be a well-organized plan for your article. It will be easier to compose a draft if you have gathered and organized your thoughts into paragraphs.

Write a Rough Draft

Now that you have a clear framework to help you, it is time to create your informative essay. All you have to do is organize your notes into paragraphs.

Remember that this is a rough draft, so begin with a concluding paragraph, the second paragraph of your essay body, and so on. Concentrate just on writing and disregard spelling and grammatical errors; you'll structure and proofread everything later.

Structure Your Informative Essay

The following stage is to divide your informative essay into sections. This is the point at which you must structure each paragraph by the requirements.

• Check for a hook, background information, and a thesis statement in your introduction paragraph.

• Make sure your essay body paragraphs follow the "C-E-E" formula: a claim (clear concept), evidence, and explanation.

• Check to see if you're using connecting words to create transitions between all of your paragraphs.

• In your essay conclusion, be sure to summarize all of the ideas: repeat a thesis (reminding the reader of the aim of your essay) and give some last views.

Write a Final Draft and Proofread It

Finally, before presenting your informative essay to a teacher, proofread it. Read the document several times to ensure you've covered all aspects of your issue. Respond to the following questions:

Is my thesis statement clear?

• Do I have a clear thesis statement?

• Do my essay paragraphs relate to the thesis?

• Have I covered one main idea, supported by evidence and explanation, in every paragraph?

• Are there logical transitions between paragraphs? Have I organized them in logical progression?

• Have I summarized all the thoughts in my essay conclusion?

• Do I use concise and clear language in my essay?

• Have I cited all the resources properly?

Finally, be sure to proofread your essay. Examine it for typos, grammatical and punctuation errors, repetitive adverbs, and other errors that might affect your final mark for this essay.

Topic Ideas for Informative Essays

Make sure you give yourself enough time to come up with a decent topic. As previously said, it is not as straightforward as it appears:

To guarantee that yours is about information rather persuasion or sa imply description, strike a balance between explanatory and argumentative subjects.

For example, a topic like "The greatest technique to cope with unemployment" would not work for informative essays since it assumes you'll offer some method as being superior to others, but it's about persuasion, not facts.

At the same time, a topic such as "Different ways to deal with unemployment" is acceptable.

Consider the topic "Why the government should restrict single-use plastic," which is more about arguments than information. A topic like "An investigation of the relationship between single-use plastic and pollution" may work.

If you're having trouble, go through these informative essay samples to see what type of information you'll need to find, or look through this list of informative essay themes for ideas!

Examples of Informative Essays

That's all well and good, but are there any samples of informative essays to look at?

Three useful pieces are provided below for your consideration:

• Trends, Troubles, and Tips for the Temple

• Animal Control

• Life Begins At 30 

Are there any remaining questions? We'll see you in the comments area!