Being a student means doing hundreds of writing assignments. Despite the huge number of advantages of academic writing, students continue to hate it and suffer when they get another paper. However, for the professors, it remains a favorite type of homework, especially an informative essay, which is the best way to test students' knowledge or make them understand a specific topic better.
The complexity of the informative paper and its special feature is the necessity to have good knowledge of the particular topic and the ability to hook the readers' attention. Hence, it is quite a complicated paper that takes a lot of effort. Perhaps you do not know how to make an informative essay outline or how to begin to work on your paper? In this article, we give tips on how to write an excellent paper that deserves the highest score as well as provide informative essay examples of topics. But first, let's give an informative essay definition.
What is informative writing?
Before performing any task, you need to understand what is required of you — the same situation with the papers, including an informative essay. Thus, first, you should get the right informative definition essay. At first sight, it seems to you that the purpose of this paper is to inform. Well, you are right, but everything is not so simple.
It is a type of academic assignment where you need to give clear, reliable, and useful information to a reader, that has to be based on facts and evidence, as well as provide examples. At the same time, you should hook the reader and organize information logically. In addition, avoid a complex and specific language with a massive number of terms. So writing an informative essay, you should simplify the information and make it easy to understand.
We also want to pay attention to the serious mistakes that most students make in this paper:
- Present their points of view
- Try to convince a reader
You should neutrally provide information and not express your position regarding the topic. Forget about linking words such as "I believe" or "In my opinion." Just do in-depth research and inform the reader.
Now, you can answer the question, "What is informative writing?" So it is time to move to the next step of the writing process of an informative essay to study its structure.
Follow the Correct Informative Essay Structure to Write a Successful Paper
Writing assignments based on three pillars: introduction, main body, and conclusion. So if you are good at academic writing, you will not face problems with this type of paper. The informative essay has the same structure, however, with some features which we discuss below.
Introduction: How to Start an Informative Essay?
We think you know the well-known saying, "First impressions are the most lasting." You should remember it when you write the first paragraph of your paper. Even if you write the main body well and make a brilliant conclusion, the reader will remember your weak or boring beginning.
Thus, you need to catch the reader's attention from the first lines. We recommend you provide a bold statement or write a rhetorical question. Besides, it is still popular to use quotes by famous people. Having made an effective hook sentence, you should give background information on your topic in several sentences.
The next essential part is creating a good informative essay thesis. It has to state the main idea of your paper in several sentences.
The Body of Informative Paper
In this part, you should provide information that supports your thesis and reveals the topic. The number of paragraphs depends on the amount of collected data. However, the classic version of the informative essay contains 2 or 3 paragraphs, and each of them represents a new idea.
As for the structure of the paragraphs, you should start with the statement sentence. Then it is necessary to present supporting information, facts, or examples in several sentences. And the final sentence gives an explanation.
Do not forget about the logical order, as every idea should support the previous one. There are several methods of organizing information, for example, from the most to the least important or vice versa. Besides, you can represent the gathered facts in chronological order.
Right Paper Finish: Informative Essay Conclusion
Do not hope that after writing the main body, you can relax and end the essay with a simple sentence. The summary is as essential as the two previous parts of a paper. You should work on it and make it sound good so that the reader does not think, "It was going so well, but the final paragraph is awful." In the informative essay conclusion, you need to reformulate the thesis and support it with the most important data from your paper. Avoid providing new information as most students like to do. Just summarize your paper while keeping the reader's interest.
How to Write an Informative Essay: 5 Main Writing Steps
Step 1 - Choose a winning topic. If you want to get the highest score for your informative essay, then you should select a relevant and interesting topic.
Step 2 - Read a lot of informative essay examples. It will help you understand the features of the paper better.
Step 3 - Formulate a strong informative essay thesis. We recommend you first develop a thesis so that you will highlight the main idea and know what information you should look for.
Step 4 - Gather information. Writing an informative essay, you should have enough facts, examples, and information to cover your topic.
Step 5 - Make an informative essay outline. Having done in-depth research and collected enough data, you should present it logically following the structure. Besides, such a draft of a paper will greatly facilitate the writing process.
How to Write an Informative Essay from a Scratch: Tips from Experts
- Do a brainstorm. When students decide to write an essay from scratch, many of them stare at a blank piece of paper asking themselves, “How to start an informative essay?” On the one hand, you can understand your topic and have some knowledge about it, but on the other hand, you do not know how to make the first step. We recommend doing brainstorm and writing down all ideas. It will help to organize your thoughts and highlight the main ideas that you want to convey to the reader.
- Read as much as possible. This tip is not just for a daily routine that helps enrich the vocabulary. Read articles on your topic or watch a video to find new and impressive information. After all, when you write an informative essay, you should have a sufficient number of reliable sources. Moreover, you can find new words and phrases that will make your paper sound better.
- Do not write an informative essay in one day. Having read the tips on how to write an informative essay, at first sight, the paper may seem quite simple, but it is a delusion. Any type of essay takes a lot of time and energy. Moreover, you have to proofread and edit the final version of the paper that should be done with a fresh mind.
How to Write an Informative Essay Outline?
- Start writing with an impressive title. Think of a headline that will catch the reader’s interest, but at the same time, will cover the topic of your paper. Moreover, pay attention to the headings of the articles while looking for information for an essay. Perhaps you will find a good formulation of your topic or get the idea of how to title your paper.
- Develop your informative essay thesis. Highlight the key idea of the entire paper in several sentences to give the reader an idea of what you are going to write about.
- Organize collected information in a logical order. When you start making an informative essay outline, you should organize the facts and information by its required structure. Choose a method of organizing information and provide key ideas from collected sources.
- Conclude the informative essay. Make a logical conclusion to the paper summarizing the information discussed before.
Choose the Good Theme: Tips and Examples of Informative Essay Topics
The success of your paper depends on many factors, including the chosen topic. If the professor did not assign it, then read our tips below on how to select an excellent topic for a paper.
- Think about your interests and knowledge. If a student is genuinely interested in the topic of the informative essay, he/she usually shows the highest result. Because it makes writing easier and more enjoyable. Besides, it is crucial to choose a topic in which you have basic knowledge as it facilitates the researching process.
- Give preference to relevant and interesting informative essay topics. Think about what the public is interested in and excited about today, what people discuss, and what problems they pay more attention to. If you write an essay on a relevant issue, it will definitely attract the reader's attention. Avoid trivial or boring topics because a boring topic means writing a boring informative essay.
- Make sure there are enough sources. Writing an informative essay requires a huge amount of information, such as facts, statistics, and researches. Before making a final decision on a topic, make sure that there are enough reliable sources and materials for your paper.
We also prepared a list of 15 relevant informative essay topics for you:
- The burnout makes us less creative
- Procrastination is about managing emotions, not time
- Depression and addiction are related
- Reclaim the past to save the future
- Working from home is good for business
- The progress bar keeps us sane
- Symbols and brands shape our humanity
- People who changed the world
- The difficulties of living in a knowledge-intensive society
- Being a celebrity: the blessing and the curse
- Surprises and challenges of the 21st century
- The health benefits of clowning around
- Virtual reality can turn students into scientists
- Ocean microbes reveal the truth about the changing climate
- Gender-based marketing is bad for business
Informative Essay Example
The American Dream is becoming an American illusion
The American Dream is three simple words that attract and inspire a large number of emigrants to leave homes and go to the United States, searching for a better life. But is it worth it? The USA is considered one of the richest countries in the world. But at the same time, it has huge competition in the labor market, which forces people to fight and survive, but not to live. Having failed economically, you are unlikely to get back on your feet. In this essay, you will understand why people come to believe that the American Dream is truly unattainable.
It seemed that the Great Recession had dealt a severe blow to the country's economy. After 11 years, the USA emerged from the crisis and achieved a remarkable economic recovery. However, the Four Corners informs that the iniquity in the US has worsened while the recovery was gaining steam. It means that millions of workers slipped into low paid part-time jobs, swelling the ranks of the working poor.
Today, the United States industry’s most popular strategy is to switch to low wages. For example, the factories of Erie put more than 75% of a country’s locomotives and circulation on the track, so they literally helped to build an America. But now General Electric decided to close the factories and built a low wage Factory in Texas. Perhaps, this strategy improved their economic situation, but no one thought of hundreds of unemployed people who do not know what to devote themselves to.
As a result, we can observe another side of the USA's prosperous economy. Like millions of people get low paid jobs and entrepreneurs think only about their own profit, while the American Dream becomes an illusion.