It is a typical paper. However, the number of questions students ask about completing an informative essay is among the biggest ones. The reason is simple: for many students, it seems that any essay they write is informative. In some ways, it is true.
Any essay informs the reader (for high school, college, and university students, their reader is mainly the professor) about the level of a student’s skill in writing, expressing their thoughts on the paper, ability to think critically, etc. All of these skills and qualities are essential if you want to get the best grades possible, and to create a solid basement for your future scientific and professional career while studying. That’s a decision of an adult and independent person.
However, things become a bit different when you need to discuss essay types. In this case, an informative paper is not the same as argumentative, persuasive, or any other assignment. What’s the deal?
An argumentative essay shows how well a student is able to find arguments and proofs to support their thesis. In a persuasive paper, a student demonstrates their ability to convince people that his or her viewpoint on the issue is the most suitable one. In turn, an informative essay is called to reveal the chosen theme for the reader and nothing more. The expert approach and formal language solutions, along with the objective choice of reference sources, are the tools serving to give a person reading your essay the full picture of some issue, event, personality, social group, etc. The best informative writing piece can boost the reader’s interest in the topic.
Consequently, a student has to do whatever they can in order to become a real expert in the chosen topic if they want to get the highest possible grade. Moreover, that knowledge should be shaped and organized according to the suitable academic structure.
So, to craft an excellent informative essay, a student should:
- conduct an in-depth study of the chosen topic;
- come up with a thoroughly composed outline;
- keep up with the structure;
- remain as unbiased and neutral as possible.
Here below, you will find more detailed recommendations on informative papers. Professional writers crafted this guide for you to be able to craft your essay much easier.
Here is some good news: it’s just another essay. If you completed at least one paper of that type throughout your studies, it wouldn’t be a problem for you to compose an informative one. So, let’s take a closer look at the assignment itself and see what you’ve got to do to make it be perfect.
Basics: What Is an Informative Essay?
As we said above already, an informative essay is an academic paper called to inform about the chosen topic. In a more precise definition, a pro writer would admit that this type of academic paper has an educative meaning. However, it is not called to educate its author (you) directly. The educative effect of informative essays is directed towards the reader. Like, while writing it, you should imagine that you and your professor have your roles swapped. It is you who teaches a professor something this time: a particular definition, natural phenomenon, social issue, notable event, historical process, and so on.
Again, an informative essay is not about analyzing and commenting on things. Its only purpose is a description. How should it look like, then?
In fact, the best and most understandable example of informative essays is a random Wikipedia article. However, do not forget that Wiki is not considered a trustworthy and credible source for academic references. Still, the example works perfectly well in our case: in an ideal world, every Wiki page only provides the reader with as much proven info on the topic as possible.
Are you still worried about your informative essay writing? You shouldn’t be. It’s really that simple.
How to Start an Informative Essay: Preparations
You can’t write a paper worth the highest grade without knowing how to begin. Fortunately, you’ve got professionals behind your back to give you some tips. By the way, you can ask them to provide you with more help online if you want. Don’t forget about that opportunity.
So, what is the first step to creating an informative essay?
To begin crafting a top-grade assignment, you should check the guidelines and recommendations your professor gave you first. There, you’ll find the info about the required references, primary and secondary sources, and more. Additionally, it is wise to check the formatting guidelines and the required word count to know how much work you’ll need to do and how to compose your essay layout correctly. Most probably, the deadline will be specified there, too. If it is not, don’t be too lazy or shy to ask the professor about it directly: time management is crucial when you need to process and digest big data volumes.
After you know the requirements, sizes, and deadlines, you can proceed with the following step. Still, you haven't started to write an informative essay yet. For now, you only choose your main topic.
Be advised: it’s a critical step. The topic will define all of your further actions: determine your research field, sources, outline and essay structures and connections, and so on.
It is crucial to find a searchable topic. That means your topic should not make it too challenging for you to find credible data sources. On the other hand, the topic should be original to avoid boring your professor (yes, a prof is a human, too). Finally, the best theme is the one interesting to you personally. That’s how you make the process of informative essay writing not only educative but also exciting for yourself. That will surely have a positive impact on your final grade.
When the topic is picked, you have to pass through the most challenging stage: research. This is the paper writing step that usually requires the most effort from students to put. However, it surely is among the most important ones: having all the necessary information at hand will help you write your informative essay quicker and make it be more effective. That’s how you don’t miss something important in the process.
How to Write an Informative Essay Outline and Turn It Into an A-Worthy Paper
What’s so special about informative essays?
Do I really need an outline?
Why do I never get high grades for informative papers?
If you’re constantly asking yourself at least one of these questions, you’re in the right place. Today we’ll walk you through the basics of informative writing and its differences from argumentative and persuasive styles, discuss the two ways of creating outlines, and highlight the need for finishing touches that maximize your chances of getting a high grade.
How to Write an Informative Essay
Fully Understanding the Assignment Is Half the Work
Informative essays aren’t as straightforward as you might think. Otherwise, professors would assume you know how to write them and would not assign informative pieces again and again.
Before we go into the specifics of creating an outline and filling it in to craft an A-worthy informative piece, let’s go over a few issues you might run into and how to avoid them:
- Do not be afraid to ask questions. It’s one of the skills college is supposed to teach you, and professors will appreciate your desire to understand. Besides, asking a couple of questions early on will save you lots of time in the long run.
- Do not put off writing. Informative papers call for extensive research that’s impossible if you have barely a day or two to write. Try breaking up the assignment into manageable tasks you can complete in 30 minutes or less, like finding two sources instead of ten or writing one paragraph at a time.
- Do not try to persuade or argue your point. Unlike other college assignments, informative papers are about sharing knowledge objectively without using persuasive techniques or arguing the pros and cons. Think of your informative piece as a newspaper or scientific journal article and mimic the writing style for best results.
- Do not put your opinion front and center. While opinionated pieces and blog posts are growing ever-popular, informative essays should include general consensus or summarizations, not your personal take on the matter. Keep your opinion to a minimum. Save it for social media, final thoughts, or other assignments.
- Do not ignore the need for references. If you lean heavily on common knowledge or personal opinion, you’ll be tempted to ignore research, missing the point of the assignment. Focus on finding credible, unbiased sources instead of ranting.
With these errors of judgment in mind, let’s dive into crafting an outline, the most tortuous and valuable part of your paper.
How to Write an Informative Essay Outline
There are two ways to go about this, depending on your goals.
If your professor requires you to submit an outline before you turn in the final version of the paper, an outline for an informative essay should follow the hierarchical structure you’re familiar with. You can follow common guidelines to complete this task without our help.
But if an outline is not an assignment requirement but your way of speeding up the writing process, it will look much different. And it will be much more useful!
To make your life easier, the outline for an informative essay should include:
- The number of paragraphs you intend to write. List them in a blank file and title the first ‘Introduction’ and the last one ‘Conclusion’, leaving the middle passages nameless for now.
- The major points you want to make on the topic. One theme can span one or more passages, and you can fill in the numbers on your list accordingly. At this stage, you have a rough outline that gives you a birds-eye view of the paper without going into detail.
- Topic sentences for each of the core points. Write one under the overarching theme of the passage. If your theme spans more than one paragraph, copy and paste the topic sentence under every passage number so that you don’t forget the point you’re trying to make.
- Reference data or facts that support your topic sentence for every point. Two or three sources are usually enough to prove your point, but you may need more proof for a longer piece. You may have to divide the supporting facts into two or more passages, especially if you want to include contradictory data.
- Transitions between core themes. Under the list of sources and quotes, include a short transition that will help you connect the points and improve the flow of your writing.
- Hook, background info, and thesis statement in the introduction. Find a way to grab your professor’s attention with a question or a surprising fact, provide data that feeds into the topic and formulate a thesis.
- Summary and final thoughts for the conclusion. Reword the thesis statement, highlight the key points made and leave the readers with food for thought.
When done like this, an outline takes more time and effort than a useless hierarchical structure. But it saves hours in the long run. After all, with this outline, you complete half the writing without even realizing it. After that, you will simply need to fill in the blanks and flesh out the paragraphs, and you’re done.
How to Write an Informative Essay Introduction, Body, and Conclusion
A proper structure is key to make any essay bring you the highest grade possible. An informative essay is not an exception. Fortunately, you are surely familiar with the main structural elements. Here they are.
Introduction
Any essay begins with an intro. Basic introduction rules work for informative essays, too. You can insert a hook to catch your professor’s attention from the very first paragraph. Then, present your topic with a little general information on it. Don’t forget that the introduction is not a place for details. The final part of an intro is your thesis.
Informative Thesis Statement: What’s That?
A thesis statement for informative essay papers is the last sentence of the intro. It lets the professor know about the focus point, a pillar that you build your essay around.
In other essays, a thesis statement wants a student to express their opinion on the topic or problem discussed. The informative paper is different. It provides no room for opinion-based thoughts and suggestions. It is as neutral as possible. That is why coming up with a thesis cannot be the simplest task for you to complete while writing an informative assignment. Avoid making your thesis restate some common knowledge, someone else’s quote, or random question.
Main Body Paragraphs: Things to Include
As always, the main essay body is the place for you to provide the professor with topical features. In an informative essay, you may want to inform them with interesting facts, some topical details that could probably be unknown otherwise, or simply present commonly known things from another view angle.
Keep the body structured: one paragraph should be devoted to one fact or explanation. Avoid confusing your professor with the lack of consequence and proper structure. Otherwise, they’ll have to lower your grade or even deny accepting the paper at all.
Concluding an Essay
A short summary is what should serve as a conclusion to all essays. A suitable conclusion of an informative essay includes a restated thesis, a summary of main concepts, and the general sentence wrapping up the topic.
Important note: do not add something that was not mentioned in the body into your concluding paragraph. That’s the simplest way to spoil even the best paper with the banal lack of logic.
How to Write an Informative Essay: Keep It Structured
Disclaimer: the writing process we suggest works only with the outline structure above and a draft thesis statement. Think of it as a one-sentence summary of your paper, the moral of the story, or the takeaway you want the readers to remember. You should be able to craft a rough thesis statement after you’ve done your research, and every point you make should feed into the idea coded in the thesis. Ignore this warning at the risk of writing a disconnected essay without a proper logical flow.
Always start with the body paragraphs. Make a copy of your outline file and add a few sentences to each point on the list until you merge the topic sentence seamlessly with the reference data and evidence. Wrap up with a transition sentence, and one passage is ready to go. Rinse and repeat as many times as necessary to almost reach the word count requirements. But leave up to one page for introduction and conclusion.
The conclusion is the second to last thing you should write. With the bulk of the paper in front of you, retell the key takeaways in a couple of sentences, reiterate the thesis statement and finish with a rhetorical question or a parting remark that will leave a lasting impression and provoke further thinking on the topic.
Finish your writing session by crafting an introduction. Start with a hook - something to grab attention and make the professor keep reading. We recommend trying a few different hooks (quotes, personal anecdotes, jokes, questions) before you settle on the one that best fits your essay. Follow up with general reference information on the subject and round up the passage with a thesis. You can also add a transition sentence to improve the flow of the piece.
Final Steps to Writing an Informative Essay
Writing an essay is easy, but making it fit for submission is hard.
Once your draft is finished, don’t even think about submitting it for grading. Instead, let it be for a day or two. Then, once you’re relaxed and a bit less entrenched in the subject, it’s time to go over the final steps of polishing your diamond in the rough:
- Reread the essay out loud and delete any pieces that don’t make sense, don’t feel right, or are redundant. Repetition will not win you brownie points with your professor, but a clear and frictionless thought flow will.
- Use grammar checker tools to proofread the paper. Typos and small mistakes won’t lose you many points, but after all the hard work you put into writing, there’s no sense in missing the top grade because you ignored the proofreading step.
- Format the piece according to your professor’s preferred style. Check out official guidelines for MLA, APA, and other styles online. Proper formatting is like shiny wrapping paper with a bow; it makes your paper look great even before anyone looks inside.
- Let automated generators handle citations. In-text citations and a properly formatted reference list are crucial for informative essays, as they prove how much work you’ve put into research. Remember to check the generated reference list for mistakes, especially if you mostly rely on online sources.
When your piece is finally edited, proofread, and formatted to perfection, it’s time to turn it in. Make sure to use the format specified in the assignment and do so before the deadline. If you follow our advice, your essay will surely get the high grade you deserve.
Final Thoughts
As you can see, there is nothing too difficult to write informative essays. Still, to get the highest possible grade, a student needs to keep in mind the critical features and special requirements of informative writings. Probably, the most important thing you should know about this type of academic assignment is that it does not require you to express your opinion on the chosen topic, to provide a professor with suitable arguments to back your thesis up, or to use rhetorical devices to persuade them about something.
An informative essay is the most neutral piece of writing a student may get. To get your highest grade with it, you need to conduct a thorough, in-depth study to find credible sources on the chosen topic, come up with a suitable informative thesis, and keep up with the standard essay structure.
It can be helpful to find some uncommon facts to describe the topic if you want to make your informative essay original. Don’t be afraid to rephrase the info from trustworthy sources you found to demonstrate an unexpected viewpoint on particular topic aspects. However, be especially attentive with the words you use: don’t make an essay sound biased.
If you don’t feel confident enough to complete an informative essay on your own, you can always count on professional writers available online. They have more than enough experience and skill to help you write a paper that is worth the highest possible grade on time and without a single mistake. Top-quality assistants can even adjust to your writing manner to customize the paper and make it look like those written by you previously.
Take care of your academic performance! Don’t hesitate to ask for help when you need it!