How to write an informative essay

What are the steps to write an informative essay?

Essays are written for various purposes. For its varied purpose of writing, they are categorized under categories called informal essay and formal essay.

The primary purpose of writing an essay is to inform the readers with some information. To suffice to such requirement, there is a type of essay called informative essay.

What is an informative essay?

Informative essay is a type of essay where the audience are informed about something in detail.These kinds of essays are written by carefully researching for the topic. Presenting facts and information in a proper manner is very important. Here is an article which will help in writing an informative essay in simple steps.

Characteristics of an informative essay
1.An informative essay contains information that readers do not know

2.It analyses a cause and effect relationship

3.It contains logical evidences and relevant facts which help in informing the readers

How to write an informative essay step by step guide

Step1:Understand the topic: To write an informative essay, the topic must be chosen properly. The topic which is chosen must be understood correctly, this is the basic step that must be followed while writing an essay.

Step2:Know the audience: Informative essay is such an essay which is to be written to inform the audience about any general topic or a researched topic.

Catering to the audience’s needs is of primary need whenever an informative essay is to be written. For example, an informative essay about science and technology must be written keeping in mind the readers of such genre. Similarly an informative essay about ecology must be written in accordance to such readers.

Step3:Conduct research on the topic: Once the topic is chosen, the next step is to research for the information related to the topic selected. There are various resources which can be referred while researching for the topic.

A topic must be researched by assessing them through journalistic questions such as when, why, how, where, what. It makes it easy to answer them and find content for an essay.

Step4:Refer to reputed sources: To get an access to the resources for the topic, they must be referred from reputed sources. Reputed sources such as journal, textbooks, cited articles, online content, books.

While drafting an essay, care must be taken to refer to the sources which were used to source the information. 

Step5:Write the thesis statement:  A successful essay is the one which includes statements which contains sentences which focuses on the idea as a whole.

These sentences are called as thesis statement. Including them in your essay will make it more readable and informative. Thesis statement must be added in the introductory paragraph which will further help in building link to other section of an essay.

Step6:Write the introductory paragraph: An essay contains three sections to it; the first section is an introduction section. Introductory paragraphs must be written to introduce an essay, have subtle information about the topic.

There are two elements that must be added while writing an introductory paragraph; they are hook statement and thesis statement. Hook statements are the statements which grabs reader’s attention. These must be included and written very cleverly so that it increases an essay’s readability.

Step7:Write the body section:  The next section of an essay is the body section. This section is considered to be the heart of an essay. This section contains all the necessary information that needs to be presented.

Having said this, as it is an informative essay; it is significant to have information backed with arguments. Arguments are the sentences which provide proof or claims for the information presented. They should be added along with the transitional sentences which indicate that the body section is linked to the introductory paragraph.

A body section can have two or more paragraph with each paragraph having subordinate points.

Step8:Write the conclusion section: The last section of an essay is the conclusion section. This section must be written in order to conclude an essay. One of the salient features of an essay is having a proper conclusion which will sum up the message of the whole essay.

Step9:Edit your essay: After completing step 8, the writing stage of an essay gets completed. The next stage is the post writing stage which includes editing and proofreading.

Editing is a stage where the write-up gets modified. There may be some information which was missed while drafting or some content which seems unnecessary. These can be added or discarded respectively. 

Step10:Proofread your essay: The last stage of writing stage is the proofreading stage. Proofreading is a stage where the whole essay written is verified word by word just to make sure that there are no errors or mistakes which can decrease its readability.

Tips to consider while writing an informative essay

1.Write in active voice

2.Give a detailed and lucid description

3.Write hook statements in the introduction section to attract readers

4.Have strong arguments in your essay so that it supports the topic that is being written

5.Write in the formal language so that the readers are rightly informed about the topic

Example topics for writing an informative essay

1.Global warming

2.Globalization

3.Teenage alcoholism

4.Vegetarianism

5.Healthy habits