The main goal of writing such an essay is basically to enlighten the audience by covering some important subject or issue you have investigated; i.e. to educate others about your discovery. This essay type is sometimes called an expository essay and it doesn’t have any arguments aimed to influence the readers to change their opinions. In addition to its educational nature, this essay should be also interesting and make readers think.
However, it is also important to know your subject deep enough to produce a good quality paper. There is no need to be an expert on this topic but it’s mandatory to do thorough research regarding the issue so that you could share credible data. It’s also crucial to convey your observations clearly.
Approaching essay writing might be daunting, so we have prepared a guide to help you out in this endeavor. If you do not think you are capable of producing such an essay, or you simply do not have enough spare time for it, feel free to reach out to a custom paper writing service where experts will gladly assist you with any assignments.
To begin with your informative essay, you may follow these steps:
- First, you should choose an exciting topic. Once you are sure, start researching information. Gather all the required data and be sure to organize it. You may try writing down separately things that you knew before and things that you discovered. It could be helpful to write down questions that need to be answered in the paper. And here’s a basis, the foundation of your work.
- Then there is a stage of making a plan for your content. Organize all the details you know or have found out after your research. Rank them according to their relevance or importance. Leave some space to note things you might find later.
- Now is time for creating an outline. Unite key points coherently and progress from outline to draft.
- After you have finished with the essay out of several drafts, we recommend rereading the text and editing it. Double-check if there are no mistakes or typos. Feel free to ask your friends or parents to proofread it.
Now let’s break down each of the steps.
How to choose a good topic
Most often topics are assigned by teachers. They also provide the details required for the paper such as questions that should be answered, word count, font, deadline, etc. Yet, there are cases when you need to pick up a topic yourself. So how can one do it?
- Do not choose very wide or abstract topics. Also, avoid limited topics as you will find really little material to cover them.
- Pick a trendy and interesting topic. Keep in mind your target audience and write about something that is important for them. Think about what your readers might need to find out about the subject and what they already might know.
- And, of course, the topic you’ll choose should be interesting for you in the first place. In this case, you will be motivated to finish the paper and as a result, your readers will feel how important the subject is for you.
Research stage
Research is especially important for the essay where you are going to educate your audience. Therefore, you need to provide only credible and accurate facts. Be careful with the sources you use. Search for academic articles in Google scholar as the credibility of papers there is quite high.
Note useful info and sources
While you are looking for information, make sure you note not only useful facts relevant to your subject but also sources of these facts.
Create a draft
Having gathered all the ideas and information you could get, it’s time to proceed to draft writing. Structure your ideas logically in an outline, imagining how you would coherently unite all the parts. For organizing your thoughts and findings you may draw a circle and write down the ideas around it. Use arrows to unite the facts according to their order/relevance.
When you proceed to final writing, do not feel restricted by your structure. Let other new ideas appear and add them to the text.
Outline
The outline is basically dividing your text into an intro, a body, and a conclusion. The body usually has three or more paragraphs. Each of them should have a claim, then proof for this claim, and an explanation.
Make sure you include a topic sentence in each of your paragraphs. Such a sentence should inform your readers about the main idea of the paragraph and transit readers smoothly from one paragraph to another one.
Editing
Now you may edit your draft. It’s a rough one, so expect to correct lots of things. Check if all your paragraphs are related to the topic, if you provided truthful facts, if your sources are correct, etc.
Final Draft
When you are confident with the information you provided in your rough draft, it’s time to write a final draft. Pay attention to the structure of the text. Reread it several times to see if the information is clear and the whole paper can be easily understood by your readers. It might be hard to proofread your own text since you have spent so much time with it and cannot notice grammar or spelling mistakes. Hence, it could be better to have some friends proofread it for you. Moreover, they could share their opinion or ideas on your topic which might be helpful too.
In conclusion, you should just rephrase your thesis statement and sum up your findings. Here you can mention again what you have stated in the body highlighting the importance of your issue. Make sure you do not bring any new facts. Consider the conclusion as a way to convince your readers for the last time.
