Writing an Informative Essay: Examples and Tips
The way things are now, regarding high-school and higher education, you will most certainly be asked to write an informative essay at one point or another. Depending on the assignment, you could be given a topic to write on, or you might be free to choose one yourself. Many different factors, such as length, requirements and the nature of the essay, will narrow down your options.
Quite often, you will be required to write on a topic that you know close to nothing about. This is entirely normal, and you should not be alarmed. If you continue reading, you will learn everything that you could need to know about writing an informative essay.
Defining an informative essay
The good news first. You have probably written an informative essay in the past, and you might not have even been aware that it was an informative essay that you were writing. To fully understand what an informative essay is, as well as its whole concept, you must first understand its definition.
So, what is an informative essay? The end-game of every informative essay is to teach something new, and something valuable, to the reader. The reader needs to be informed about a particular subject after he finishes reading. The point of an informative essay is not to persuade the reader or give strong arguments regarding a particular topic. The focus of an informative essay is often the comparing and contrasting of certain viewpoints on any given subject topic.
How to choose an informative essay topic?
As we have mentioned before, sometimes you will be assigned a topic and, sometimes, you will be free to choose a topic of your liking. In case you are free to choose the topic
, this will be the first step in writing an informative essay. Selecting a subject to focus on can sometimes be difficult, and students often wreck their brains while choosing the best one. This is very important as the topic you choose will define your whole informative essay. Do not rush into it; take your time and consider all the implications of choosing a particular topic.
Here are some ideas for choosing an essay topic:
- Choose the topic with the range it covers in mind. Your topic should not be overly broad, nor should it be overly narrow. You need to choose a topic that will provide you with plenty of information for you to write about but is not overly complex so that you don’t end up writing a full-length novel.
- You need to choose a topic that will engage the reader, and which will be of interest to your targeted audience. Always keep in mind your audience and ask yourself if they will be interested in the topic you have chosen and if they can benefit from learning about it.
- Lastly, don’t pick a topic that you are not at all familiar with; neither choose one that you are not interested in. It is much easier to write about something that you already know a lot about.
At times, it will be required of you to submit a speech or a presentation alongside your informative essay. With that in mind, try to find a topic that will appeal to a wider range of people. Something that almost everyone can relate to and be interested in.
A couple of good topic examples are:
- The evolution of technology
- The origins of war
- The best way to make yourself more productive
- The benefits of psychotherapy
- Legalization of euthanasia
- The path to true happiness
- Virtual reality
- How to battle with addiction
- The meaning of dreams
What do you need to do before you start writing?
Before you start writing your informative essay, or anything else for that matter, you need to take the time and make a plan. Plus, certain things need to be done before you start writing; and, if you do them correctly, the writing will go much smoother and be more manageable.
- First, choose your topic. We have talked about this before so there is no need to go into much detail but let us summarize once again quickly. Choose a topic that you are familiar with, and that can be of interest to the broadest possible range of people. It is all right to go a little outside of your comfort zone if you are sure of yourself, but do not take it too far. Don’t forget. Your topic should not be overly broad, nor should it be overly narrow.
- Write down your ideas. Brainstorming is always a good idea as it will give you the time to think things through. Often, one idea leads to another and so on and so forth, and you just might end up with something entirely different from what you had in mind, initially.
- Make an outline. It is hard to stress enough how vital this step is. It is one of the most commonly overlooked ones and for no good reason. Students like to think that they can “wing it” and that the words will come as they write. This, however, is quite far from the truth. A good outline will make the writing process easier and faster as well as make your essay flow smoother.