How to Write an Informative Essay
6 MINUTE READ • ACADEMIC SUPPORT
Writing is something that you will do for the rest of your life. You may not realize it, but you write all the time; social media, emails to teachers, resumes, proposals, and more! You will want your writing to make you sound educated and knowledgeable in order for people to take you seriously. There are a few elements to writing that are super important, especially when you write for academic reasons, like school.
Writing Your Introduction
The introduction sets the tone for your writing. You should include a sentence or two to grab the reader’s attention. This can be a quote, a question, or even an interesting fact about your topic. The second part should be your thesis or claim. This lets the reader know exactly what you’re writing about. Here’s an example:
How to Write Your Body Paragraphs
This is the section where you explain and back up your claim. For every paragraph, the goal should be to include a reason, an explanation and some evidence to back up your claim. This should be written in your own words, except for the evidence. This can sometimes be tricky. Here’s an example:
There should be 2-3 body paragraphs similar to this. Always start with your topic sentence/reason, explain that reason in your own words and then use someone else’s words to support your reasoning.
Writing a Conclusion
At this point, restate your claim from the introduction and leave the reader with a last thought or impression. This is similar to the attention grabber in the beginning, but this is leaving the reader with something to think about or do.
Citations in Informative Essays
Your writing should be made up of mostly your own words but using the words of someone else to back up what you said, is called evidence. You can directly quote someone or paraphrase their words but you need to let the reader know who actually said it. At the end of their words, you put the author’s name in parenthesis. The example in the introduction paragraph has an example of it.
The author’s name is Drew Desilver and his article was from pewresearch.org. At the end of the essay, you should include a works cited page. This is where you list all the sources you used or even referenced in your paper. They should be alphabetized by author’s last name. You do not indent the first line, but you indent the rest of the lines. It should look like this:
The most important thing to remember when citing evidence is to attempt to let the reader know where you got your information. If your teacher sees that you tried, your essay is less likely to be flagged as plagiarism.
Don’t overthink your essay. Start writing and if you get stuck, ask your teacher for help. They can point you in the right direction and help edit your writing. They can offer you suggestions like graphic organizers or outlines to help get you started. They will even help you edit your essay if you ask. That’s what they’re here for!
Stacy Johnson
Stacy Johnson is a nerd about writing. While working as a full time mom to her eight kids, she got her Bachelor's Degree from ASU in English Literature. When her baby was in kindergarten, she started teaching and got her Masters from GCU in Secondary Education. She's been a teacher for six years. She's been writing short stories since she was a teenager and was a staff writer for The Beehive newspaper for over 10 years. She has volumes and volumes of personal journals and was blogging before it was cool. She's been with Graduation Solutions as an Instructor since July 2021.