Guides
How to Write an Informative Essay: Your Step-by-Step Guide
Author:
Martin Buckley
Mar 24, 2025
7 min
Informative essays are a completely different beast when compared to persuasive or argumentative writing. You can’t let your own opinions show in it; all you can do is provide information in an objective, unbiased way to educate your target audience.
You may be tricked into thinking that it’s easy to write an informative essay. After all, the steps are the same, right? You have to choose your topic, do your research, create an outline, write the first draft, and then revise it before submitting the assignment.
While that is technically true, informative essays require extra attention on your part to remain objective, factual, and well-balanced. That can be a tall order, especially if you’ve never written an informative essay before.
Luckily for you, our experts have created this guide on informative essay writing. Find their tips below!
What Is an Informative Essay?
Informative essays are essays that aim to educate readers on a specific topic or explain a concept, e.g., how a combustion engine works. They can also provide a step-by-step guide for solving a problem (e.g., how to maintain data security in enterprise systems).
Unlike persuasive or argumentative essays, informative essays don’t attempt to sway the reader’s opinion on the subject. They’re also more matter-of-fact than your standard reflective essay.
How to Write an Informative Essay
Writing an informative essay takes a good deal of research, along with careful crafting of a concise, objective, bias-free draft. Here’s how experts at WriteMyEssay usually approach the task, from choosing a topic to writing the conclusion.
Choose a Topic
If you’re allowed to pick your essay’s topic, your work starts there. Do a cursory reading of your course material and brainstorm topic ideas. Before you settle on a topic, make sure it’s:
- Interesting both to you and to your target audience
- Relevant for your academic level and course material
- Balanced in scope: not too broad to make being thorough impossible and not too specific to have few to no sources
Research
Due to the nature of the essay, writing an informative essay is 50% research, 30% outlining, and 20% writing itself. So, don’t cut corners at this step; take a deep dive into the topic and note down relevant sources, facts, and ideas. Jot down your own ideas as they come to you, too.
If you’re stuck at this step, go back to the beginning and check out your course materials. If you’re still stuck, try source mining: when you find a good article on the subject, head to its references to find more sources.
As for the types of sources, don’t limit yourself to textbooks and published research papers. Documentaries, news articles, and interviews can also come in handy!
Create an Informative Essay Outline
Don’t be tempted to start writing without an outline for an informative essay. Otherwise, you may have to rework the draft to fix issues that an outline would’ve easily prevented.
An outline, usually presented as a multi-level list, is your essay’s blueprint. It briefly maps out the main points you’ll break down, along with relevant sources. You can create the outline while you do your research or after it’s complete.
Intro
Since your informative essay doesn’t revolve around you defending a specific point of view, your introduction should open with a brief recap of what your essay will focus on. That will be your thesis statement.
After it, describe the key points of your essay’s main points. Think of it as a roadmap for your readers: it gives them a preview of what’s to come.
Pro tip: You can add a hook to your informative essay introduction before the thesis statement. A hook is a surprising fact, an anecdote, or an interesting statistic.
Body
The main body is the bulk of your text; it provides key facts and statistics on the topic or explains a certain process step-by-step.
When writing an informative essay, you should still break down your main body into paragraphs, with each encapsulating a specific point you want to make. For example, if you need to describe how an airplane takes off, dedicate a paragraph to each stage of the takeoff.
Pro tip: If you need to make your essay longer, add an extra main body paragraph instead of filler phrases.
Conclusion
Yes, even informative essays require a conclusion; don’t skip out on writing one. A good informative essay conclusion is a simple, short recap of your main points, along with a reiterated thesis statement.
Pro tip: Don’t copy-paste whole sentences or phrases from the introduction or main body for the conclusion.
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How to Get Started with Writing an Informative Essay
With your research and outline done, you’re ready to start typing your first sentence. Here’s how to start an informative essay:
- Add an interesting (but relevant!) quote
- Open with a surprising fact or figure
- Describe an anecdote
These hooks aren’t acceptable for all informative essay assignments, however. In some fields, instructors expect you to get straight to the point. So, as always, follow your assignment’s guidelines and grading rubric above all else.
As you’re moving through writing your draft, make sure you remain objective and neutral in your narrative. Don’t use the first-person POV, either.
Keep in mind that your text should inform your readers, which means the text needs to be accessible and easy to understand for their level of knowledge. So, consider the target audience’s background before using any jargon.
Nine times out of ten, you’ll be better off starting with writing the introduction and moving down through your outline all the way to the conclusion. That’ll help you avoid disjointed paragraphs or leaps in logic or information. That said, some writers – especially experienced ones – may find it easier to start writing the main body and add the intro and conclusion afterward.
Don’t Skip Out on Editing & Proofreading
Even when deadlines are tight, set aside a bit of time to let your draft sit and then revise it – even if it means taking a ten-minute coffee break before re-reading your essay. When you return to it, be on the lookout for:
- Grammar and punctuation mistakes
- Typos
- Errors in logical reasoning
- Gaps in information
- Overall clarity and conciseness
Double-check all facts and claims you make for accuracy, too.
You can read your draft out loud as you edit; it usually helps weed out clunky turns of phrases and gaps in logic. You can also ask someone else to take a look at your draft.
Writing an Informative Essay: 10 Do’s and Don’ts
So far, we’ve broken down the basics of writing an informative essay. But how do you craft a good one? Here are our expert-driven informative essay tips to help you do exactly that:
| Do’s | Don’ts |
| Ensure all claims are factually accurate | Copy and paste information from your sources |
| Verify sources for reliability and up-to-date information | Use gross overgeneralizations, baseless claims, or biased language in the text |
| Use signposting words and phrases to ensure a seamless flow of information | Start with a dictionary definition |
| Keep your text concise, clear, and well-organized | Write in the first person |
| Use the opening sentence to capture your reader’s attention | Leave too little time for research or editing |
Need an Informative Essay Example? Here You Go!
Topic: Overcoming graph database performance and scalability challenges during data modeling
Introduction: Describe the main advantages of a graph database over a relational one (native focus on relationships, fast real-time query performance). Mention common performance and scalability challenges and their potential cost for users. Add the thesis statement: these challenges can be overcome by selecting the right model type, modeling technique, and software tools.
Body paragraph #1: Describe the main graph data model types (property graph model, RDF model, hypergraph) and their common use cases based on their advantages and shortcomings. Provide a roadmap for selecting the right type based on the expected use cases and available data.
Body paragraph #2: Break down the main modeling techniques (centralized, decentralized, hybrid modeling) and their pros and cons. List key considerations to take into account when selecting the modeling technique.
Body paragraph #3: Provide an overview of available open-source and proprietary graph databases and visualization tools and emphasize their key differences. Describe how different tools may vary in performance and scalability and how to select the right one.
Conclusion: Sum up the three main ways to prevent performance and scalability issues during graph data modeling: choosing the right model type, the right modeling technique, and the right software tools. Mention other ways to ensure scalability and performance, such as schema optimization and continuous model refinement.
In Closing
To write a strong informative essay, you need more than a word processor and enough time. You need to delve deep into the topic, select the right sources, synthesize information, and present it in a clear, unbiased, objective way.
Struggle with an informative essay? Experts at our writing service can take it off your plate!
Sources
Matrix Education. (2025, January 22). Part 9: How to write Informative Essays | Matrix Guide to Year 10 English. https://www.matrix.edu.au/beginners-guide-year-10-english/part-9-how-write-informative-essays/
Minervini, A. (2020, August 18). Introduction to informative writing. Pressbooks. https://idaho.pressbooks.pub/write/chapter/introduction-to-informative-writing/
Informative writing samples. (2017, February 20). Western Technical College. https://www.westerntc.edu/informative-writing-samples
Warkentin, J. (2019, May 1). Chapter 13: Expository (Informative) Essays. Pressbooks. https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/comm/chapter/chapter-4-what-are-you-writing-to-whom-and-how-writing-for-success-1st-canadian-edition-2/
