How to Start an Informative Essay

An informative essay enlightens the readers on a specific topic. Its main functions include defining a key term, comparing and contrasting items being discussed, providing analyzing of data, or outlining a how-to, and much more.

Informative essays do not include the writer’s opinion or try to persuade readers.

How do you start an informative essay?

To start an informative essay, present accurate evidence and clear definition of key terms. An informative essay should also begin with an introduction, which includes a hook, background, and a thesis statement.

How to start an informative Essay

There are multiple but direct options to start an informative essay.

1. Introduction of an informative essay

It is an academic paper writingusually done by college as well as high school students. Such writings aim to educate a specific audience about a particular subject matter. It is mainly aimed at responding to the main question by giving a detailed explanation of the topic placed before them. writers are advised to be explaining the topic using professional terms since the reader is usually not aware of any format to be used. It is therefore a good idea to provide information that has meaning to them.

In writing an informative essay, you should take into account that your writing is based on facts and they do not condition the reader to change their beliefs or show opinions of the author on the matter.

Informative writing;

  • Should be based on scientific evidence, facts, and statistics
  • Should not be giving the opinions of the author

For example: If one is to write an informative essay about marketing for a student audience, it is advisable to express the main idea using special words since they are always not aware of startups and business. The meanings of words should be explained by giving professional definitions and or by use of specific examples.

The Role of Intros in Essays

An essay introduction is usually the initial paragraph of any paper and it is always aimed at explaining the subject matter in a manner that makes the readers develop an interest in going through the whole writing.

The introduction part of any informative essay usually performs the three major functions i.e:

  1. Introducing the subject matter by explaining why it is important.
  2. Illumination of the main ideas of the essay work.
  3. Stating thesis

To pique the interests of your readers in your work, you must be ready to give an introduction on the subject matter that will eventually enable them to develop the urge and interest in knowing or understanding the importance of learning much about it. it is important to give a piece of background information by explaining in brief what is likely to be covered in the essay for this too will help capture the attention of the readers into your work.

A poor introduction of informative essay writing will automatically turn off the readers’ interest in your work however good and well-researched the work may be. Such initial poor impressions are likely to negatively inform your teacher in giving you a better grade as they expect very little of your work.

After learning the importance of essay intros, we are going to learn about the key elements that need to be incorporated in the first paragraph of any appealing informative writing work.

Those elements include

  • Background information; – the first few sentences help the readers know more about the topic even before going through it in detail.
  • A hook;- the first sentence that captures the attention of the readers
  • A thesis statement; – these are statements on the main idea you are going to cover in the essay work.

All the above three elements should and must be made clear and direct to the point so that their objectives can be achieved.

2. What to Write in the Informative Essay Introduction

How to write an introduction for an informative essay

In this first part, the writer must take the time to make a great introduction of topic being discussed. The introductions are not expected to be too long unless one is discussing a very complex problem that is not well-known to the readers. The main role of this part is to provide background information on the topic, write the thesis, and let the essay move to the body.

  • Hook

A hook for essays is the initial sentence that attracts the attention and helps in motivating the target audience to continue reading the commonly used hook for any informative writing are an interesting fact, question, and statistic.

If for example one is writing his informative essay about monkeys, the hook sentence would be as follows;-

  • An interesting fact: a mature monkey has ¾ reasoning of a human being
  • A question: if monkeys are said to almost reason as human beings, are they not great creatures?
  • A statistic: Although there are only 100 black people in Ontario, 98% of all individuals jailed are black. (This is a hypothetical scenario).

Once the relevant hook is ready, use linking words to move to the topic neutrally and this will make your work appear reasonable and logical for the readers to follow to the conclusion.

  • Background information

This part comes after the hook sentence and must be relevant to the subject matter of your informative essay and have a flow. Proceeding with our example of a monkey, your background information for your informative essay would appear like this:

  • Monkeys are known to be very clever animals whose features resemble those of human beings. It is very important to know that monkeys organize themselves into groups of family structures with the parents as the family heads and then the children which enjoy security from their parents. It is very important to learn more about these interesting animals.
  • Thesis statement

All essay types must be able to have this important part/element. It usually comes at the end of your introductory paragraph. It explains and provides a summary of the issue that the writer intends to explain in the body of your essay.

A good thesis statement specifies the topic and the main points that you intend to describe in the informative essay to support it.

Informative essay thesis statement

The writer must decide clearly on what message their informative essay will have.

Address and give detailed reasons why a particular topic or problem is significant as well as enable the audience to know and acknowledge the importance of such a message.

Different writers and professionals have acknowledged and agreed that proper informative thesis writing must be able to contain clear messages that can be proved and supported with evidence in the future.

3. Informative Essay body

The body must always be used to provide information to the readers on how the topic is peculiar.

Any writer will use the first three paragraphs in sharing some important and interesting facts with the target audience. The writer will use details that are not well known to the audience as you reflect on some common knowledge to attract and capture the attention of the readers. The body paragraph of an informative essay is usually composed of these three key elements i.e. Claim, supporting evidence, and explanation.

In applying these integral elements, the writer must state something and explain why it is so using the appropriate evidence. The writer must provide detailed explanations and remain relevant to the topic of discussion.

5. Informative essay conclusion

This is the final part of the writing work and the writer must provide a clear and concise summary of all the things they discussed or mentioned in the body of the essay work. It is in other words giving a recap of their writing as they provide fruitful information to the readers as this helps anchor what they have read into their minds and link together all the segments of the informative essay thesis.