When you are working on an informative essay, you need to be seen as an expert on your topic. Avoid stating your opinion. Alamo Colleges says that informative essays can define a difficult topic, share new information on something, compare and contrast ideas, explain a cause and effect relationship or explain to readers how to solve a problem. Whatever the purpose of your informative essay, it should be the same throughout the entire paper.
Like other types of essays, an informative paper should have a thesis. A thesis is your central idea, the point of your paper. Theses are usually one sentence long, and in a basic informative essay, they would appear at the end of the first paragraph. In addition to identifying the main purpose of the essay, a thesis should explain the basic components of the essay and offer the writer's unique perspective. The reader should know right away whether the paper is something he would like to read.
Informative essays require research. Check with your teacher or professor to determine how many sources you need and what method of citation you should use. One way to effectively organize your research for an informative essay is to write down facts on notecards as you find them. Assign each source a number, and at the top of each notecard, write the number of the source you are citing. That way, as you write your informative essay, you can easily identify for readers where your information came from.
Informative essays vary in length based on the teacher's or professor's requirements. A simple informative essay will follow the keyhole format. This basic format has five paragraphs. The introductory paragraph informs the reader of the paper's topic, and the last sentence is usually the thesis sentence. The next three paragraphs are devoted to different aspects of the topic. Each paragraph should contain a main point and support to show that the point is well-researched. Have some kind of transition between paragraphs. Finally, the last paragraph is the conclusion. In this paragraph, the writer should reiterate her main points.