IAE - The Informative Essay Lesson

The Informative Essay

The Informative Essay is an essay that requires you to provide facts and information in order to teach your readers about a topic. Unlike an Argumentative Essay, the Informative Essay should never include personal opinions or try to persuade readers.

For example, an Informative Essay topic might ask you to provide information on the various types of school uniforms and their purposes.   Your goal as the writer is to simply provide facts and explain to the readers about certain school uniforms and what they might be used for—not to persuade the readers one way or the other about using school uniforms.

View the characteristics of the Informative Essay in order to learn how to create a developed essay to support your claims:

The Structure of the Informative Essay

The Informative Essay is similar in structure to all other general essays. Informative Essays should include a clear introduction, a thesis statement, at least two body paragraphs, and a conclusion paragraph. View the video below for an example of how to create a developed Informative Essay:

 

Informative Essay Thesis Statements

The thesis statement is the most important part of the essay because the thesis reveals the main idea of the essay. The thesis statement for the Informative Essay will include:

  • The topic of the essay
  • The broad idea connecting to the topic that you will relate your topic sentences to in the essay (do not list the ideas of your topic sentences in the thesis statement)

*Do not include "I think", "In my opinion", or any other phrases using "I, me, my, you, us, we, or our" because they weaken your argument

Examples
Example Thesis Explanation
There are many different laws about the use of cell phones while driving that pertain to everyone who is one the road.
  • This thesis statement is informative because the writer states the topic of the essay, and the writer provides a connection for the topic sentences
  • The topic sentences for the body paragraphs will expand on the "many laws" cell phones create, so each body paragraph can be about a different law (texting while driving, phone calls while driving, phone use while stopped, etc.) in order to inform the reader about the cell phone laws.
There is a certain process that everyone must go through in order to join the military.
  • This thesis statement is informative because the writer states the topic of the essay, and the writer provides a connection for the topic sentences
  • The topic sentences for the body paragraphs will expand on the "process" that everyone must go through to join the military, so each body paragraph can be about one of the steps in the process (find a recruiter, gather all paperwork, go to boot camp, etc.) in order to inform the reader about the process of entering the military

 

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