What To Know About The Structure Of An Informative Essay

A lot of high school and college-aged students tend to procrastinate when it comes to completing writing assignments they know very little about. Though it’s usually one of the more enjoyable assignments one can get, the informative essay is an example of one of those papers students have trouble starting. Here’s what you need to know about the proper structure:

Two Basic Types:

There are two basic types of an informative essay assignment you can expect to receive: the definition paper and the compare and contrast paper. The definition paper asks you to simply provide an explanation through synonyms, categories, or negation. The compare and contrast paper asks you to explain two subjects by evaluating the similarities and differences. Both achieve in providing clear information to make the reader more informed on a topic.

Creating an Outline:

The easiest way to keep your material in order in a way that you present your argument in a clear and efficient way is to first create an outline. This can be as simple or as complicated as you desire, however, it should contain a recognizable reference to all of the topics and pieces of evidence you will discuss. Even if your outline changes along the way – as often happens after writing a first draft of the assignment – it’s good to have one ready to reference throughout.

Use One Topic Per Paragraph:

When writing this kind of paper you want to keep things simple so that your reader can easily follow your argument. A great way of achieving this is inserting just one topic per paragraph. For example if you are working on a compare and contrast variety then one paragraph will be dedicated to a single topic of similarity, while the following paragraph would be dedicated to a topic’s differences.

Remain Objective and Fair:

One of the most important aspects of creating this type of essay is staying objective and offering fair and balanced information to your reader. You don’t need to take a side on this in the same way you would with other assignments. You are offering an explanation and should provide evidence (or definitions) for both sides of an argument. With your information a reader should feel he has received both sides fairly and can better understand a topic. The best way to achieve this is to stick to keeping a point and counter-point method which treats each side evenly.