Informative essays are common in different educational institutions. Every student has to deal with such assignments at a certain point on their academic path, and it can be pretty challenging. Starting such a paper is always the hardest part.
If you have to cope with this kind of paper and can’t get started, you’ve come to the right place. Read on to discover a step-by-step guide and handy tips for crafting a solid introduction for your paper!
Hire a Professional
Whenever you feel stressed out about or stuck with another academic assignment, remember that there is always the possibility to ask for help. Using trusted essay writing services, you can hire a qualified research paper writer with extensive experience, a college degree in your field, and an excellent understanding of how to craft a flawless essay. This is an easy and effort-free way to cope with your tasks.
What kind of help is available for you? Pretty much any! Trusted services like PaperWriter offer a wide range of academic help, including writing, rewriting, and editing. They can handle any kind of task and topic. And, in case you have everything else written and can’t come up with a good intro, you can always ask professionals to handle separate parts of your paper.
Choose the Best Topic
Although there are plenty of perks of using academic help, sometimes, you might want to handle the task on your own. In this case, the very first tip we have for you is to choose your topic carefully.
The topic you select affects the writing process a lot, especially in an informative essay. If the topic is bad, you will likely find it hard to research, plan, and start your paper. But if it’s good, you will craft a perfect introduction and the rest of your text faster and easier.
The two key rules for selecting the best topic are to focus on your interests and seek relevancy to your audience.
Brainstorm
Next, before you can go straight to your introduction, you NEED some time to brainstorm. Brainstorming is one of the core elements of the writing process, though many students miss it. This technique allows you to lead your thoughts in the right direction and generate awesome ideas for your paper.
So, before you start putting ideas on paper, be sure to brainstorm a little. Just think about what interesting information you can share with the reader in your essay and take it from there.
Do Some Research
Often, students start researching the topic when they already get the main body of their papers because that’s where they will need to use the most data and facts. But if we are talking about an informative essay, in particular, doing the research before writing an intro is crucial.
In an informative essay, there is no space for guesswork or personal ideas. From the very start, such a paper has to provide readers with valid and factual information on the given topic. So, you have to research to gain the context for your opening paragraph.
Start With an Attention Grabber
When you are ready to start writing your introduction, formulate a hook first. Unlike other types of essays, an informative essay has a different nature and tone. It doesn’t allow sharing personal guesses and ideas. Therefore, more casual hooks like anecdotes or jokes won’t work well here.
A perfect attention grabber for this kind of paper could be a rhetorical question pushing the readers’ thoughts in the right direction, a relevant shocking statement (fact), or a piece of statistics that will make your audience want to learn more. Use any of these hooks to get started.
Introduce the Problem
After the readers’ attention is grabbed, your opening clause should give some framework for a topic. Give a sneak peek into the problem you are going to discuss.
The trickiest part here is to get readers involved by giving enough context but don’t push them back by throwing too much information at them right away. Your task is to provide a background for your topic.
Emphasize the Importance
After introducing the topic, you have to highlight its relevance and importance. Think about how a specific problem relates to your audience and why the reader should care about learning more. The core tip here is to be sufficiently bold when emphasizing the value of your paper. Readers won’t believe you if you don’t sound confident enough.
Keep It Short and Straightforward
A typical informative essay can be between 300 and 1,000 words. If that’s the word count given by your professor, you have to ensure that your opening clause is just one paragraph – 3-5 sentences would be perfect. So, keep it concise as you put it together.
Also, you have to keep it straightforward and clear. In an informative paper, there is no place for watery phrases. So, get straight to the point without unnecessary chit-chat.
Pro Tip: Informative essays can be focused on pretty much any topic, even a pretty complex one. Regardless of the topic’s complexity, you want it to be easy to understand for the general public. So, use your opening paragraph to explain anything that might be unclear to a reader.
Finish With a Strong Thesis and Transition
To give a logical closing to your first paragraph, you need to provide a strong thesis statement. In a nutshell, a thesis is the main message of your paper, which you will later support with data, facts, evidence, and examples. So, align it with the information you will include in the main body.
Once your thesis is provided, make a smooth transition to the first body paragraph.
The Bottom Line
Once you take all the steps described above, your introduction is ready. Creating it can be somewhat challenging, especially if you are not very keen on essay writing. Hopefully, this guide will help you set yourself up for success!
