Informative Essay

Formal Tone

Features standard English and formal grammar.

Relevant Evidence

For evidence to be relevant, there must be some logical connection between it and the fact it's offered to prove or disprove.

Background Information

Material that provides context for a topic. Don't assume your reader knows about your topic.

Should an informative essay include your opinion?

NO!!!!!

Not allowed in middle school essays

Talking directly to the reader of the essay Examples: Let me tell you about... OR Today I will show you...

Informal tone

This means the writing sounds too casual, or like the writer is writing or talking to their friend. Examples: Well, let's get into it! OR Come on, let's get started!

Example

a type of elaboration is used to show specific ideas, conditions, experiences, or the like

Anecdote

a type of elaboration that is a short story and can be made up. Good stories use a lot of sensory detail and are entertaining.

Textual evidence

synonyms are evidence and text evidence

Introduction paragraph

the first paragraph of the essay. This paragraph includes background information and your thesis.

Hook

the first sentence or sentences of your essay that catch your reader's attention

Prompt

the question you have to answer in your essay

Thesis

the sentence restates the prompt in an informative essay. It shows the main idea and key points of your essay and acts as a roadmap for readers.

Sources

the texts that you have to reference in your essay. You include quotes from them. We call these quotes text evidence.

Parentheses

these are the punctuation marks that go around the citation at the end of your textual evidence

Quotation marks

these are the punctuation marks that go around your textual evidence if you are copying someone else's words word-for-word

Elaboration

this explains how your evidence supports the main idea of your paragraph. Types of elaboration include: anecdote, example, definition, commentary, description.

Conclusion paragraph

this is the last paragraph of the essay. You should restate your thesis and wrap up your points.

Closing/concluding sentence

this is the last sentence of the body paragraph that summarizes the main idea of the paragraph and lets the reader know that you are ready to move to the next paragraph. It can include a hint about what's coming in the next paragraph, too.

Body paragraph

this is the name of the paragraphs inside your essay that come between the introduction paragraph and the conclusion paragraph. These paragraphs explain your key points using evidence.

Indent

this is the space that is in front of the first sentence of every paragraph

Topic sentence

this is usually the first sentence in your body paragraph. It includes one reason from the thesis statement in it and tells the main idea of the body paragraph.

Evidence

this is when you include words, a sentence, or a group of sentences from someone else's writing and put it into your own to back up what you are saying. You must put quotation marks around it in order to avoid plagiarism.

Transition sentence

this sentence connects paragraph or ideas

Rubric

what is used to grade you

Revise and edit

what you do after your essay to make sure the essay makes sense, and to check for any grammatical errors

Citation

you include this before or after your textual evidence to avoid plagiarism. Examples: According to Source 1, "..." OR (Source 1)