ShmoopTube

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[Dino and Coop singing]

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How do you make the number one disappear?

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Add a G and it's “gone.” [The letter G is added to the front of 'one']

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What's the easiest way to double your money?

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Hold it in front of a mirror. [An arm holds a dollar bill up in front of a mirror]

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What has to be broken before you can use it?

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An egg.

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All of these are riddles – and while they do make you think, their ultimate job is really

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to just flat-out confuse you. [A man and a woman looking confused]

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In other words, they're the complete opposite of informative writing.

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Informative writing is all about sharing information in an easy-to-understand way, and require [Coop pointing at a blackboard]

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the organization of research to be successful.

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But with good preparation and planning you'll

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be informing the heck out of your audience in no time." [Boy on stage]

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For starters, you'll want to make sure your paragraphs begin with strong topic sentences. [Large men wearing a 'topic sentence' vest towers over a crowd of people labelled 'paragraphs']

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Any good topic sentence will clearly outline or identify two things: [Dino pointing at a blackboard]

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The subject of the writing and the main idea of the writing.

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Now you might be thinking the “subject” and the “main idea” sound like the same thing. [Boy looking confused]

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But there's a slight difference.

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The subject is simply the topic that your writing is focusing on. [Coop pointing at a blackboard]

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So if you were writing an essay about the geography of Alaska, Hawaii and Washington

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DC, then that would be your subject. [Pictures of the places appear]

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Meanwhile, the “main idea” is what you want your readers to actually learn about [Dino pointing at a blackboard]

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your subject.

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So if we were to ask ourselves, “what do we want the readers to remember about the [Boy writing notes in class]

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geography of Alaska, Hawaii and Washington DC?”

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Our main idea might be we want our readers to remember the differences between the

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geographic elements of those three places.

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So that no one accidentally sets up a dog sleigh team in Hawaii [Woman dressed in a winter coat riding a dog sleigh down the beach]

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A very strong topic sentence that includes both the subject [Strong man holding up weights labelled, subject and main idea]

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and main idea might be:

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“The distinct differences between Alaska, Hawaii and Washington, DC can be highlighted [The topic setence being written out]

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by comparing their different geographic elements.”

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By identifying our subject and our main idea, the process of writing our topic sentence [Police line up with two people wearing subject and main idea shirts]

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becomes so much easier.

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Once you've nailed your topic sentence down, the next step is to fill that paragraph to the brim [Boy typing on his laptop]

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with details.

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Always remember that every single sentence in a paragraph should support your topic sentence. [Coop pointing at a blackboard]

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The topic sentence states your entire focus, so you never want to lose track of it.

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Or go off on some meaningless tangent.

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Which by the way, have you noticed that the Cherry Blossoms are in bloom, aren't they lovely.. [Girl looking at a Cherry Blossom tree]

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In the case of our paragraph comparing Alaska, Hawaii and Washington DC, we might include

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details about those places' climate, population, industry, or any other geographic elements [Guy surfing a big wave]

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that we might want to compare.

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Once you've hammered out all your details, it's time for your closing sentence. [Blacksmith hammering molten metal]

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A good closing sentence restates your topic sentence in a new way, while also giving the [Dino pointing at a blackboard]

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reader something to think about.

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Once you're done the core writing, all that's left is to consider using some snazzy text [Three guys dressed in shiny suits]

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features to spice it up a bit.

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Got a cool title to catch the readers' eye?

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Use it.

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Think you could use some subheadings to better organize the information?

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Go for it.

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Have a photo, illustration or chart that helps to illustrate your point? [Picture of a dog and a cat lying together]

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Add it in.

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Just be sure that if you're going to add a photo, that it actually makes sense and adds [Man looking at a picture on Washington on his laptop]

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to your writing.

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A photo of Washington's landscape used to highlight the geography there?

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Awesome.

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A photo of the hotdog you ate on a class trip to Washington last year? [Picture of a giant hot dog]

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Maybe not so helpful.

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