Writing to inform

In a nutshell

Writing to inform is intended to provide readers with information about a topic in order to assist them in learning something new. A variety of writing pieces can be utilised to provide information to the reader, including letters, advertisements, brochures, articles in newspapers and autobiographies. No matter what type of writing you use, whether you are writing a personal journal or a formal essay, you are communicating information.

Plan

When writing to inform, the first step should be to consider your purpose, form, audience and language. This is essential before you begin writing anything as it allows you to structure your work accordingly and make it more effective. Before you start writing, ask yourself some questions to better tailor your writing.

Purpose

When writing to inform, it is important to remember the purpose of your writing. Writing to inform is the communication of new information; as such, you should structure your writing to answer questions about the topic and give the reader the best chance of understanding the new information.

Why are you writing this?
What do you want your writing to achieve?
How does this change your writing?

Form

The form of your writing, whether that's a leaflet or an article, will change the way you present and deliver your information.

What form will be most effective?
How will form change the way you deliver information?

Audience

The audience will change how you write your text. If your audience has a more advanced understanding of the topic, you will use different information and language than you would for an audience that has no knowledge of the subject.

Who is your audience?
How informed are they on the topic?
How will the audience's knowledge on the subject change your writing?

Structure

Your writing will essentially be made up of three parts.

Introduction - Here is where you will state what the reader will learn.
Main body - Here is where you present the information the reader needs to learn.
Conclusion - Here is where you will reiterate what the reader should have learnt.

A good way to structure your main body is to implement the five Ws and H.

FIVE Ws AND H	QUESTIONS
What	What is the topic?
Where	Where was the topic?
When	When was the topic?
Why	Why is it important?
Who	Who was involved?
How	How has this topic affected people?

You can use each question as the framework for a paragraph when writing to inform, allowing your writing to flow from one question to the next. By organising your work in this way, you can be sure that the reader will leave the document aware of all the major points of the subject. This is a great technique to guarantee that your writing is thorough and effective at informing the reader.

Note: keep in mind that some questions will be more relevant to your work than others depending on the topic.

Features of writing to inform

Feature	Explanation
Present tense	Use the present tense to describe what is happening in real time so you can take advantage of it.
Facts and statistics	Facts and statistics are very useful in providing information and making ideas easier to comprehend.
Third person	Use the third person to give an objective overview.
Clear introduction	A clear and concise introduction helps your reader to understand what they will learn.
Objective tone	You are writing to inform not to convince. Work with the facts and present your writing fairly and avoid using your own opinions.
Discourse markers	Sometimes it is helpful to use chronological discourse markers such as "firstly" and "next" to signal a timeline in your work. Sometimes it is helpful to use cause and effect discourse markers such as "this led to" and "in effect" to highlight the effect of a topic.
Topic sentences	Use topic sentences to introduce key details of your topic.
Clear Language	Remember you are writing to inform a reader. Use clear and effective language to deliver the information in a way that is easy to digest and retain.
Rhetorical questions	You can use rhetorical questions to get your reader to stop and think about the information you have just presented.

DOs and DON'Ts

Do focus your writing to your audience.
Do use the present tense.
Don't be subjective.
Don't use facts that are untrue.
Don't assume your reader knows everything about the topic.