Illustrative Essay Topics: Why Not Use This Guide?

Illustrative essays are a unique type of essay. In most cases, an essay treats it reader as a peer, assuming that the reader has a good working knowledge of the basics and attempting to go in depth on some finer point or other. However, for an illustrative essay, you must assume the reader knows either nothing or very little. Your essay should give the reader all the information that he or she may need to know. So use this guide to help you help your reader:

• Start Big
• Go Small
• Narrow It Down
• Help Yourself
 

Start Big

When it comes to illustrative essays, you want to keep things basic. Choose simple, broad topics such as sports, movies, TV or fashion. These are the kinds of things that people are interested in, and they are broad enough that you will be able to easily give a brief description of what they are and how they work.

Go Small

Of course, most people on the planet know about sports. However, they may have an interest in knowing the basics about a particular sport. See if you can narrow your ideas. Do basketball or tennis or soccer. Pick a topic that maybe not a lot of people know about, such as, for example, how basketball began or soccer’s origins.

Narrow It Down

Now that you have your premise, why not go even go further into the rabbit hole? You can make an illustrative essay on anything, so let’s say you have chosen to go for the sport of polo. Why not now, instead of just writing about polo, you write about the types of horses used, or how to make a polo mallet. Go into the rules and regulation of things or some strategies and tactics.

Help Yourself

Because in an illustrative essay you may be doing a lot of illustrating and explaining, pick something that would be very visually intensive. Let’s stick to the polo metaphor. You could write about the best ways to hold a mallet or tricks to do on the horse. These would require diagrams and other illustrations, along with some good descriptive text. This will all help bulk out your topic and get that essay written. So don’t be shy, get thinking and get writing today. Star big, go small, narrow it down and for goodness sake, help yourself.