1. The Introduction
- The thesis statement. It has to be clear and uncontroversial.
- The hook. In case of an expository essay, starting with a joke, for example, is not the best choice. You can choose an exciting fact or unexpected stats to interest your readers.
No matter what your topic is, your expository essay outline will include the following parts:
- Short forms and colloquial language
There are no images in this kind of essays. Even if you have to explain economic and social reasons for famine in an African nation, you can't make your paper more vivid by picturing the everyday life of starving people. If you have to write about global warming, never make predictions about what awaits the humankind. The history of your country described in your essay can't be enriched with the pictures of your grandfathers' great deeds. The ultimate goal of these essays as a high-school and college assignment is to teach you to present the information as it is and in an unemotional manner, for lack of a better word. So, you will never find the inspiration in novels and writers' experience, which are great for other essay types, by the way. To understand how to write an expository essay, read research articles from the credible scientific journals. You can also find the best expository essay examples in your library. Searching online is not prohibited either. But, please, mind that some of them are only ‘the best' because website admins claim so.
Outline Your Expository Essay
Sadly, outlining is considered as unnecessary by many students. While some of them merely enumerate the parts of the essay in their so-called outlines, others just skip it. As a result, their papers are unstructured and often pointless. Besides, writing them takes plenty of time. An experienced essay writer will never neglect the outline, as it has been proven to be one of the most potent tools in writing anything. An expository essay outline presupposes a clear structure, which is not hard to embody.
Now, it is time to conduct a profound research and put your ideas into words. While writing, use short sentences. Choose the proper vocabulary. Exclude the following:
- Define expository essay. The first thing you have to pay attention to when you are assigned to write an such an essay is to answer the question ‘What is an expository essay?' Unlike many other types of academic papers, there is nothing tricky about the definition here: this is an essay that explains the object or phenomenon under consideration. In such an essay, you are to describe something without being metaphoric. None of the reader's senses should be involved when he or she reads your essay. The expository essay definition may be complemented with some features. In most cases, this is a five-paragraph paper. It is quite convenient because the introduction and conclusion that are very concise don't allow you to give a lot of unnecessary details.
- Find out what citation style to use. Before you proceed to write, make sure you understand the format in which you are to submit your essay, whether it is APA, MLA, Harvard or any other style.
- Make sure you understand your topic. An essay has to be clear and unbiased. So, you should understand every single word in your topic. Usually, it is not enough to google the term you don’t know. Its essence may lie in the etymology of the word. Consult trusted dictionaries. Turn to your teacher or ask a fellow student to help you.
Once you made your decision about your introductions go back to your outline and see if the main points and the specific examples will logically follow from your introduction. You may want to rearrange the main point in the order that will be most clear and logical to the reader. Usually the introductions indicate the structure of the essay’s body.
Remember that you are limited only by your imagination. Focus on several options and then pick the one that more appropriate for your topic and purpose of writing.
As with introductions so there are many ways to finish you essay. While you are writing the conclusion make sure that the statements logically derive from the ideas you have presented and developed throughout your writing.
Once you have your thesis settled and your method of writing decided, establish an outline for it. Give it an introduction, a discussion and exposition, and conclusion. Finish your work by demonstrating how your thesis has been proven through the facts presented. And after that, you just move forward to fill your outline with the content, arranging it in a proper structure.
Developing the Body Paragraphs of Expository Essay
The expository essay consists of factual statements, supporting details and commentary. While the factual statements are somewhat obvious and known, and supporting details illustrate or elaborate those statements, commentary offers opinions, analysis, interpretations, and so on. Commentary supports the factual statements to note something significant. An expellant expository essay should include more commentary than other supporting details.
- One way to conclude an expository essay is to simply summarize or restate the main points that were stated in your essay’s body. In order to have a more intensive effect, avoid just repeating yourself. Instead, use your conclusion to emphasize a main idea to leave the reader with.
- By asking a question you may confirm your closing statements more effectively.
- Some conclusions create a very clear sense of ending where you began, coming a full circle.
- Conclusion also provides the writer with opportunity to solve the problem.
The typical structure for an expository essay is the traditional five-paragraph essay. This includes an introduction, a conclusion, and three paragraphs for the body. This is the basic essay structure. Mostly the body paragraphs are limited to one subtopic each. Also in the expository writing the number of paragraphs may vary according to context. It does not matter how long your essay is. What is really important that the introduction includes your thesis statement and that an essay is based on facts rather than your opinion. And keep in mind to connect your paragraphs with transitions, as it is in all good writing.
But don’t freak out if you’re one of them! Help is here. I’ll show you what an expository essay is, then the rubric you need to know to write a good essay from introduction to conclusion. By the time you finish reading this article, you’ll have all the tools you need for how to structure an expository essay, some prompts giving you clues for how to start, a guide to the types of expository essays, and a few tips to make your life easier along the way.
Follow up with setting expectations for the background, the context, and the audience for your essay. Make sure you don’t assume your reader knows the topic inside out already, especially if you’re discussing something niche or obscure. Your instructions on how to mine crypto-currency aren’t going to make any sense if your reader has never heard of BitCoin.
Thesis: Climate change is a complicated question but there’s one part of it that’s very simple: action needs to be taken.
Thesis: If you want to mine crypto-currency, the process is easier than you might think.
Table of contents:
First of all, so, what is an expository essay? Simply put, an expository essay explores all angles of a particular topic in an effort to teach the audience something that they might not know. It sticks to the facts and maintains a neutral tone. This is not the place to share your opinion or give that heart-wrenching anecdote.
Now at last we’re getting into the analytical meat of the expository essay. Here’s where you set out your carefully-outlined points and present your evidence. Each main point should be followed by the factual evidence supporting that point in the same paragraph. This is where having written and formatted a full outline comes in handy.
Thesis: вЂ˜90s Australian pop duo Savage Garden broke up for several reasons: different ambitions, a personality clash, and last of all, a tragic misunderstanding.
To give you a few examples, such written pieces like news articles, press releases, business letters, scientific journals, and term papers are all embodiments of the expository essay.
- Descriptive Essay: This is an essay in which the writer is asked to describe something.This could be a person, place, experience, situation, etc. Descriptive Essays are unique in the sense that you have a lot of freedom when it comes to the content. You should present something exciting or beautiful, all the while keeping the reader interested.
- Process Essay: The classic “How To” assignment. The purpose of this essay is to teach the reader about a learning process: how to build a car, how to edit a paper, or even how to flirt with a girl.
- Comparison Essay: As the name suggests, a comparison essay makes you critically analyze any two subjects, finding and explaining their similarities and/or differences.
- Cause and Effect Essay: The “Knee-Jerk” reaction assignment. Cause and effect essays are concerned with why and/or how things happen, and what happens as a result.
- Problem/Solution Essay: The universal standard prompt assignment. In this situation, we have a problem and are looking for solutions. The essay is broken down into a brief introduction to the problem, and filled with content about solutions.
Finally, it is worth saying that expository writing is a vital life skill. Most careers have it as a daily requirement. Thus, another purpose of writing this type of essay is to acquire that vital skill.
- Topic sentence clearly defining the main point: Video games addiction can result in social isolation and depression
Expository Essay Structure
The first phase of the writing process involves brainstorming for ideas and choosing a topic. In most cases, you will be provided with some essay prompts and instructions. Carefully read them to make sure you are on the same page with your teacher. Then, when you have a good idea of what you are expected to do, you can start searching for a perfect topic.
A good topic for an expository essay should not be too broad or narrow.- Create a hook with a disputable question or an interesting dilemma, to attract attention
As a rule, expository writing is done in MLA format and typically has a standard 5-paragraph essay structure:
After you write your first draft, carefully review and proofread your work. Check that your points make sense, and ask yourself whether the current layout is the best, most logical way to present your information.
Because an expository essay generally goes in-depth on a given subject, it’s important that you specify your thesis statement from the get-go. State it in a clear and concise manner in the first paragraph of your essay.
But even in the workforce, having advanced research and reporting skills can be a significant advantage, since your supervisor may ask you to write up reports or present your research on a given topic.
The word expository comes from exposition, the noun form of “expose,” which means to uncover something to let others know what it is.
4. Write your first draft.
In this article, we will be taking a close look at expository essays. (To learn about establishing background information in a story, check out our post on narrative exposition.)
Important: For the body of your essay, remember to include evidential support.
Yen Cabag is the Blog Writer of TCK Publishing. She is also a homeschooling mom, family coach, and speaker for the Charlotte Mason method, an educational philosophy that places great emphasis on classic literature and the masterpieces in art and music. She has also written several books, both fiction and nonfiction. Her passion is to see the next generation of children become lovers of reading and learning in the midst of short attention spans.
You may need to provide supporting evidence to demonstrate the cause and effect relationship between the two ideas.
- Create a hook with a disputable question or an interesting dilemma, to attract attention