Table of Contents
What is An Expository Essay?
Expository essays are written to explain how to do something, how something works or simply to provide information on a topic. The topic can be an idea, an event, a person, a thing; you can describe or explain just about anything you want. Expository writing is about sharing information to inform or explain a topic to the reader by providing relevant details, facts, and information. Through expository writing, the author makes observations about the topic, shows them to the reader and by doing so helps to illuminate the topic for them. If it is successful, the reader will walk away with a deeper understanding of the topic and may even be piqued enough to explore the topic further.
An expository essay is an essay that presents information about a topic. It requires the writer to have knowledge about that topic or do research about the topic. Expository writing can include describing something, listing order of events, comparing two or more things and contrasting them, explaining cause and effect, and describing a problem and a solution.
Of all the essay types, this one is the most objective. You are presenting information, trying to be accurate, trying to be precise in your wording.
An expository essay is to explain something without the intrusion of the writer’s own opinion. It should stick to the facts and the writer should maintain a neutral tone. This essay explores various angles of a specific topic to provide information in an objective manner to the reader.
The basic idea that makes a piece expository is that the author’s focus is clearly transmitted to the reader. There are infinite reasons to write and all of them are equally valid. For example, an author may want to experiment, imitate, reflect, practise or create. The purpose of expository writing is to explain or describe, so the most important aspect is that the author’s topic or intended message is clear.
Types of Expository Essay
There are many kinds of expository essay prompts that appear often:
- Definition. Definition essays provide a full explanation of a term or idea. They can also include an explanation of what a term or idea is.
- Cause-and-Effect. The cause-effect essay explains the relationship between two or more events. It may identify an event and explore the possible effects of it or it may look at something that has happened and try to explain its causes. It explains why and/or how things happen and its result.
- Process. A process essay provides a description of how something works or an explanation of how to do something. It can take the form of detailed instructions or chronological accounting of events. The purpose of this essay is to train the reader in learning a process.
- Opposing Idea. An opposing idea essay explains two or more sides of an issue. The goal is not to argue for one side or the other but to fairly present all of the points of view about a topic. It is useful for informing someone about a controversy, so they can better understand why the opposing sides disagree.
- Problem and solution. It explains how to solve a problem. This essay is broken down into a brief intro to the problem and filled with content about the solutions.
- Comparison. This essay makes you critically analyze any two subjects finding and explaining their similarities and/or their differences.
- Descriptive. It describes something.
The Expository Essay Structure
Expository writing must begin with a topic sentence that includes a central or main idea. This sentence tells the reader what the composition is all about. Expository essays must also include supporting sentences. Those provide facts, details, and explanations. An expository composition must end with a concluding statement. This final statement restates the main idea. The basic organization of an expository essay is as follows:
The Introduction
The introduction paragraph can be split into three parts. The first part is the hook, which is some kind of an attention-getter. That means that the first sentence of the essay should engage the reader, grab their attention, and introduce the subject in an interesting way. Students often think the best way to do this is to ask a question at the beginning of the essay, but that’s really overused. It is better to use a strong statement or a surprising fact. It could also be a general statement, dilemma or a question.
After you’ve engaged the reader with a good opening sentence, you should give some background information. That just means any information that is essential for the reader to have in order to understand the main idea or to understand the topic. So, it could be context like where and when, it could be a brief history of the topic, it could be an explanation of why the topic is controversial to begin with or why it is important. Cite relevant news, articles, and historical events to introduce your topic. Give your topic some contextual background. Starting off with a significant occurrence, discovery or study will give you more points in factual research as well.
Once you’ve given the background information, it’s time to give your thesis, which again is the single most important sentence of your entire essay. It is always the last sentence of the introductory paragraph and it is the main idea. Your thesis statement is the point and usually within your thesis you have what’s called a three-pronged thesis, where you will try and make three points.
The Body Paragraphs
This is where you support your thesis with evidence. You can use a variety of supporting paragraphs to do this and depending on the length of the essay you are writing they will be usually around three to four.
After you’ve introduced your thesis, the explanation of the factual topic you will be writing about, you are ready to move into the body paragraphs. Body paragraphs mean to support the thesis with development, such as explanations, evidence from sources, expert opinions on the topics, details, and examples that support those opinions, and other ideas depending on the length of the essay you are writing.
It should have at least three paragraphs. Use transition words and write topic sentences. Elaborate your points by giving evidence which could be factual, logical, statistical or by giving examples. Write concluding statements that summarize each paragraph.
Form an eloquent but concise body with at least one to two arguments and one counter-argument. Each argument deserves its own paragraph. They also need to have supporting documents, like facts and statistics, to make the reader believe what you’re trying to say. Adjust a point that argues against your thesis and proceed to disprove that common notion. It effectively tells your reader that you have thought about your topic from multiple angles and can defend its counter-argument.
The Conclusion
That is where you remind your reader what the point of the whole essay has been and explain why it matters.
After you’ve written a strong series of body paragraphs, it’s time to write your concluding paragraph. In the conclusion you will remind the reader of the topic you are writing on, and you will paraphrase your thesis. Summarize your main points; assume that the reader has a very short memory. At the end of your essay, you want to remind them of the main ideas that you presented, and finally you want to end with a strong statement like what you started with. So, make sure to add a final comment to your work. Another way to end is by giving a call to action; tell your reader directly what he or she should do with all the new information you’ve given them.
Create an assertive conclusion. The conclusion answers the questions you have brought out in the reader through the introduction. The conclusion should be a construction made of the past few paragraphs. You need to do a straightforward synthesis that delivers an impact upon your reader. Summarize your main ideas. Restate the thesis statement, but paraphrase it and do not introduce new materials.
This organization should work like a machine; all parts of it are working together for the goal. The hook smoothly introduces the thesis, the body supports the thesis, and the conclusion restates the thesis and extends it a step further to provoke thought or show how that idea can be applied in real life.
How to Write an Expository Essay
Follow these steps to write an expository essay:
- Read the question given carefully. The first thing you should consider is your readers. Think about your readers before you start writing. Consider the expectations and the needs of the readers.
- Brainstorm about the topic and main idea. The topic should be specific enough to say something definite or worthwhile, while it should be broad enough so that you’re able to have a good scope of research about it. It will be helpful to pick a topic that you are actually interested in.
- Gather research for your topic. Before you start out with content, ponder upon your thesis and gather supporting documents for your paper. This is important; research should not only agree with the arguments, but come from reputable and credible sources as well. It should also be up-to-date and relevant to the discussion at hand.
- Create an outline of your essay. Create an outline that corresponds with your points, arguments, and your research. The five-paragraph format is basically your universal standard for expository essays. Write an introduction, some body paragraphs, and a conclusion.
- Draft and write your essay.
- Revise, review, modify and reorganize if needed.
- Edit, which is to correct grammar errors and improve style and clarity. Next, recheck all the facts and statistics you cited.
10 Tips for Great Expository Essays
- The tone should be formal, especially if you’re writing it on a test or it’s being graded in some kind of way.
- If you do research for an expository paper, make sure that you have a reference page. It’ll list the resources that you use. If you’re using a source, make sure to cite that source.
- Use clear and concise wording.
- Stick to third-person pronouns.
- Write a strong thesis statement.
- Have a clear topic sentence for each body paragraph.
- Each body paragraph should only present one new idea.
- Start with the strongest point.
- Use transition words and phrases.
- Write a powerful conclusion.
Summing Up
An expository essay is a piece of written work that aims to define and investigate a topic for the reader. It also seeks to prove a thesis through some sort of factual evidence. Putting together an explanation might sound easy, but it is actually quite a challenge to write a convincing piece that defends your thesis statement. An easy way to understand what an expository essay is will be to look at it like a debate. So, when you prepare for a debate, you know your goal would be to defend your position and disprove the opposition to win the argument. So, it would be helpful to go through your research with these thoughts in mind. Write with your readers’ questions in mind and don’t forget to follow all the steps described above.