How to Write a Perfect Expository Essay

As the name suggests, expository writing is a form of composition that exposes a theme to promote clear understanding among readers. To clarify, a good expository essay presents a balanced and objective view of a given topic. This type of essay usually uses different techniques to promote clarity. For instance, it can define, compare, contrast, describe, or explain issues. Your language and tone should remain neutral and free from emotional language and bias.

When drafting this essay, you develop your expository skills by promoting your sense of objectivity, clear and concise writing, and critical thinking. In this assignment, you start with an introduction that presents the topic and offers an overview of what you will discuss in the paper. Its body paragraphs delve into the full details, evidence, examples, and relevant information to support your main points. 

This article sheds more details on this essay assignment. It shows the purpose of expository writing and offers a systematic guide on how to compose this paper. Keep reading to perfect your expository writing skills. 

What Is an Expository Essay?

If you have never encountered an expository essay assignment before, you are probably wondering: “What is an expository essay?” Understanding the nature of the task in front of view is as important as doing a literature review or giving your essay one final polish.

So what is an expository essay exactly and how is it different from other academic papers? An expository essay is a piece of writing where the author’s job is to introduce the audience to a particular concept.

How are a persuasive essay and an expository essay different?

Students with little writing experience often ask the question: “How are a persuasive essay and an expository essay different?” The big and key difference between an expository essay and a persuasive essay is that the expository essay does not require the author to address his personal attitude to the subject, whereas writing a persuasive essay means expressing an opinion and attempting to convince the audience that it’s the only possibly correct opinion.

Is an argumentative essay an expository essay?

If you look at some expository essay examples, high school level, you may think that this type of written assignment is fairly similar to an argumentative essay. However, there is at least one essential difference between the two.

An argumentative essay requires the author to have a personal opinion about the subject matter and then support it with compelling arguments. The writer of an expository essay does not need to convince the readers of anything — he simply needs to present the facts.

What Is the Purpose of Expository Writing? 

An expository essay serves many related purposes. Primarily, it explains or clarifies processes, concepts, or phenomena using logical reasoning, examples, and evidence. While other types of papers, such as persuasive essays, convince readers to agree with one’s stand, this type of essay only provides clear information. Let’s examine the purpose of expository writing in detail below:

• Inform: This essay educates and provides readers with fresh or valuable information by conveying facts, details, concepts, or ideas about a given theme in a straightforward way.
• Explain: The essay helps readers grasp complex matters by breaking them down into simpler terms. It clarifies and simplifies abstract ideas, processes, or events to make them easy to understand.
• Instruct: Your expository paper can also instruct or guide readers to help them execute tasks, achieve goals, or understand processes. It explains matters to enable readers to follow them and reproduce the indicated results.
• Present analyses: Your paper can also analyze and evaluate information, data, or evidence regarding a given topic. It may compare and contrast different perspectives, examine causes and effects, or objectively evaluate a situation.

Main Types of Expository Essay

After learning the expository essay definition, it’s easy to think that this written assignment is pretty straightforward and can be mastered very quickly. That is why many students are surprised to learn that there are actually six main types of expository essays that are commonly used in modern schools:

• Definition essay, where the writer attempts to give a more precise definition to a concept that has been already defined by other scholars;
• Classification essay, where the writer takes a complete concept and breaks it down into groups and pieces;
• Problem and solution essay, which requires the writer to define a problem and then offer a solution that has the highest chance of solving the problem;
• Cause and effect essay, where the writer needs to cover the reasons for the subject in question happening and the possible results of the event;
• Process essay, also known as the “how-to essay”, where the writer describes the steps in a particular procedure that will lead to the desired result;
• Comparison and contrast essay, where the writer compares two subjects and defines their differences and similarities.

How to Write an Expository Essay

Want to know how to write a good expository essay that will easily impress everyone around you? Here is how to write an expository essay from start to finish like a pro even if it’s your first time working on this type of assignment.

What is the purpose of an expository essay?

On paper, the assignment of writing an expository essay seems easy, but, as we have already established, there are six types and even more variations of expository essays that you may encounter throughout your academic journey.

The purpose of an expository essay, in general, is to give the readers a detailed introduction of the subject of the paper, but in reality, your job can be different. Always carefully check the writing prompt to see which type of essay you are required to write — only then will you be able to choose the appropriate expository essay format, structure, and content.

Choosing a topic

In some cases, you will be given the topic for your essay by your professor, but students are also often asked to choose their own topic for their essay. If you want the readers to be touched by your writing, it’s important to choose a topic you are personally passionate about.

Ideally, the topic should be also closely connected to the current state of the world and society — those topics always resonate with the public and make your writing even more interesting. Finally, in order to write a convincing essay, you should pick a topic you know well even without outside sources.

Sample expository essay topics for high school:

1. Are curfews necessary for the safety of teens?
2. Cause and effect of feeling angry.
3. How the internet affects young children.
4. The differences and similarities between public and private schools.
5. How to avoid stress in school.
6. How important is a driver’s license in a teen’s life?
7. Steps to stopping racism.
8. Cause and effect of taking drugs in teenage years.
9. How to improve health levels in high school students.
10. How peer pressure affects young children.

Sample expository topics for college:

1. How to make the first day of college memorable.
2. Major stress factors in student life.
3. How education will transform in 20 years.
4. Cause and effect of inventing books.
5. How volunteering can improve lives.
6. Why college students are prone to gaining weight.
7. Cause and effect of not voting in elections.
8. Which alternative sources of energy are the most promising?
9. Procrastination can be a normal part of life.
10. Minimal IT knowledge is essential for young professionals.

How to Write an Expository Essay? 

Before engaging in expository writing, you must familiarize yourself with its writing conventions. This way, you will be better positioned to structure your paper and establish the most effective way of presenting your information. Below are the steps for composing an expository paper.

Understand the Exposition’s Essence
Every expository assignment has a primary goal you must understand before proceeding. This goal can be an explanation, a definition, or a clarification of a given subject.

Choose a Topic and Narrow Down the Focus

After understanding what your paper should focus on, it’s time to start brainstorming a focused topic to write about. You must focus your paper on a particular theme that you can fully discuss and exhaust within a given word count.

Research Your Work

After settling on an interesting and manageable topic, you must research your essay and collect data from reputable sources. Finding the correct information to defend your argument is critical. You can research your paper in the library, use your class notes, and visit credible websites to find the necessary information.

Formulate a Clear Thesis Statement

Your paper needs a clear thesis statement that will act as its compass. This primary argument shows your stand on your chosen topic and how you would like readers to view it. It’s like spectacles from which you see the topic and want readers to view it the same way.

You have to present this statement at the end of your opening paragraph. Your thesis statement shows the context of your chosen position and the scope of your assignment’s supporting sections. You can make it one long sentence or two sentences.

Outline Your Work

Your research gathered enough information to defend your thesis. Now, you should outline this information so you can know where to present which data. An outline gives you an orderly presentation of data so that you don’t forget to include any information your readers need.

Draft an Engaging Introduction

Next, compose an engaging introduction that grabs your readers’ attention. You should start it with a hook, which could be a startling fact, a thought-provoking question, or a statistic. Your introduction should give readers enough background information for them to know what to expect. However, don’t reveal too much at this stage because it will kill their desire to proceed to the next level.

Write Coherent Body Paragraphs

Afterward, proceed and draft body paragraphs. Each paragraph must focus on one idea and discuss it fully. Begin each paragraph with a topic sentence to signal to the reader what the paragraph is about. Here, you will include the necessary evidence, stats, and examples to defend your primary argument.

You should also use transition words or phrases to create a seamless transition between sentences and paragraphs. This way, your paper will have a coherent and smooth flow across its various stages.

Draft a Strong Conclusion

Your paper will need a strong conclusion that acts like its landing ground after taking readers through many arguments and points. It should rephrase your thesis statement and main ideas. This section must prove how the information you shared proves your thesis statement.

Don’t introduce any fresh information you didn’t discuss in the body paragraphs. Below is an example of a good conclusion.

The invention of the printing press was a critical and giant step for the human race that brought immediate cultural and economic effects and significantly impacted politics and religion in Europe. The centuries that followed its invention also transformed other sectors. For instance, it revolutionized that generation’s atmosphere and generated the social upheavals the Protestant Reformation and Renaissance caused. It only took one technological innovation to reshape the future of an entire continent drastically. 

Revise and Edit Thoroughly

After writing, take some time off and return to your paper with fresh eyes to polish it. Edit your work to catch and eliminate spelling, styling, and grammar mistakes. Examine it to ensure it’s clear, consistent, and coherent. You may also seek valuable feedback from classmates or instructors to polish it better.

Expository Essay Outline

After seeing some expository essay examples for college or high school, you will be relieved to know that the outline of a typical expository essay is no different from the outline of most other essays you have already written.

Nearly every expository essay outline follows the classic five-paragraph structure, which includes an introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion. The number of body paragraphs can be higher or lower than that, but the order and content of the chapters remain the same.

• Introduction

The purpose of the introduction to your expository essay is to unveil the topic of the paper to your audience, explain your reasons for choosing this particular subject, and to introduce the thesis statement. The thesis statement should be brief and strong, as you will refer to it several times throughout the paper.

• Body paragraphs

The body paragraphs of your expository essay will further expand the topic with the help of evidence. The evidence can come in different forms, including statistics, quotes, and results of your research. It’s important to remember that each body paragraph should be dedicated to a separate idea, so that the readers don’t have a hard time jumping from one statement to another.

• Conclusion

In your conclusion, there is no need to offer any new facts or information to the audience. Instead, you should repeat your thesis statement and offer a brief summary of the body paragraphs to convince the readers that you presented the most complete exploration of the subject.

Expository essay do’s and don’ts

As with most challenges in student life, there is a right and wrong way to write an expository essay. To increase your chances of writing a strong paper, check out some do’s and don’ts of how to write an expository essay:

Do:

• Use the strongest evidence you have available;
• Only use evidence that comes from credible sources;
• Take a critical look at your writing to detect potential counterarguments and your response to them.

Don’t:

• Simply repeat your expository essay introduction in the conclusion;
• Use your own experience as evidence;
• Make your essay wordy simply to meet the word count.

Questions to ask when writing your expository essay

Now that you know how to start an expository essay, it will also be appropriate to learn how to finish it the right way. After you have perfected your final draft, it is time to give your essay the last check by asking the following five questions from experts of our essay service to yourself:

1. Have I chosen a topic that will resonate with the public?
2. Have I only used relevant evidence or can some of it be excluded without damaging the integrity of the essay?
3. Did I create a logical flow of the narrative or is my essay all over the place?
4. Did my evidence come from reliable sources?
5. Was I thorough when showing the different aspects of the subject?

Conclusion 

Up to there, you are abreast of all the details you need to write a great expository essay. We hope you will use this information to improve your expository writing. If you need further assistance with your academic work, you are free to contact our team today.