If you’re reading this article, the chances are that your instructor wants you to write an expository essay but you’re not sure what exactly you should do. Don’t worry, because editors from Writers-house.com are always ready to share their knowledge with you. Expository writing is aimed to describe, inform, define, or clarify something. You can find exposition in both writing and oral discourse. However, in this article, we are going to focus on expository writing only.
If you think that you’ve never seen expository writing, here’s good news for you: manuals, newspaper articles, and assembly instructions are just a few examples of expository writing that you can see in your everyday life. In fact, expository writing is the most common type of academic writing.
Focus on Facts
If you need to write an expository essay, you should present facts. Expository writing is all about facts, and there’s no place for your personal opinion or bias. This feature of expository writing also makes it somewhat simpler than other types of academic writing.
Keep in mind that your expository essay must be understandable for virtually everyone. You shouldn’t assume that your audience has any knowledge related to your subject. Therefore, make sure to provide all the important details and explain any important terms.
We recommend that you stick with the third-person narration when writing your expository essay. However, sometimes, you may also use the second person. For example, this approach is appropriate when writing instructions or articles.
Features of Expository Writing
First of all, you should know that expository writing must have a clear focus. It should have the main topic. Your sentences shouldn’t be too wordy, and all the sections of your paper must be directly related to the main topic. Avoid any information that is unnecessary in the context of your main subject.
Your topic should be narrow enough so that you can provide some specific facts about it but not too narrow because you don’t want your essay to be too specific. After all, it must be interesting for the general audience. Make sure to support your topic with any relevant details, examples, and pieces of evidence. For example, you can use quotations, anecdotes, definitions, graphs, comparisons, statistics, descriptions, etc.
Formatting
Usually, expository essays have a traditional five-paragraph structure. They start with an introduction, followed by a body, and a conclusion. The body must have three paragraphs, with each body paragraph focusing on a particular subtopic.
However, your essay shouldn’t necessarily be limited to the five-paragraph format. No matter how many paragraphs you need to write, your introduction must present a thesis statement that will serve as the backbone of your essay. Your paper should also be based on facts, and all your paragraphs must be properly connected with transitional sentences.
Writing Methods
Here are a few writing methods that you can use when writing an expository essay:
- Problem and solution
- Compare and contrast
- Extended definition
- Cause and effect
We recommend that you pick one of these methods and stick to it. However, you may also combine different methods, if you’re sure that you can stay focused on your topic and present facts in a comprehensive way.
Another important aspect of writing is proofreading. Once you’ve written your expository essay, forget about it for a few days, and then read it again. This way, you’ll be able to spot more mistakes and elements that can be improved. You can also order professional editing and proofreading on Writers-House.com to make sure that your paper will be perfect.
Leave a Reply
Be the First to Comment!