Expository Essay Writing Guide

Writing an expository essay is the kind of assignment, which confuses many students. If you are one of them, don’t worry. This article is here to help you submit your essay perfectly written and on due time.

First of all, don’t be discouraged by the unfamiliarly sounding name of the essay. Although you might not have heard the word combination “expository writing” too often, you have definitely come across this type of writing more than once. For instance, it can be found in newspapers and various manuals.

Facts Are What Matters

Probably, the most important thing you should know about expository writing is that it has to be based on a fact and fact only. So, when you are asked to write an expository essay, you are not allowed to include your personal attitude, believes and biases towards something. Leave that to opinion essays. You should include pieces of information that are commonly accepted as facts.

Also, remember that your goal is to actually expose a certain topic to your readers. That is why you should never omit relevant information simply because you assume that your readers already know it. After all, every human being has a different set of knowledge. So, make sure that your essay is equally clear to all your potential readers.

Focus on Topic

Your expository essay should focus on its main topic. You are strongly advised not to include any pieces of information if they are not connected to your topic directly. Especially don’t do it just to read the word count. It will only interrupt the natural flow of your piece of writing and will make it incoherent.

As far as the topic itself is concerned, it should be narrow, but not too narrow. You have to strive for the happy medium when choosing it. Don’t choose a very broad topic, since it is rather difficult to cover it properly in a single essay. At the same time, you’re note recommended to choose a very narrow topic, because you will face problems when collecting material for your essay.

Expository Essay Writing Methods

There are four popular methods, which are used for writing an expository essay:

1. Compare and contrast: present two or more things to the readers by pointing out similarities and differences in their features.
2. Cause and effect: while discussing a certain phenomenon, trace back its cause and analyze its further effects.
3. Problem and solution: analyze a given issue and try to come up with the ways to solve it.
4. Extended definition: basically, present a certain topic to your readers by describing all its important aspects.

All in all, we hope this article will help you to write a first-class expository essay.