Cathy A.
Cathy A.

An Ultimate Guide to Expository Essay Writing

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Published on: Jun 30, 2020

Last updated on: Dec 25, 2022

Expository Essay Writing

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Success in a student’s academic life is defined by the skills of evaluating and interpreting ideas, concepts, and phenomena. If you have a strong grip over the planning and writing process of your assignment, you will produce quality content.

Essay writing is a major part of academics that contributes a lot to the grading. If you know the art of drafting good essays, you will score better. There are a plethora of essay types that almost every student from every level is assigned.

An expository essay is one essay type that is commonly assigned to high school and college students. This essay type requires good explaination and persuasive techniques to make the content impactful.

If you are assigned this essay type and have no idea how to draft, read the article. This article will help you learn the meaning and writing process of an expository essay.

What Is an Expository Essay?

An expository essay is a form of writing that investigates a topic by evaluating ideas and evidence. This is a type of essay in which a writer chooses a topic, investigates it, and then evaluates it for the readers.

An expository paper has the following features:

  • Informs the reader about a topic
  • Discusses and explains facts
  • Content is written in the third-person perspective
  • Provide unbiased information

The strength of your expository essay depends on your research and understanding of the topic. Extensive research is required to draft this essay type as it is based on facts and logical reasoning.

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Types of Expository Essay

An expository essay has several types. Expository writing can explain, describe, compare, share a process, or can solve a problem because of which it is divided into different types.

Below are stated some common types of expository essays.

  • Process Essay - A process essay is a form of writing that presents a step-by-step process of something. This essay type provides instructions for the readers to solve a problem of any sort.
  • Definition/Descriptive Essay - This essay is written to inform or define a topic to the readers. In this essay, a writer informs the reader about places, situations, or concepts.
  • Compare and Contrast Essay - This essay states similarities and differences between two objects of the same category.
  • Classification Essay - This writing type breaks the topic into categories and describes each category accordingly.
  • Cause and Effect Essay - This essay type discusses an event or concept and its effect. Here the writer presents the relation between causes and effects of a topic.

All these essay types differ in nature. But the one thing that puts them under one category is that all these essays are written unbiasedly. This means that the writer does not form these essays on experiences, opinions, or vague assumptions. Rather, they are based on facts.

Unlike an argumentative or persuasive essay, an expository essay is only a representation of logical information. This essay does not aim to persuade the audience with any point of view.

Expository Essay Outline

Every academic writing needs an outline to make the content look organized and structured. An outline arranges all the researched and gathered information into a presentable and formatted form for the readers.

Without the outline, your writing will just be a collection of unsensible raw facts. To provide meaning and shape to those facts, an outline is developed. Almost every academic essay is written using the traditional essay outline of 5 paragraphs.

“What are the parts of the expository essay?”

An outline divides the content into three sections and 5 paragraphs. It includes:

According to this, the outline divides the content among three sections and 5 paragraphs. It includes:

  • Introduction
  • Body Paragraph 1
  • Body Paragraph 2
  • Body Paragraph 3
  • Conclusion

When planning out your essay, make sure that your content is divided into these sections but are connected to each other as well. The expository essay structure will help the readers read and understand the text better.

How to Start an Expository Essay?

In order to make your document effective, start the process by planning out the entire essay. Students often get poor grades in essay writing. This is because they do not spend time planning the essay and instantly jump on to the writing process.

The planning and execution of ideas and facts contribute a lot to the overall success of your essays and papers. Take the following steps to start your essay.

1. Select an Interesting Topic

The first and foremost thing to do when you are assigned an expository essay is to come up with a strong theme. Only an interesting theme will let the writer draft an exciting piece of document.

If you are not assigned a topic for your assignment, choose an interesting topic for your expository essay. Make sure that your topic is based on the following features:

  • It should be informative
  • It should reflect the writer’s interest and knowledge
  • Should be interesting for the audience
  • Enough data and facts are available on the topic

2. Draft a Thesis Statment

Once you have decided on the topic, take a stance over it. A thesis statement is the major claim of the writer on the essay topic. All the content in the essay is drafted according to it. Make sure to develop a strong and arguable thesis statement.

3. Conduct Extensive Research

After taking a stance on the topic, gather supporting information and evidence to prove your point. Conduct deep research and consult credible sources to collect solid facts and relevant data for your essay.

4. Arrange the Gathered Data

Without any structure or sense, the researched data will remain in its raw form which is of no use to anyone. So, you need to arrange and organize the collected information according to your expository essay structure. The outline formed earlier will help you distribute information in the different sections.

How to Write an Expository Essay?

If the planning of the essay is strong, the writing process becomes much easier. The writing procedure of an expository essay is simple. Follow the steps provided below to draft an exceptional expository essay.

1. Expository Essay Introduction

The first section to be drafted for an expository essay is the introduction. The introduction section of an essay is written to let the audience know what the essay is about. The introductory paragraph of an expository essay is based on the following elements:

  • A hook statement
  • Topic's background
  • Thesis statement

Open your introductory paragraph with a catchy statement to hook the audience to your writing. Keeping in mind the topic and the main thesis statement, draft an interesting opening sentence. After this, provide a context for the readers to learn about the essay topic.

Give relevant information to the audience and state the thesis statement at the end of the introductory paragraph. Keep in mind to not give away the major revelations in the introduction section. Keep this part of the essay clear and short.

2. Expository Essay Body Paragraphs

The next section is the main body of the essay where all the details are provided. In this section, the evidence is provided to support the major thesis statement. According to the basic essay outline, the body section has three paragraphs and each paragraph has the following information:

  • A topic sentence
  • Supporting evidence
  • Analysis
  • Concluding sentence

A topic sentence is the main idea of the paragraph. Open each of your body paragraphs with a topic sentence to let the audience know what it is about. Following this, comes the supporting evidence which can be in a form of fact or quote.

After providing the evidence, analyze it, and state its significance and purpose. Make sure to not support the points only on the basis of opinions. The thesis statement of an expository essay requires facts to be proved. Then you can end the paragraph with a concluding sentence that sums up the whole paragraph.

3. Expository Essay Conclusion

The conclusion section is the last part of your essay where all the loose ends of the discussion are tied together. The concluding paragraph includes the following things:

  • Overview of the major points
  • Restated thesis statement

Provide closure to your essay by summarizing the most important points of the text. In addition to this, restate the thesis statement to remind the audience of the central idea. Then in the end provide future prospects or a concluding statement.

4. Proofreading And Editing

After completing the writing process of the expository essay, proofread it. Read the essay a couple of times to make sure that there are no mistakes and errors in the content. Recheck to see if the grammar, punctuation, and vocabulary compliments the topic or not.

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Expository Essay Examples

Written examples are always helpful when you are to draft an academic essay. Professional writers suggest going through some examples first before you start writing your essays.

“What is an example of an expository essay?”

The following are some good examples of expository essays that will help you draft an impressive essay.

Expository Essay Topics

The importance of choosing the right topic for your essay is undeniable. Only an interesting topic lets the writer draft an impactful piece of writing.

Coming up with a good topic can be time-consuming. If you have several assignments due, it will be difficult for you to spend much time on one assignment. To help you quickly decide on the topic, we have gathered a list of some interesting topics.

  • Describe possible effects of voting and not voting
  • Possible consequences of drinking
  • Causes of homelessness
  • How drug addict parents influence their children
  • Foster care system and its history in the United States
  • How will Google Glass influence our lives?
  • Significance of black hole
  • Causes and effect of Alziehmers
  • Impact of bioengineering on our lives
  • The historical significance of art therapy

Expository Essay Writing Tips

Knowing the writing process and having good writing skills is not enough to draft an impressive essay. Students always need some expert tips and tricks to help them write an exceptional essay.

The following are some tips that can help your draft a flawless essay:

  • Use clear and concise wordings to describe ideas.
  • Draft the entire content from the third-person perspective.
  • Develop an arguable thesis statement.
  • Provide a balance in your content by arranging all your arguments.
  • Make sure that each paragraph in the body section covers only one idea.
  • Use frequent transition words to maintain a logical flow in the content.
  • Keep in mind to draft the content using facts.
  • Provide in-text citations to avoid plagiarism.
  • Draft a strong conclusion.

Drafting essays professionally is mandatory for achieving good grades in academics. Work on your writing and analyzing skills to create interesting and impressive pieces of documents.

Whether you are drafting a regular expository essay or a complex argumentative essay, make sure to take a strong stance, and gather factual information.

If your writing skills are not strong or you just can’t manage time for all your assignments. You can always get professional help. EssayWritingService.college is a writing company that provides assistance in all your academic assignments.

If you are looking for a credible essay writing service online, get our help, and score well. Our expert essay writers will provide quality custom writing services at the most reasonable price.

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Cathy A.

WRITTEN BY

Cathy A., Literature, Marketing

Cathy has been been working as an author on our platform for over five years now. She has a Masters degree in mass communication and is well-versed in the art of writing. Cathy is a professional who takes her work seriously and is widely appreciated by clients for her excellent writing skills.

Cathy has been been working as an author on our platform for over five years now. She has a Masters degree in mass communication and is well-versed in the art of writing. Cathy is a professional who takes her work seriously and is widely appreciated by clients for her excellent writing skills.

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