Expository Essay

An expository essay is a written work that states and defends a thesis statement by presenting facts to support the statement. In an expository the writer must be able to defend their position with convincing arguments and factual support. Have the writers at Paper Masters help you write an excellent expository essay on any topic you choose.

The goal of an expository essay is to help you make the transition from summarizing a text to offering a critical response, complete with central claim and supporting evidence. In this sequence of papers I am looking for you to demonstrate the ability to summarize the major points of the reading, as well as offer your own ideas about and assessment of these elements.

There are five different types of expository essays.

1. The first type is the descriptive essay. In this type of essay the writer has to describe a person, place, event, or situation. The goal of the essay is to create an image that keeps the interest of the reader.
2. The second type of expository essay is the process essay. This is an essay that explains to the reader how to do something. This could range from a fairly simple task to more complex multistep processes.
3. The third type of expository text is the comparison essay. In this type of essay, the writer tries to explain how two subjects are the same and how they are different.
4. The fourth type of expository essay is a cause and effect essay. These essays try to explain to the reader why things happen. These essays focus on the cause and effect chain of events.
5. The final type of expository essay is the problem and solution essay. In this type of writing the author identifies a problem and then uses the essay to explain possible solutions and possibly identify the best solution for the problem.

When writing an expository essay it is very important to have a topic that is interesting not only to the writer but also to an audience. The more supporting information the writer can include the better the essay will be. It is also important to conduct research before the writer begins the writing. The resources used for research should come from a reputable source.

Thoughts on writing a comparison/contrast expository essay

With respect to logical hierarchies, the process of looking closely at two similar people and writing about their similarities and differences causes one to sharpen one’s sense of the distinction between generalities and specific details.  For example, both of the people one is writing about may have roughly the same body type; they may be mesomorphs, i.e. of a muscular type.  One describes them as such and then, observing them more closely, one perceives and records subtle differences in the way that they are physically structured. There is a logical hierarchy at work here.  Both belong to the class of mesomorphs, but they vary in terms of specific details.  I submit that one of the cardinal virtues of good expository writing is that the distinction between the general and the specific is well observed.  Comparing and contrasting two similar people is a good way of learning to attend to that distinction.  And it not only makes one write better, it also sharpens and focuses one’s observational skills.

Writing an essay about two people who are of similar appearance also helps to enhance one’s sense of relevance.  Any comparison between one thing and another of a like type, be it mountains, pieces of music, or the appearance of two human beings must involve the selection of certain facts. For the comparison to be relevant, the fact selected from the first object must be comparable, that is, like in nature, to the fact selected from the second object.  In a comparison of two people of similar appearance, this is fairly easy to do in terms of specifics, the nose, ears, and hair color of the first automatically match up with the nose, ears, and hair color of the second. It is thus a kind of beginner’s exercise in matching like with like, a way of beginning to develop a sense for comparability, and with it, a sense of relevance.