Expository essays examine activities or concepts that can be taught or explained. They include illustration, cause and effect, and process analysis essays. The goal is to teach the reader new information or clarify something they know. Examples range from organic produce benefits to the life cycle of frogs.
Expository essay is a category of essays that includes subgenres such as an illustration essay, a cause and effect essay, and a process analysis essay. Expository essays have as their primary purpose the close examination of an activity or concept that can be taught or explained to a reader. A well-written expository essay typically begins with an introductory paragraph that contains a thesis statement followed by several body paragraphs, and ends with a concluding paragraph.
Illustration essays use cartoons or other specific examples visited briefly to clarify or enhance the purpose of the paper. For example, an illustration essay exploring the benefits of consuming organic produce might briefly discuss an individual gaining control over a health issue and attribute it to a change to a healthier diet. Through the use of a written ‘visual aid’, the point can be clarified and directed.
Another type of expository card is cause and effect. This genre may focus on the reasons why a particular situation exists or the effects it has on other things. Some articles combine the two, addressing both cause and effect. An article exploring the reasons for adolescent drug abuse and the likely outcomes if abuse is left unchecked is an example of the latter.
Process analysis essays are expository documents that explain something that needs to be done in a series of interconnected steps. Often, a process analysis document teaches the reader how to do something, like change the engine oil or plant a wildflower garden. An overly broad process analysis expository essay, such as one that describes how to fix all kinds of appliances, can’t go into enough detail to be helpful; one that is too narrow, such as a paper that explains how to fix a potato peeler, will be too narrow to attract many readers.
This type of academic paper is not designed to discuss an idea or to compare two ideas or events. Its ultimate goal is to teach the reader by offering new information or by examining and clarifying something the reader knows a little about. A piece of travel about a small village in Honduras could be the subject of an expository essay as well as a close examination of the Battle of the Bulge or an explanation of how to get the most points playing solitaire. A further example is an essay that delves into biology, such as the life cycle of frogs.
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