Expository writing explains, informs, or clarifies topics and is used in academic essays, professional reports, and non-fiction works. It should provide enough detail for readers to understand the topic and be organized logically. It should be factual and impartial, with opinions based on evidence.
Expository writing is also called informational writing, because its purpose is to explain, inform, or clarify. This type of writing is often required of students when they are assigned to write essays explaining topics in various academic disciplines. It is also the type of writing used in some essays and various professional reports. Small works, such as a student’s report on beetle lifespans, and long works, such as an autobiography, can use expository writing to convey facts to readers. Writing that is expository can be found in student essays, research studies, corporate reports, textbooks, and other non-fiction works.
An essential element of expository writing is that it provides enough detail for readers to explain the topic clearly. Readers should be able to get a clear idea of the topic being explained after reading a report, book, or essay using expository writing. The amount of detail to provide varies depending on your target audience. A textbook or journal article, for example, may need to explain every detail of its topic, including answers to questions about who, what, when, where, why, and how, without readers having any background knowledge. A specialized research report on an archaeological study, however, may not explain the technical terms related to the field, because the intended readers would already have a broad background knowledge.
In its pure form, expository writing is intended to be factual and impartial. A newspaper article, for example, should be impartial and simply present the objective facts so that readers can form their own opinions and conclusions. This is different from a newspaper editorial, which is supposed to present a subjective opinion. If there is an opinion or conclusion in expository writing, it should be based on factual evidence. Similarly, a research report may suggest in its conclusion that tobacco smoke is harmful to people’s health after presenting solid evidence to support that idea.
Organization is a common feature of expository writing. Information should be presented in a clear and logical way so that readers can easily follow and understand it. A student’s five-paragraph expository essay on types of pollution might begin with a paragraph introducing the topic. This may be followed by three body paragraphs each explaining a different type of pollution and a concluding paragraph summarizing the essay. An autobiography could be arranged chronologically to detail its subject’s life in sequential order.
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