Overview
Expository essays seek to explain a topic to your reader. They will often be focused on providing and explaining factual information. Mastering this type of essay is especially rewarding because expository writing is used in almost every subject area besides English. History, science, and even math all make extensive use of expository essays.
This site presents some different approaches to structuring expository essays. Instead of directing you to webpages, the links will take you to documents that are designed to be printed. Many of you will find it helpful to print out the essay guides and have them available while you are working on your essays.
As with all types of writing, teacher preference is important for you to understand. Your teacher may want you to do a variation of what is presented in these examples, or have a different structure in mind for you to use. Always check with your teacher to see what he or she would like for the structure of an essay. Part of being a strong writing is leaning how to write to meet different people’s expectations.
© kmcelliott 2008