English 10 – EOP
Page 1 of 14
Unit 1 Lesson 8: Expository Essay
Objectives:


organize details and information that they have read, heard, or viewed, using a variety of
written or graphic forms
create a variety of academic, technical, and personal communications, including debates,
research, and technical reports, oral, multimedia presentations, poetry, and personal essay
English 10 is a good place to learn how to compose the kind of essay most often demanded in English
11, Socials 11, and English 12: the expository essay. The expository essay explains, defines, or
interprets an idea, an event, or a process. “The Last Bison” is an example from your course reading.
The purpose of this supplement is to teach you the process of essay writing as a series of steps
that can be followed. The approach is “no frills” and will provide a very basic guide to the practices
most likely to produce successful essay work.
The stages in the process are as follows:
SIX STAGES IN THE PROCESS OF WRITING
1. Prewriting
Choose a topic, audience, purpose, and form. Then gather ideas and
organize these in a reasonable way.
2. Drafting
Get your ideas down on paper in rough form without worrying about
perfecting spelling, grammar, usage, and mechanics.
3. Peer, Teacher
Evaluation and
Self-Evaluation
Study your draft by yourself, with your teacher, or with one or more
of your peers to find ways to improve it.
4. Revising
Revise your draft to improve its content, organization, and style.
5. Proofreading
Check your revised draft for errors in spelling, grammar, usage and
mechanics (including punctuation and capitalization). Then prepare
a final copy in an appropriate manuscript form and proof read again.
6. Publishing and
Presenting
Share your work with an audience.
U01L07
English 10 – EOP
Page 2 of 14
Stage 1: Prewriting
Choosing a Topic
Often, your teacher will assign you a specific topic. For this exercise, however, you must start
from scratch and come up with your own. Drawing on your own interests, feelings, or journal work,
make a list of topics that you would like to explore and which you feel have the potential to be
interesting to others. List 5of your ideas below.
1. __________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
2. __________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
3. __________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
4. __________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
5. __________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
U01L07
English 10 – EOP
Page 3 of 14
Developing a Plan for Writing
You already know the form in which you will be writing: the expository essay. Now consider your
purpose and your audience. Why are you writing? For whom are you writing?
Exercise
Choose two of your five topics and for each one specify purpose (to express ideas, to inform, or to
persuade) and briefly describe your audience.
Topic 1. _____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
Purpose: _____________________________________________________________________
Audience: ____________________________________________________________________
Topic 2. _____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
Purpose: _____________________________________________________________________
Audience: ____________________________________________________________________
Gathering and Organizing Ideas
There is a big difference between knowing what you want to write about and knowing what you’re
going to say about it. In short, it is time to begin putting your ideas down on paper where they can
be kept and considered.
As the first step here, we recommend the cluster chart; it provides an easily understood and quite
free and flexible method of starting to generate, to keep track of, and to organize your ideas. To
start, write your topic in the middle of a sheet of paper and circle it. Then, in the space around the
circle, jot down ideas that are related to your topic. Circle each item and make lines to connect
items that are related. Continuing in this manner, you will end up with a web of interconnected
ideas. This technique can help you to group related details and also to discover connections
between ideas that you may not have noticed before.
U01L07
English 10 – EOP
Page 4 of 14
Used Books
Book
Discussions
Reading
Specialty
Travel Books
General
Book
Signings
TYPES
EVENTS
Cooking
Bookstore
Gardening
The
Bookworm
NAMES
NONBOOK
ITEMS
Coffee
& Snacks
Books & Co.
Cover to
Cover
Calendars
Cards
CD’s
& Tapes
Exercise
Return to the two topics you are now working with and complete a cluster chart for each by
following the directions for the diagram above. But remember: There is nothing magical about
clustering; the ideas you write down need to be worthwhile. If they’re not, the cluster isn’t likely
to be very useful.
U01L07
English 10 – EOP
Page 5 of 14
The Thesis Statement
Once you have determined your topic and generated information through free writing,
brainstorming or a cluster outline, you need to limit the scope, and focus the purpose, of your essay.
Although your first version is a “discovery draft,” your discoveries must take place within limits. If
you keep on wandering from one interesting thought to the next, you could write forever without
getting to the heart of one chosen idea.
A device of control that most writers use, consciously or unconsciously, is the “thesis statement.”
A thesis statement is a complete sentence – usually placed near the beginning of an essay –
that does two things very clearly: it limits the scope of the topic, and it focuses the writer’s
purpose. Think of it as the topic sentence for the whole essay. Thus, the thesis statement will
name the topic and identify the main idea about the topic. And the thesis should be one sentence in
active voice.
Choose one of your topics, the one that you feel has inspired the most promising cluster chart.
Now, review the chart to see if your ideas are “leaning” one way; that is, is there a theme or main
idea emerging? Is a point of view on the topic dominating the chart?
Consulting your teacher at this point is a good idea. A second perspective could be a big help
in seeing patterns and tendencies in the chart.
Now, you’re going to have to phrase a thesis statement – an active sentence which names the topic
and expresses your main idea about it; ideally, it should be the idea which emerged as dominant in
your cluster chart. However, first you should consider a scenario.
Let’s say you did a cluster chart on the topic, “dogs.” Your chart includes a great many points about
dogs; in addition, your chart is quite accomplished and groups your points somewhat the way the
“bookstore” example did. Further, let’s say that more points are negative, that the chart “leans”
towards the negative, that the negative appears to dominate the chart. The thesis, therefore,
could look like one of these:

Dogs are very overrated.

Dogs are definitely not man’s best friend.

“Canine” is a Latin word meaning “headache.”
Exercise
Return to your cluster and consider it until some thesis statement possibilities become apparent.
When you have one – or more than one, perhaps – that names the topic and expresses your main
idea, write it or them below.
U01L07
English 10 – EOP
Page 6 of 14
The Formal Outline
With a little luck, your cluster chart will have produced a main idea now appearing in your thesis;
moreover, it probably contains many points that you’ll select for your essay. However, the cluster
chart does not provide any really clear sense of order for your ideas; for this, you need a topic
outline. Consult the example “Stephen Crane” on the next page and then start your own:

Write your thesis in the second box

Move major points from your cluster chart. These will become the topics of paragraphs
supporting the thesis.
By all mean, move and change points, but keep in mind that your objective is to have three groups of
points that belong together. They are going to become the three paragraphs in the body of your
essay.
This is another occasion on which it would be useful to consult your teacher.
U01L07
English 10 – EOP
Page 7 of 14
Composition Worksheet
Stephen Crane broke away from the literary traditions in his belief
that nature did not care about men and he spent his life proving this
theory.
General Statement
Life was, after all, a battle against indifferent forces, and man must make his own way.
Thesis Statement
(subject & attitude, use a complete sentence)
Point #1
Crane lived in the Bowery
where he discovered the
constant struggles of
people against
environment
Point #2
Crane moved west and
lived with the “rugged”
people where he founded
his philosophy.
Point #3
In an attempt to arm
Cuban revolutionaries,
Crane was stranded at sea,
a victim of nature.
Crane found no
sympathetic God.
Nature in her essence is
brutal, ignorant of man.
Crane was a victim of
nature.
No miracles for starving
immigrants
Westerners, isolated could
depend only on
themselves.
He could see the
shorelines and people, but
they ignored him.
No happy endings.
People struggled from day
to day to survive.
Westerners were Crane’s
true people.
They symbolized his
philosophy.
Stephen Crane proved his theory of life by
surrounding himself with people who lived it.
Concluding Statement (Paragraph)
U01L07
English 10 – EOP
Page 8 of 14
Composition Worksheet
General Statement
Thesis Statement
(subject & attitude, use a complete sentence)
Point #1
Point #2
Concluding Statement (Paragraph)
U01L07
Point #3
English 10 – EOP
Page 9 of 14
Stage 2: Writing a Discovery Draft
In an ideal world, you would now be able to turn your points into paragraphs, supply strong
introductory and concluding paragraphs, and submit a polished essay. However, it is more realistic
to accept that your outline needs to be “tried on for size.” That is, you have to write a version of
the essay from the outline in order to discover its strengths and weaknesses.
Exercise
Using your outline as a guide, compose a discovery (rough) draft. Write freely, concentrating more
on getting your ideas down clearly than on mechanical correctness. If you are uncertain about
introductory and concluding paragraphs, you should look at “Planning the Introduction of an Essay”
and/or “Planning the Conclusion of an Essay” which are at the end of this package.
Now, be prepared to consult with your instructor as you follow
the remaining steps in the process.
Stage 3: Peer and Self-Evaluation
At this point you ought to have a draft that is paragraphed and which is more or less coherent,
although there will likely be mechanical errors. Re-read your work; more important, get another
reader and another opinion. Try to make judgments about clarity, interest and writing style. And
remember, the idea here is to be critical: look for ways to improve what you’ve written. Also
regard this as a working draft: suggestions, comments and changes can be made right on your
draft.
Stage 4: Revising
At this stage, your task is to write a second draft which incorporates improvements suggested by
peer and self-evaluation. Think of this as your “good copy,” possibly your final one. Write as well as
you can, worrying about mechanics and form this time out.
Stage 5: Proofreading
At this stage, some students will have more work left than others. However, finding and fixing
errors in spelling, usage, grammar and punctuation is the job. Again, treat your draft as a
manuscript: make corrections right on it. When proofreading is complete, write your final draft.
This is one you hand in to satisfy stage six (publishing and presenting).
Conclusion
Congratulations on your achievement. You have imposed thoughtful order on ideas about a topic
that interested you. The chances are very good that you have produced an essay that will be
enjoyable to read because it has been carefully planned and composed. In addition, it will stand up
well under a teacher’s scrutiny. And most important, the process you’ve learned will help you
succeed every time an expository essay is assigned to you.
U01L07
English 10 – EOP
Page 10 of 14
APPENDIX A:
PLANNING THE INTRODUCTION OF AN ESSAY
The introduction that you write for your essays are extremely important, primarily because they
serve as the first impression that you make on your readers. If your introduction is dull, if it
makes no attempt to interest your readers in your writing, chances are good that your readers will
say to themselves, “Why should we waste our time reading this? This writer doesn’t care anything
about us or what he is writing about.” If you spend too much time getting to your thesis statement,
your readers will become impatient. If your introduction seems confused, if it does not lead
logically into your thesis statement, or if your thesis statement is awkwardly stated or unclear, you
will probably lose your readers’ respect and their attention as well. You will have made a negative
first impression.
In writing, first impressions are actually more important than they are in meeting people. When you
meet someone who makes a bad first impression, you may be willing to give the person a second
chance. However, if a writer makes a bad first impression, the reader is unlikely to give the writer
a second chance. It is relatively difficult to simply turn your back and walk away from someone
that you are actually meeting in person, but it is easy to stop reading a person’s writing, since the
writer usually isn’t there to see the rejection.
Good introductions to expository essays should accomplish several functions.



An introduction should engage your readers’ interest.
An introduction should get to the main point or thesis logically and quickly.
An introduction should prepare the readers for what they will find in the body of
the essay.
If you follow the process that you have learned in writing an essay, you will have:





narrowed your topic to a main idea,
decided on and ordered the main points in support of the main idea,
listed and ordered the details that support each main point,
written a thesis statement that may include the organizational plan of your essay,
and
written the entire body of your essay, making transitions within and between the
paragraphs.
Now you are ready to write your introduction. First, how can you get your readers’ attention? How
can you capture their interests? How can you work your thesis into your introduction? Here are a
number of different methods that you can use.
One way to introduce your essay is to tell a brief story that relates to your main idea. For example,
if your assignment was to explain how you would spend $50,000 if it were given to you, you might
want to tell the story of how you got the money in the first place and why you have to explain how
you’re going to spend the money.
U01L07
English 10 – EOP
Page 11 of 14
This will call for some imagination on your part. Consider the possibilities:



A long-lost relative has left the money to you in her will, which specifies that you
must explain how you will spend the money when you get it.
You are digging in your back yard and you find a shoebox containing money. Your
parents want you to put it in the bank but you want to spend it. Somehow you must
convince your parents that you will spend the money wisely.
While cleaning your grandmother’s attic, you find a magic lamp. The genie inside
offers you the money if you can explain how you will spend it.
The possibilities are almost endless here; however, you must be careful not to let your story get so
long and involved that is doesn’t get to the point quickly.
A second way to introduce your essay is to ask your readers a question that will interest or perhaps
even anger them. For example, if you’re writing an essay that describes your classmate’s
dishonesty, you might want to begin it this way:
Have you ever known a person who tells lies about you behind your back? Has
anyone ever stolen your English paper and turned it in as his own, or made up
stories about himself that you later found were untrue? My classmate Fred is
guilty of all of these acts; he’s dishonest in his dealing with me and with others.
A third way to introduce your essay is to appeal to experiences that are common to most people or
to the importance of the topic. For example, if you are writing an essay that describes the
characteristics of the worst teacher you have ever had, you might want to begin as follows:
Nearly everybody has had the experience of having a “bad” teacher. This teacher
may be a “bad” teacher because he never explains things clearly or because he
yells at students. Perhaps he regularly ducks behind the books piled on his desk so
that he can snooze. My candidate for the Worst Teacher Award is Mr. Freeble.
He never planned his lessons, his personal habits were disgusting, and he hated his
students, particularly me.
Notice once again that the statements that appeal to the experience of others lead into the thesis
statement.
There are just a few ways to introduce your essay. You can also begin with a famous quotation, or
make a shocking statement or one that contradicts your main idea. The important points to
remember, though, are that you need to interest your readers and lead into the main idea logically,
smoothly, and quickly.
U01L07
English 10 – EOP
Page 12 of 14
APPENDIX B:
PLANNING THE CONCLUSION OF AN ESSAY
Very often, the weakest part of an essay is its ending. Sometimes it seems as if the writer spent a
great deal of time and care introducing and developing his topic, then got tired or bored and
decided to quit. Nothing detracts from an essay more than an inconclusive or “thrown-on” ending.
Remember, the ending of an essay is your last chance to communicate with your audience!
Getting a conclusion for an expository essay started is often frustrating. When you have discussed
everything you’ve wanted to cover, how do you say more? Probably the easiest method of starting a
conclusion is to restate your thesis, but not word for word. For example, the thesis statement of
an essay about your friend might have been:
Yvonne’s thoughtfulness is her most admirable quality.
Then the conclusion could begin as follows:
Yvonne is definitely the most thoughtful friend I have, and I admire her very
much, because thoughtfulness seems to have become a rare attribute to find in
people these days.
Or perhaps your thesis statement was:
Because of her actions towards her family, my mother, and me, Yvonne is the most
thoughtful friend I have ever had.
In that case your conclusion could begin:
Yvonne has always been my most thoughtful friend. She has shown this
thoughtfulness in almost everything that she does, but I am particularly aware of
her kindness toward her family, my mother, and me.
Once you have started a conclusion by rewriting your thesis statement, the next thing to do is to
convince your readers of the importance of your thesis; that is, you must show them that you write
about something that meant something to you; you created an essay because you had something to
say.
If you wrote an essay about something personal, a good way to convince your audience of the
importance of your experience is to show how it is related to an issue or issues which concern us all.
For example, if you tell your readers about the first time you fell in love, you probably will want to
say something about how we all experience “first love” and what this experience, ideally, should do
for us.
U01L07
English 10 – EOP
Page 13 of 14
Here is an example of a conclusion of an essay on first love:
Restatement of thesis
Relationship to broader issues
Explanation of importance
My experience with “first love” brings back memories that are
at the same time both painful and pleasant. All of us probably
experience such feelings as we think back on our first love
and how important to us it was at the time. When we see
young people today having that same experience, we should
try to be sympatric and understanding. Perhaps this
connection with the younger generation will bring all of us
closer together.
Here is a sample conclusion of an essay on a favourite place.
Restatement of thesis
Relationship to broader issues
Explanation of importance
Visiting Toronto is an experience that I won’t soon forget.
Reliving our rich cultural heritage in the museums, attending
plays, movies, and concerts, and eating in fine, yet widely
varied, restaurants all in the space of a few blocks has made
me appreciate an aspect of city life that often goes
unheralded. We hear so much on the news these days about
the crime, filth, and corruption in our cities that we forget
about all of the marvelous opportunities that they have to
offer us. Perhaps my experience will convince others to give
some thought to a vacation in the city next time they have a
few days off.
And here is a sample conclusion of an essay on a goal:
Restatement of thesis
Relationship to broader issues
Explanation of importance
U01L07
My performance at the musical festival was not quite good
enough to win, but I feel that I was in no way a loser. In the
space of a few months, I made many new friends from Truro
and all across eastern Canada. I gained valuable experience in
performing before large groups of people; I heard many fine
organists, and I met the judges, who were world-renowned
arrangers and professional organists. And, best of all, I
became aware of how important goals are whether or not they
are achieved. Too often we become bitter when we fail to
reach the goals that we set for ourselves, instead of valuing
what we can learn from simply trying. If people could learn to
value their failures as well as successes, they would profit
greatly and would have no time for bitterness and
disappointment.
English 10 – EOP
Page 14 of 14
Texts Used
Slater, Eileen, et al., eds. Literature and Language Art: Understanding Literature. St. Paul:
EMC/Paradigm Publish, 1996
Hart, Kathleen A. and Heim, Alice C. Sentences, Paragraphs and Essays: An Integrated Approach.
Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1979
U01L07