Everything You Need to Know to Teach Expository Writing

Confession: for most of our careers, we didn’t really know what “expository writing” meant, why it mattered as much as its cousin “argument,” or (unsurprisingly, given the first two confessions) how best to teach it.

And really, this worked for us. We saw a lot of value in teaching our students how to write strong arguments, usually about literature, and our students needed lots of practice with this skill, so that’s what we focused on.

But in the couple years since leaving the classroom, we’ve learned a lot more about expository writing and come to see that, actually, it’s pretty common in academic writing, particularly in other subject areas. Between Steph’s work tutoring, Kate’s work at her son’s middle school, and Steph’s AP Seminar and AP Research courses, we’ve seen a lot of expository writing prompts, and we’ve had to think about how our go-to 5C structure fits this particular writing type.

And once we did that, we realized that expository writing is not only something we should be directly teaching our students but something we can teach our students using the skills we’ve already honed in our argumentative writing units.

Want to know what we’ve learned? Read on—we’re excited to share!

What Even Is Expository Writing?

Okay, lest our credentials as your ELA gurus get called into question after our opening confession, we did literally know what expository writing is. The word “expository” means “serving to expound, set forth, or explain.” Since that’s not the most helpful definition, “expound” means “to give a clear explanation of,” and “set forth” means “to explain in a clear, organized way.”

Expository writing, then, requires the reader to explain their knowledge of a topic in a clear, organized manner.

Well, no wonder expository writing is actually the most common writing type our students encounter: they do it all day long, in all their classes (including, what do you know, ours), as we ask them to demonstrate their understanding of topics from The Great Gatsby to the causes of World War I to the process of photosynthesis.

What hung us up was the question of how students are supposed to make and support claims with commentary when they aren’t actually arguing a position. We’ve come to realize, however, that in expository writing, it’s less about supporting a claim someone could disagree with and more about digging into why the information matters and why it’s important for the reader to understand.

The Five Main Types of Expository Writing

Another thing that confused us about teaching writing? Even though our content standards listed three types—narrative, argumentative, and expository (or informative)—our colleagues in AP Language seemed to be teaching their students a whole bunch of other writing types. It turns out, however, that many of these other writing types are more ways of structuring an expository essay than they are entirely different writing types.

Expository writing can take the form of these five most common types:

#1 definition

Definition prompts ask for a description or explanation of a concept, person, situation, etc. A biology teacher, for example, might ask students to describe the process of photosynthesis. Students would then define the term, explaining each part of the process and its function. Their commentary would focus on this last part: each step’s function and how it serves the larger whole.

#2 Classification

Classification prompts ask the writer to take a broad concept or topic, say feminism, and break it down into subcategories (in our example, we might select liberal feminism, radical feminism, and intersectional feminism). Students’ commentary would likely focus on how each subcategory is similar to and different from the others and, perhaps, explore pros and cons of each or what kind of person might gravitate toward each one.

#3 Problem – Solution

Problem-solution prompts, also referred to as “process” or “how-to” essays, ask students to introduce and describe a problem and then explain how to solve it. At the most basic level, students can describe a process as simple as making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, using their commentary to explain why each step matters in getting the optimal end result and to identify potential pitfalls.

As students become more advanced, however, this starts to look a lot more like one of the AP Seminar Performance Tasks, where students present their understanding of a problem or issue and then argue for the best solution to address that problem or issue. In a formal research paper, this type of expository writing is essential, as students must describe their research method in enough detail that another researcher could replicate the method and achieve the same results.

#4 Compare and Contrast

Compare and contrast prompts ask students to identify the similarities and differences, or pros and cons, of at least two subjects. Perhaps a teacher in any subject might ask students to discuss the pros and cons of two or more possible solutions to a problem; a psychology teacher might ask students to compare and contrast classical and operant conditioning. Students’ commentary might expand on the similarities and differences between subjects being compared or consider the purpose or effect of these similarities and differences.

#5 Cause and Effect

Cause and effect prompts ask students to explain why something happened and then what the result of that event was. A history teacher might ask students to explain the causes and effects of the Civil War in an American history course. The students’ commentary could explain how the causes led to specific effects, the implications of specific events, or why a series of events turned out the way that they did.

Key Skills to Emphasize When You Teach Expository Writing

While there is absolutely overlap in skills our students need to be successful in the three main writing types, each genre also has its own unique features that we must introduce students to. In narrative writing, we emphasize sensory details, dialogue, and reflection; in argumentative writing, we focus on thesis statements, line of reasoning, quality evidence, strong context and commentary, and presenting/refuting counterarguments and objections.

The skills needed for expository writing overlap heavily with those needed for argumentative writing, but there are a few differences we would zoom in on.

Integrating, Punctuating, and Citing Quotations

The traditional research paper certainly falls into the category of expository writing, and when it comes to research, correctly integrating, punctuating, and citing quotations according to a specific style guide is essential.

Students need to move away from the dreaded “drop-in” quote and learn how to integrate and punctuate quotations correctly. And they have to learn how to cite those quotations to avoid accidental plagiarism.

Summary vs. Commentary

Because expository writing involves more explaining than arguing, it’s really easy for students to fall into the trap of summarizing rather than providing meaningful commentary. We’re fans of providing students with sentence starters or prompting questions (and our students like it, too) because it helps them see how to elaborate on a fact without merely repeating it.

Implications

On a related note, an expository writing unit is a great place to introduce students to the idea of “implications.” Implications are a key part of the AP Seminar curriculum, and for the purposes of the course, the College Board defines implications as “a possible future effect or result” (AP Seminar Course and Exam Description, p. 118).

Introducing our students to this term really unlocks the concept of commentary in expository writing for them: when students consider the possible results of an idea, whether those results are positive or negative, they’re addressing the “so what” that constitutes strong commentary and moving away from summary.

MLA Format

If you haven’t done your MLA unit yet, this is a great time to review the basics. As we mentioned above, expository writing often takes the form of a traditional research paper, where adherence to a style guide matters a lot. Since MLA is the preferred style guide for our discipline, we want to make sure our students know not only how to format their quotations and citations in MLA style but how to format their entire paper in MLA style. (Looking for a quick review of punctuation rules and MLA formatting? Join our Free Resource Library for access to both!)

Helping Students Create an Expository Essay Outline

In some ways, organizing an expository essay can feel more challenging than the actual process of writing the essay. The organization of expository writing is driven by the type of expository writing, and students aren’t always sure which type of prompt they’re dealing with (another skill we recommend zooming in on).

A definition essay would likely be organized chronologically. If, as in our sample prompt above, a student was describing the process of photosynthesis, it would make sense for students to walk their readers through the process. For an essay describing a less process-driven concept, the student might break the simple definition into component parts that they could discuss in more detail in each body paragraph.

A classification essay is one of the easier ones to organize: students can devote a body paragraph to each of the subcategories they break their broad topic into.

For novice writers, a problem-solution essay can be broken into two body paragraphs—problem and solution. For more advanced writers, however, there are more sophisticated options. Students could write a paragraph about the problem or issue, and then break the solution into parts; students could also break the problem into three parts, and then in each body paragraph, they could address one part of the problem and the corresponding part of the solution.

Similarly, compare and contrast essays can be organized simply for novice writers—one paragraph about similarities and one paragraph about differences or one paragraph about each subject being compared—or in a more sophisticated manner for more advanced writers—identify three elements present in the subjects being compared and discuss the similarities and differences of each in its own paragraph.

A cause and effect essay is probably the easiest to organize: since it’s describing events that happened over time, it makes sense to discuss those events chronologically. For a five-paragraph essay, we’d probably recommend a three-event chain: cause—event (like the Civil War)—effect.

Provide Students with an Expository Essay Template

We mentioned at the outset that one of the things we found most challenging to wrap our minds around when it came to expository writing was how, exactly, to fit our beloved 5C paragraph structure to an essay type that wasn’t necessarily an argument that required defending a claim. As we learned more, however, we saw that it’s a relatively easy fit, one that’s actually not that different from the way we use it for argumentative writing—helpful when we’re trying to give our students a go-to skill that they can apply to any writing assignment.

Here’s how we set the essay up for students:

Introduction

Hook

No matter what the essay type is, students need to start with a hook that grabs the reader’s attention and introduces the essay’s topic. Our go-to recommendations are anecdotes, generalizations, startling facts, and quotations (and if you need a mini-lesson to introduce these types of hooks to your students, we’ve got you covered!).

context

No matter what topic students are explaining, they need to provide some general information about the topic to situate the reader. Depending on the prompt and topic, students might provide background information, use the 5 Ws (who, what, when, where, why) to introduce the topic’s scope and prevalence, or define key terms.

thesis

All essay prompts ask at least one question (whether implied or explicitly asked), and students need to clearly answer that question and address the significance, or “So what,” that makes it clear why this topic is worth discussing.

Body Paragraphs

For each body paragraph, students can follow the 5C format:

Claim

Each body paragraph should begin with a statement that clearly identifies the part of the thesis being developed in that particular paragraph.

Concrete Evidence

Students should support the claim by providing a correctly integrated, punctuated, and cited direct quotation from a reputable source. Fact-based evidence works best in expository writing because it helps students maintain an objective tone; if students intend to use opinion-based evidence, we recommend encouraging them to stay away from inflammatory or controversial statements.

Context

Students should provide background details or additional information that will help establish or explain the importance of the details included in the quotation.

Commentary

Here, students explain how the concrete evidence supports their claim, often by hinting at the significance (or “So what?”) part of the thesis statement. In many cases, students will discuss the implications of their evidence as they demonstrate why it is appropriate support for their claim and thesis statement.

Connection

Students should use the last sentence of each body paragraph to connect the concrete evidence they discussed in this paragraph to the concrete evidence they will discuss in the next paragraph, essentially building a “bridge” between paragraphs by explaining how this claim logically connects to the next claim. At the end of the final body paragraph, students should prepare the reader for the conclusion with a statement that indicates they’re closing the discussion of evidence.

Conclusion

Restate Thesis

Students will want to remind the reader of the original thesis statement but state it in a new way, perhaps by considering the evidence they’ve included and the evidence they’ve shared in their commentary. We’ve started encouraging students who are struggling with this to connect the best insight from one of their commentary sentences to their original thesis to reinforce the strength of their analysis.

Synthesis

Students should then discuss the implications of the ideas they’ve presented in the essay for the larger community. Students might position the ideas in their essay in a larger historical context or explain how they interacted with one another; in a problem-solution prompt, students might discuss the implications of failing to take action.

So What

Students should end with impact, explaining what makes this topic worthy of discussion. We encourage students to consider why this is a topic worth discussing in today’s day and age or what someone could have learned, had clarified, or better understood as a result of reading the information presented in their essay.

Expository writing may not require students to defend an arguable claim in quite the same way that argumentative writing does, but we’ve come to realize it’s a valuable skill to teach our students that they can apply in many of their classes (and we’re pretty sure our colleagues in other subject areas will be grateful if we can give our students a strong foundation in it).

And the 5C format that works so nicely in argumentative writing does fit nicely with expository writing as well, helping our students to move beyond mere summary to the significance and implications of the ideas they are presenting, ultimately pushing them to think about why these ideas matter, which is what we want most from them.

Implement this structure the next time you teach essay writing with our Expository Writing Essay Outline. The product includes a teacher presentation that walks students through the structure presented here and provides a sample essay to illustrate what each sentence should look like, a visually attractive outline of the expository essay structure that students can keep in their binders (or that you can post on their LMS), and a graphic organizer students can use to draft their own expository essay in this format.

If you have any questions about what we’ve shared here or you’ve implemented our ideas and want to share how it went, we’d love to hear from you! You can reach us at [email protected] or on Instagram @threeheads.works.