Explanitory Essay

The Informative/Explanatory Essay

What is it?

"Informative essays engage readers with new, interesting, and often surprising facts and details about a subject. Informative essays are educational; readers expect to learn something new from them. In fact, much of the reading and writing done in college and the workplace is informative. From textbooks to reports to tutorials like this one, informative writing imparts important and useful information about a topic" (from “Writing an Informative Essay”).

"Expository writing isn’t the place to be cute, clever, or edgy; it’s the kind of writing where you position facts and observations to let them speak for themselves in the most effective way possible. It’s the kind of writing you do when you’re analyzing information you’ve been assigned to study, thinking critically about concepts covered in class, and explaining the processes and reasons behind the conclusions you’ve reached" (“Expository Essays: A Complete Guide”).

What is it for?

The main purpose is to educate the reader.

Informative/Explanation Essays may also be written:

to define or describe a subject.
to explain directions for how to do something.
to pose a problem and its solution.
to compare subjects by exploring how they are similar and different.

Sometimes these essays are called Expository Essays. Exposition simply means a comprehensive description of an idea or theory. Regardless of its name, the key to this type of essay is that it does not simply become a report. Rather, it is an essay with a decisive thesis statement guiding the organization of the information. This type of writing seeks to explain, expose, and inform the reader about a subject while allowing the reader to come to their own opinions and conclusions.

All Informative/Explanatory Essays have:

•an objective and academic tone.

• effective introductory and concluding paragraphs.

• a clearly stated purpose or thesis.

• well-chosen supporting details from credible sources.

• an organizing structure that is appropriate for the purpose, audience, and context.

• ideas from several sources cited both in the text and in the works cited section at the end.

The Explanatory Essay Writing Process:

Prewriting

1. Review and mark the prompt to highlight major elements of the task. Use a prewriting strategy to explore ideas that may address the prompt.

2. Select the best ideas from your prewriting to construct a working thesis.

3. What other resources might you use to complete or add to your knowledge of this subject and a solution or solutions to the problem? What primary or secondary sources could you access? Are there experts to be consulted?

4. Once you have found additional resources, locate and evaluate information about the problem and the solution or solutions that will be helpful in writing your essay.

Consider using SOAPStone as a tool to plan your essay:

Speaker-What role or persona might you take on as you craft your text?

Occasion-What are your motivations for creating this text? Consider the social, cultural, historical, or geographical contexts that may have triggered a response prompting you to compose a text.

Audience-Consider who will be interested in reading your text. Why? What genre or mode will you pursue to appeal to, reach, and engage your readers?

Purpose-What is your preliminary position on this topic? How do you want your readers to feel or react after reading your text?

Subject-What is your topic, and why do you want to explore this subject? Consider what you currently know and need to know in order to guide the exploration of your selected topic.

Tone: What is your attitude toward your subject or audience? How will you use language (e.g., diction, syntax, and imagery) to convey your tone?

Drafting

5. Review and organize the ideas from your prewriting as you draft your body paragraphs. Use an outline to organize your ideas. Be sure to brainstorm topic sentences that support the thesis and make distinctions about the relative value of specific data, facts, and ideas that support the topic sentences and thesis statement. Draft your body paragraphs using MLA formatting. Be sure to include details, commentary, quotes, and transitions.

A body paragraph includes these elements:

• Claim/Topic sentence: A strong, clear, organizing sentence that consists of a subject and opinion that works directly to support the thesis.

• Details: Relevant facts and supporting evidence that are appropriate for the topic and relevant to the opinion in the thesis.

• Quotes: Direct quotations from research, texts, or experts. Use MLA in-text citations and a Works Cited section.

• Commentary: Sentences that explain how the information is relevant to the thesis/topic sentence. These sentences are vital because they serve to reflect, analyze, explain, and interpret. Sentences of commentary also bring a sense of closure to the paragraph.

• Transitions: Words or phrases used to connect ideas (e.g., for example, for instance)

To create an effective draft, you will need a thesis to give focus to the essay. A thesis statement has two purposes: to express a central opinion to be proven in the essay and to suggest how the writer intends to show or develop the opinion. Consider a three-part process when developing a working thesis:

• Define or identify the task set by the prompt.

• Consider what needs to be addressed in the response.

• Decide how best to respond.

Your thesis shows your reader that you are competent and fully committed to your opinion on the subject.

6. Read your body paragraphs and agree on an effective way to introduce and conclude your key ideas. Use a prewriting strategy to generate a draft with an effective introduction (e.g., hook/lead, connection, and thesis) and conclusion (responses to the levels of questions). The conclusion brings a sense of closure to the essay. The most satisfying essay is one in which the conclusion provides an interesting way of wrapping up ideas introduced at the beginning of the essay and developed throughout. Use the Questioning the Text strategy to guide your thinking in crafting a conclusion that echoes, but does not exactly repeat, your controlling idea or thesis:

• What did you say? (literal)

• What does it mean? (interpretive)

• Why does it matter? (universal)

Revising

7. Review the elements of an explanatory essay. Read aloud your draft in a peer editing writing group, and gather feedback based on the rubric criteria.

8. Review language use. Select ideas to emphasize by incorporating sentence variety as well as appropriate rhetorical devices (such as anaphora, hypophora, and antithesis). If your draft contains too many simple sentences, discuss the sentences that could be revised for clarity or to achieve your desired effect.

9. Review your draft for coherence. A coherent essay presents ideas that tie together and flow smoothly, making the essay easy for the reader to follow. Revise for coherence by using transitional words and phrases within and between paragraphs.

• Discuss which transitions can be used effectively to link ideas within and between your body paragraphs. Incorporate transitions into your draft.

• Transitional words and phrases include the following: because, since, for the same reason, obviously, evidently, furthermore, besides, indeed, in fact, in any case. (Tip: Google transition words and phrases)

• Revise topic and concluding sentences as needed to be sure they include transitional elements.

Editing

10. Read your draft out loud and peer edit to correct errors in grammar, punctuation, and spelling.

11. Generate a list of creative titles. Rank them and select one. Remember a title should be unique and not the assignment name. Place a title at the top of your essay.

12. Check MLA formatting.

Proofreading

13. Use the rubric to evaluate your essay and ensure that it meets all of the requirements. If possible, exchange your essay with another peer and allow them to evaluate it against the rubric to ensure your essay is successful.

Publishing

14. Turn it in for feedback. Celebrate a job well done! 😁

Grading Rubric:

9-12 Explanatory Writing Rubric.pdf

Tennessee English Language Arts Standards

9-10.W.TTP.2

Write informative/explanatory essay is to analyze and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection and organization of content.

a. Provide an introduction that is relevant to the rest of the text and effectively engages the audience.

b. Organize ideas to create cohesion and clarify relationships among ideas and concepts, including but not limited to use of appropriate and varied transitions.

c. Develop the topic with well-chosen, relevant, and sufficient facts, extended definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples appropriate to the audience’s knowledge of the topic.

d. Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the information or explanation presented.

e. Use appropriate formatting, graphics, and multimedia to aid comprehension.

f. Use precise language and domain-specific vocabulary to manage the complexity of the topic.

g. Establish and maintain a formal style and objective tone.

Writing Process Adapted from: Springboard Eng II Writing Workshop

Works Cited

“Writing an Informative Essay.” Purdue Global Academic Success and Writing Resource Center and Blog, 5 Nov. 2020, purdueglobalwriting.center/writing-an-informative-essay.

“Expository Essays: A Complete Guide.” Expository Essay Guide With Definition & Examples | Grammarly Blog, 2 June 2022, www.grammarly.com/blog/expository-essay.

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