expository essay on a problem in the world
To get started on an expository essay, consider a problem or issue of concern related to your chosen topic category (food, education, technology, or race/class/identity) that you would like to “expose” to an audience. The readings from They Say, I Say addressed issues or concerns within the context of these topic categories. I would encourage you to raise a different issue, perhaps one connected in some way to what you wrote about in your narrative essay.
Some questions you should consider addressing in the essay: What is the problem or issue? Why is it a problem/issue? Who is affected by it? How are people affected? When did it become an issue? Where does the issue exist?
Once you have identified a thesis, think about what types of support will help your readers to better understand the viewpoint you are expressing. Will you need to describe a cause/effect relationship between things? Will you need to compare/contrast? Is there anything that must be defined for an average audience?
Use these and other questions to consider how best you to explain your viewpoint to your readers. Organize your ideas in a logical manner to formulate the body paragraphs (support) in your essay.
Finally, use your conclusion to readdress your thesis in light of the supporting ideas you have provided in the body of the essay. The conclusion can also offer implications (other related matters to think about or seek more information on) or applications (possible actions that can be taken on the issue).
Consider this expository essay as one that simply describes a problem or issue, NOT an essay that provides the solution. While your conclusion paragraph might give a brief glimpse at some possible solutions, the goal of this essay is simply to expose the issue. Your next essay–the argument essay–may be used to discuss a solution to the problem or issue you describe in the expository essay.
Your expository essay should be a minimum of 4 pages in length (1000 words) and include a Works Cited page with 3 reliable sources. The entire document should be properly formatted in MLA style. You should be sure to include well-formed introduction and conclusion paragraphs, and your body paragraphs should be well-organized with clear topic sentences at the beginning of each paragraph.
Here are some examples of student essays to give you a sense of how this essay could look:
expository essay example 1.pdf