Writing Process: Choose and Follow

Now that you know about each element of the essay and important considerations for expository essays, let's see if we can use this knowledge to write an expository essay.

Task

Below, we have structured three short essays for you and given you the sub-topic for each body paragraph. Choose one of the options and write it as a full text. Add facts and explanations to support your thesis and develop your ideas. Make sure you use good transitions between and within the body paragraphs. Your essay should be about 300 words and have a clear introduction ending with a thesis statement, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

Walkthrough and Example

So how should you get started? In ESL001 and ESL002, you learned about the writing process, so approaching your writing task is all about following those steps. Let's review together with a sample expository essay on the topic of "fads".

Step 1: Thinking about your assignment

When you receive your writing assignment from your professor, it's important to stop and think about your assignment. What are the requirements? What is the purpose of this assignment? What is your professor asking you to write? Who are you writing for?

Step 2: Gathering and Ordering Information

Once you have decided what you want to write about, you need to stop and consider if you have chosen a feasible topic that meets the assignment's purpose.

The important thing is to think about your assignment requirements, including length requirements, and make sure you have found a topic that is specific enough to be engaging and interesting and will fit within the assignment requirements.

Also, an important action at this time is to list out your main ideas, including your thesis, to help you visualize where you are going with your essay. An outline, even if informal, will help you see before you begin drafting if your ideas will support your thesis.

Step 3: Drafting

Drafting consists of building the paragraphs of your writing and linking them together. And remember, the draft you create at this point is not your final draft.

Drafting involves making choices about how much information to offer and what information to put where. Your outline will be a guide, but you may find that you need to revise the order once you begin drafting.       

Introduction: hook + connecting information + thesis

• begin by drawing your reader in – offer a statement that will pique their interest in your topic
• offer some context or background information about your topic that leads you to your thesis
• conclude with the thesis statement

example: Fads, by definition, are short-lived trends that garner the attention of a lot of people. One day, it's in; the next day, it's out. Fads prevail temporarily, but certain clothing items, hairstyles, and even traditional toys and games that began as fleeting fads are considered classics.

Body: topic sentence + support + concluding sentence or transition to next body paragraph

• clearly state the main point in each paragraph in the form of a topic sentence.
• then, support that point with evidence.
• provide an explanation of the evidence's significance. Highlight the way the main point shows the logical steps in the argument and link back to the claim you make in your thesis statement.

example 1: Each season, fashion designers establish trends while retailers cash in on the wildly popular fads. As seasons change, so do the trends. The "it" item fades away, forgotten. However, classic clothing essentials like the basic black tee, the perfect pair of jeans, and the little black dress stand the test of time. Each began as a fad but has transformed into chic wardrobe staples.

example 2: Much like fashion, trends in hairstyles are cyclical. Hair stylists aim to create modern and fashionable looks, often resulting in hairstyle fads. The Mohawk, mullet, perm, and bowl cut are hairstyle fads that many hope will never be in vogue again. But the ponytail, sleek bob, and the classic taper are trend-proof hairstyles that will never go out of style.

example 3: Fads can also be found in the toy and gaming industry. Each year, toy and game manufacturers vie to be the top Christmas toys. This once-a-year bonanza has fueled outrageous sales of toys such as Teddy Ruxpin, Tomagochi, and Furby. After the holiday hype, many of these toys are forgotten. There are toys, however, that experienced breakout sales one holiday season and continue to be hot sellers. The Rubik's Cube and Barbie doll began as hot Christmas toys and can still be found in toy stores today.

Conclusion: restate your thesis + summarize your points + add a final comment

• what is the significance of the ideas you developed in this paper?
• how does your paper affect you, others like you, people in your community, or people in other communities?
• what must be done about this topic?

example: With new garments, hairstyles, toys, and games being made every day, trends and fads will come and go. But much like the little black dress, the ponytail, and the Barbie doll, a few select fads will transition from fad to classic. Can you predict the next one?

Step 4: Revising and Editing

Many students often try to lump revising and editing into one, but they are really two separate activities. Revising is about your content, while editing is about sentence-level issues and typos. It's important to remember to allow yourself time to complete both parts of this process carefully.

Revision is about seeing your writing again. Revising is an important step in the writing process because it enables you to look at your writing more objectively from a reader's point of view. Set your writing aside for a time. Then, go back to it and work from big to small as you ask and answer revising questions.

Basic Big Revision Questions - Ask These First:

• Are there places that are not clear? → use specific vocabulary
• Are there places that need more examples and explanations? → add enough support - facts
• Are there places that need less information because the information strays too much from your main point? – remove irrelevant ideas
• Does some of the information need to be re-ordered in order to make sense to a reader who may not have much background on this topic? → improve coherence and cohesion

As you see, these basic revision questions concern themselves with the amount, clarity, and order of information. That's what the revision process is all about - making sure that your concepts and supporting information are presented in the clearest, most logical way for most readers to understand.

Once you deal with the big things (amount and order of information), then you can move to the small things - the language, grammar, spelling, and punctuation. In this step, don't forget to check for what we learned in Unit 1:

• subject-verb agreement
• pronoun-antecedent agreement
• tense consistency

Step 5: Ready to share your final draft?

Content adapted from:

Karin Søvik, https://ndla.no/en/subject:1:c8d6ed8b-d376-4c7b-b73a-3a1d48c3a357/topic:49713c92-82c9-47a6-8b2b-f29a1605649d/resource:1:99692
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Christine Jones, https://open.maricopa.edu/english102open/chapter/chapter-1/#chapter-5-section-20
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License.

LibreTexts , https://human.libretexts.org/Courses/Community_College_of_Allegheny_County/Book%3A_A_Guide_to_Rhetoric_Genre_and_Success_in_First-Year_Writing_(Gagich_and_Zickel)/04%3A_Structuring_Paragraphing_and_Styling/4.01%3A_Basic_Essay_Structure
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License.

Writing Unleashed, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FThUwujtFIvhyBpabyH5uJevNwmPrG8p/view
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License.