Expository Essay Workshop Agenda

							Assignment Description

          The expository essay is an essay that informs and explains. In doing so, it has a main idea or thesis as well as
subpoints related to the main idea that are supported and developed with evidence. This assignment asks you to write a 2-3 page
essay (typed, double-spaced) that informs and explains a topic of your own choice. The principal rhetorical structure of the
essay is comparison/contrast, although you will need to use at least one additional rhetorical structure (e.g. definition,
classification, description, narration, analysis, argument) to accomplish your task.

         Your audience for this essay is the class, and your purpose is to select a topic of personal interest and to explain by
comparing and contrasting some aspect of your topic to help us better understand it. Your language should be formal, clear,
descriptive, and precise for your chosen audience. Your evidence will come from the texts you researched and from your own
personal knowledge and insight. The essay should be 2- 3 pages (typed, double-spaced) in length.

         Your essay will contain the following elements:

         A title page with an original title, your name, the date, the class name, and my name.

         Paragraph 1—Introduction and context/background for your topic and the main idea about your topic

         Your expository essay should have 3 or more body paragraphs.

         Paragraph 2—Subpoint 1 and evidence

         Paragraph 3—Subpoint 2 and evidence

         Paragraph 4—Subpoint 3 and evidence

      Paragraph 5—Conclusion that answers the question “So what?” (For example, Why should I care? What should I
do? Why have I learned?)

         A Works Cited page that contains all the bibliographic information in its correct format.

         What the expository essay is:

1) a means of going beyond the literal content of the source

2) a tool n to explore ideas from academic sources by making a point and supporting and developing that point through
exposition

          What the expository essay is not:

1) a mere expression of personal, unsupported ideas/opinions

3) a text that only summarizes sources




Expository Essay                                               1/4
Assignment Rubric

   1 - Limited           2 - Developing          3 - Proficient           4 - Advanced            5-Exemplary
Writing                 *Writing                *Writing                *Writing                  *Writing
demonstrates little     demonstrates            demonstrates good       demonstrates keen         demonstrates
or no awareness of      emergent but            awareness of            awareness of              superior awareness of
audience and            inconsistent            audience and            audience and              audience and
purpose. As a           awareness of            purpose.                purpose.                  purpose.
result, presentation/   audience and            *Presentation/          *Presentation/            *Presentations/
genre, language, and    purpose.                genre adequately        genre, in addition to     genres meet all
evidence are not        *Presentation/          meet all                meeting all               assignment criteria,
appropriate to the      genre meet some         assignment              assignment criteria,      exhibit ownership of
writing task and        assignment criteria.    criteria.               exhibit ownership of      the writing task as
there is little or no   *Language exhibits      *Language is            the writing task as       well as originality in
evidence of revision    minimal proficiency     appropriate to          well as some degree       task interpretation.
strategies at any       at lexical and          writing tasks.          of originality in task    *Language exhibits
level.                  syntactic levels.       Draft exhibits          interpretation.           personal style
                        There is some control   increasing facility     *Language is entirely     entirely appropriate
                        of simple and           and there is            appropriate to writing    to writing tasks.
                        compound sentences      evidence of             tasks. Draft exhibits     Draft exhibits
                        through multiple        strategic revision      strategic revision at     superior revision
                        drafts, but revision    at lexical,             lexical, syntactic, and   strategies at all
                        exists mostly at        syntactic, and          organizational levels.    levels.
                        lexical and syntactic   organizational          Personal style is         *Evidence is clear,
                        levels rather than      levels. Errors and      evident and almost        persuasive and
                        organizational level.   inappropriate           always appropriate to     strategically
                        Errors obscure          usages still occur      writing tasks. Errors     weighted to different
                        meaning.                but do not obscure      and inappropriate         aspects/points of
                        *Evidence is            meaning.                usages are infrequent.    topics.
                        insufficient and        *Evidence is            *Evidence clearly
                        occasionally not        relevant and            and persuasively
                        relevant to topics.     consistently            supports and
                                                supports and            develops topics.
                                                develops topics.




Expository Essay                                                  2/4
Instructions
Listen to and read the drafts of your Workshop members and complete the tasks below.

Audience and purpose:
O Is the writer aware of having an audience for the essay? What evidence do you see of this (or not).

O Does the essay have a clear purpose? What do you think the purpose is? Does the purpose fulfil what assignment
asked?

Organization

Introduction
O Is there a clear context in which to consider the topic? What is the context?

O Does the introduction conclude with a clearly written thesis? Write a paraphrase of it.

O Does each body paragraph begin with a clear topic sentence? Paraphrase each topic sentence?

O Are their appropriate transition words or phrases that logically connect each paragraph? If not, where are
transitions lacking?

O Does the conclusion paraphrase the thesis effectively? How does the conclusion answer the question “So what?”

Development

O Is each topic sentence in each body paragraph sufficiently developed with clear, specific evidence? What kinds of
evidence do you find most persuasive or clear? Why? What kinds of evidence (if any) do you find least persuasive
or clear? Why?


Language

O Reread and listen again to each draft for language. What error patterns can you identify? Cite 1 or 2 error
patterns and give examples from the draft to illustrate the error.


Score 1
Using the assignment rubric, give the essay a score between 5 and 1.
o1
o2
o3
o4
o5

Now using the UMEI004 Writing Rubric and give each essay a score between 5 and 1 in each category

Language
o1
o2
o3
o4
o5

Expository Essay                                       3/4
Organization
o1
o2
o3
o4
o5

Communication
o1
o2
o3
o4
o5

                              UMEI004B General Writing Rubric
 Can write clear, smoothly-   A good range of vocabulary        Smoothly flowing text. Good    Conveys ideas and
 flowing text, showing a      and structure with stylistic      use of connectors and          arguments clearly and
 good range of language,      variation. Flexible and           cohesive devices above the     effectively. Systematic
 appropriate style and good   appropriate choice of             sentence level to mark the     development with appropriate
 use of connectors and        expression. Occasional errors     relationships between ideas.   highlighting and relevant
 cohesive devices.            and inappropriate usage.                                         supporting detail.
 Occasional errors and
 inappropriate usage.
 Can write clear, smoothly-   A good range of vocabulary        Smoothly flowing text. Good    Conveys ideas and
 flowing text, showing a      and structure with stylistic      use of connectors and          arguments clearly and
 good range of language,      variation. Flexible and           cohesive devices above the     effectively. Systematic
 appropriate style and good   appropriate choice of             sentence level to mark the     development with appropriate
 use of connectors and        expression. Occasional errors     relationships between ideas.   highlighting and relevant
 cohesive devices.            and inappropriate usage.                                         supporting detail.
 Occasional errors and
 inappropriate usage.
 Can write clear text         Active command of a               Topic and ideas clearly        Communicates fluently and
 presenting ideas in          sufficient range of language      presented. Adequate use of     reliably to sustain a
 reasonably accurate          to express ideas on a wide        logical and sequential         correspondence, develop an
 language. Choice of words    range of topics Good grasp of     connectors, although there     argument, expand and
 may sometimes be             language system, though           may still be occasional less   support a point of view, or
 inappropriate but there is   quite a few errors. Sometimes     elegant linking.               outline detailed information.
 an accurate realisation of   chooses inappropriate
 the task.                    expressions.
 Can write text that is       Enough language to find           Organised well enough to       Communication is
 organised well enough to     ways of expressing what he        flow as a text, but use of     successfully achieved on
 follow most of the time.     or she wants to. Little           connectors sometimes           straightforward subjects,
 Expression may be            variation. Formulation can be     hesitant or incorrect. This    despite lack of fluency. Errors
 awkward and the message      pretty awkward. Tenses            may cause some “jumpiness”     seldom cause mis-
 may sometimes be             usually correct, but in general   or a staccato effect in the    understandings or prevent the
 obscured but                 lots of errors                    text.                          reader following.
 communication is achieved
 successfully, despite some
 serious errors.
 Can write simple text        Can use a wide range of           Writes simple text following   Communication generally
 following basic              simple language flexibly, but     layout conventions. Limited    achieved on everyday
 conventions. Serious         with no variation. Possibly       connectors. May show poor      subjects. The message is
 grammatical errors and       serious errors. Uses lexical      paragraphing and               difficult to follow when the
 poor use of connectors and   approximation to express          punctuation.                   subject requires detail or
 paragraphing sometimes       much of what he/she wants                                        precision.
 make the message difficult   to.
 to follow but
 communication is generally
 achieved.




Expository Essay                                                   4/4