In school, we often act as if the only writing in the universe
were the five-paragraph essay. In fact, almost all written material
ordinary people read and write is exposition even though very
little of it is in 5-paragraph format.
Memos, e-mails, letters to the editor, notes to Kyle's teacher
all are examples of exposition. So are Kyle's algebra text,
your employee manual, and the daily paper.
Each of those forms of writing is an example of nonfiction informative
prose. In each case the writing exposes or explains
opinions or ideas.
It is non or not fiction because the writers present
it as true and believe that it is true. They may be mistaken,
but that's a different matter.
Good exposition does for ideas what supermarket tabloids for celebrities'
bodies: lays them out where nobody can miss a freckle on them.
There are as many varieties of exposition as there are cereal brands,
each with their own patterns of organization. Fortunately, you and
I don't have to teach them all or write them all. We can limit
ourselves to teaching one that can be adapted to many other
uses.
To succeed as a writing teacher, you need to know some basic terminology
like nonfiction and
essay, mainly so you use lingo with the least chance of confusing
students. (Writing is full of terms that can mean different things
depending on the context.)
You also need to know a few other things as well:
Sooner or later, we'll look at every one of those expository writing
issues somewhere on this website.
created 05-May-2008; updated: 11-Sep-2008