Differences Between Expository and Persuasive Essays

Expository and persuasive essays are both types of writing commonly assigned in school. They each have their own distinct differences, but they may seem the same to students who do not know what to look for. To better understand expository and persuasive essays, it is important to understand how writers use them.

An expository essay provides information, facts, background knowledge on a topic, or an explanation about something that explains the “who”, “what”, “when”, “where”, why or “how” something happened. When you write an expository essay you should provide a thesis statement at the beginning which states your argument in a nutshell. Your conclusion should summarize your entire argument again in a short paragraph so readers don’t lose track of everything that you have argued. Expository essays should answer all questions within the prompt and be unbiased to support your argument, but persuasive essays take a stand on an issue and attempt to convince readers of a certain point of view or action rather than present them with all sides to a story.

To write a convincing essay, the writer must back up his claims with facts that he provides as evidence. He then refutes any opposing arguments that might contradict his claim and provide counterarguments as proof against those arguments. To create good counterarguments, writers need to understand what the opposition is saying and how they are trying to influence readers’ opinions about their side. The writer’s concluding remarks wrap everything together by pointing out why his opinion is more logical than the opposition’s.

The most important difference between persuasive and expository essays is that the writer of a persuasive essay must take a side with his argument whereas an expository essay simply explains things without taking sides. For example, if you were writing about gun control laws in America, your teacher might ask you to write an expository essay where you would need to explain both sides of the issue (pro-gun owner vs anti-gun ownership) without giving your personal opinion on the topic. A persuasive author would then need to take a side by arguing why one point of view is better than another. It is usually best for students not to take sides when writing an academic paper because they are supposed to report facts, not be biased towards or against something. In this case, the expository essay would be the best choice as it presents facts and provides links to other sources as evidence. The persuasive essay would require you to provide some form of cited material from a reliable source but it wouldn’t have nearly as much information as an expository paper because you’d only be presenting your side instead of giving all sides.

In conclusion, persuasive and expository essays may look similar on a first glance for students who don’t know how to differentiate between them. It is important for writers to understand how they work so that they can write papers that follow proper structure and have enough information without plagiarizing their entire argument from books or encyclopedia articles. Expository essays are used mostly in academic settings where writers usually take the neutral side, but persuasive essays are commonly assigned in business settings where writers take a position on an issue so they can guide readers to their way of thinking. To learn more about each type of essay and how to write papers for different assignments, you can visit this source.