Mastering Expository Text: Structure, Forms, and Characteristics
Understanding Expository Text
Expository texts require organization and quality to effectively convey information. The writing style must be clear and understandable to the reader.
Structure of Expository Text
Introduction: Presents the topic to be discussed.
Development: Clarifies and explains the topic introduced.
Conclusion: Briefly summarizes the main ideas or views.
Forms of Expository Text
Narrative
Presents facts and events in a time sequence, using temporal and ordinal connectors.
Descriptive
- Structure of Description: Exposes properties and parts of a being or object.
- Structure of Comparison: Presents analogies and differences between two people or objects.
- Structure of Enumeration: Presents beings that share the same characteristics.
Argumentative
- Structure of Cause-Effect: Analyzes the cause of an event and its effects.
- Structure of Problem-Solution: Provides solutions to a problem.
Description: Painting with Words
Describes a person, object, or landscape.
Classes According to Attitude
- Subjective: Includes personal opinions.
- Objective: Presents facts without bias.
Classes According to Description
- Characters: Includes prosopography (physical description) and ethopoeia (character description).
- Animals and Things: Describes animals and objects.
Classes According to Order
- General to Particular: Starts with a general overview and then provides specific details.
- Particular to General: Starts with specific details and then draws a general conclusion.
Narrative Text Structure
Beginning: Introduces the setting and characters.
Problem: Presents a conflict or challenge.
Action: Describes the events that occur.
Conclusion: Resolves the conflict and provides closure.
Dialogue Texts
Play conversations composed of speech turns from different participants, indicated by stripes.
Characteristics of Expository Texts
- Focuses on providing information.
- Uses present tense indicative.
- Employs third-person pronouns and formal register.
- Includes abstract expressions and technical or scientific terms.
- Uses explicit cues to guide the reader.
Basic Forms of Expository Discourse
Definition
Relates the properties or constitutive features of objects.
Description
Focuses on specific details of an object, showing a detailed picture.
Characterization
Exposes the characteristics of people.
Internal Organization of an Expository Text
Deductive Structure
The subject is introduced at the beginning of the text, presenting the general idea.
Inductive Structure
Starts with data or specific information, leading to a general conclusion.
Enumerative Structure
Includes a list or enumeration of facts to support the main idea; may also form a descriptive structure.
Descriptive Structure
Uses data or information to characterize or describe a fact, theory, object, or person, maintaining a technical-objective approach.
Temporal Structure
Presents information in chronological order, using keywords to indicate the temporal sequence (e.g., before, after, now).
Parallel Structure
Presents a concept and then elaborates through parallel headings or columns, commonly used in textbooks, manuals, and encyclopedias.
Casual Structure
Presents a fact that causes a certain effect (e.g., as a result, so, in order).
Problem-Solution Structure
Consists of two parts: one or more raised problems and the proposed solutions.
Comparison and Contrast Structure
Presents a series of ideas, comparing and contrasting the differences and similarities of an object or phenomenon (e.g., similar to, respectful of, in opposition).