Tuesday, March 24, 2009

What is an Exposition?

Exposition is a type of oral or written discourse that is used to explain, describe, give information or inform. The word is also applied to the beginning portion of a plot in which background information about the characters and situation is set forth. The word is taken directly from the Latin exposition, meaning “a showing forth.” The purpose of an expository essay is to present, completely and fairly, other people's views or to report about an event or a situation. Expository writing, or exposition, presents a subject in detail, apart from criticism, argument, or development; i.e., the writer elucidates a subject by analyzing it. Such writing is discourse designed to convey information or explain what is difficult to understand. Exposition usually proceeds by the orderly analysis of parts and the use of familiar illustrations or analogies. The creator of an expository text can not assume that the reader or listener has prior knowledge or prior understanding of the topic that is being discussed. One important point to keep in mind for the author is to try to use words that clearly show what they are talking about rather then blatantly telling the reader what is being discussed. Since clarity requires strong organization, one of the most important mechanisms that can be used to improve our skills in exposition is to provide directions to improve the organization of the text.
the meaning of expostion taken from :
  • Stanford University Website:

http://www.stanford.edu/~arnetha/expowrite/info.html

  • Essay Info :

http://essayinfo.com/essays/expository_essay.php

1 comment: