{"id":32,"date":"2017-09-04T06:03:16","date_gmt":"2017-09-04T06:03:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/americanboard.org\/Subjects\/english\/?page_id=32"},"modified":"2017-09-18T14:30:51","modified_gmt":"2017-09-18T14:30:51","slug":"introduction-the-what-how-why-of-expository-text","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/americanboard.org\/Subjects\/english\/introduction-the-what-how-why-of-expository-text\/","title":{"rendered":"Introduction: The \u201cWhat,\u201d \u201cHow,\u201d & \u201cWhy\u201d of Expository Text"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Introduction: The \u201cWhat,\u201d \u201cHow,\u201d & \u201cWhy\u201d of Expository Text<\/h1>\n

Objective<\/h4>\n

Review what expository text is and what purpose it serves.<\/p>\n

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What Is Expository Text?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The word \u201cexposition<\/abbr><\/span>\u201d basically means \u201cexplanation.\u201d Text that is expository, therefore, sets forth some sort of explanation or\u00a0description of a given theory, issue, or problem. In everyday life, we see expository text all the time.\u00a0The road sign alerting drivers to a closed lane ahead is expository text, as is the recipe for your\u00a0favorite chocolate cake, or the directions that tell you how to set up your new computer.<\/p>\n

In the study of English\/Language Arts, expository text can generally be classified as nonfiction.\u00a0Political speeches such as the \u201cGettysburg Address\u201d are exposition, as are philosophical arguments,\u00a0critical essays, social commentaries, biographies, and histories. Student book reports and essays are\u00a0expository, as are debates and oral presentations. Exposition seeks to describe a true and factual\u00a0response to the real world. While its purposes vary from plain description to subtle persuasion and even\u00a0outright trickery, all exposition shares one common trait: the expression of the author\u2019s thoughts,\u00a0theories, or ideas.<\/p>\n

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Fictional writing can also be expository in nature. An example might be Aldous Huxley\u2019s novel Brave\u00a0New World,<\/i> which could be described as an exposition on the social consequences of ingrained,\u00a0legislated materialism. Although this discussion focuses on nonfiction, the same interpretive skills\u00a0can be applied to expository text of any kind.<\/p>\n

How It Works<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The ability to interpret expository text depends on two basic skills. The reader must have basic\u00a0reading comprehension abilities, and the writer must have the capacity for clear self-expression.\u00a0Even the most organized exposition will be impossible for the inattentive reader to understand. On\u00a0the other hand, not even the most punctilious reader will be able to understand exposition that is\u00a0unstructured or illogical or both.<\/p>\n

Reading and writing skills are interrelated in a stimulus\/response loop. Finding the beginning of this loop is like choosing the chicken over the egg, or vice versa. You might define the primary\u00a0text as the initial stimulus. Whether the literature is fiction or nonfiction, short story or\u00a0political polemic, the act of reading stimulates a subsequent response, which might take the form of\u00a0book review, debate, or critical essay.<\/p>\n

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That subsequent response has its own audience, such as a teacher or the rest of the class, for whom\u00a0it becomes a secondary stimulus. The audience interprets, classifies, and analyzes the student\u2019s\u00a0argument; this process then stimulates them to make a response of their own, and so it goes.<\/p>\n

In truth, the stimulus\/response loop of reading and writing has no beginning or end. The short story\u00a0or political polemic is itself a response to some other stimulus, a link in a chain that could\u00a0probably be traced to the beginning of recorded history when human beings first began to tell each\u00a0other what they were thinking. The chain extends into the future, when readers of new generations\u00a0will formulate their response to the ideas and theories being developed today.<\/p>\n

Why Bother with Exposition?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Every teacher, no matter how new, has had to face and somehow conquer the same dreaded, ubiquitous\u00a0question: \u201cWhy do we have to read this?\u201d<\/i> For the English teacher, this question is most\u00a0likely to arise during a study of expository text. Students like stories and plays\u2014literary\u00a0works that entertain them. Some even enjoy reading poetry. But Socrates\u2019 Apology<\/i>? Why on Earth should they have to read that? And what good reason could there possibly be for them to write\u00a0<\/i>about it?<\/p>\n

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This question is far easier to parry if students understand that all literature, even the driest,\u00a0most ancient philosophy, is nothing more than somebody\u2019s response to an experience of some kind.\u00a0Probably, the experience was fairly significant\u2014in the case of Socrates and his Apology<\/i>,\u00a0it was a death sentence that he was expected to carry out on himself. Who wouldn\u2019t want to read what\u00a0someone in that position had to say? Once you read his response, it seems only human to have some\u00a0kind of reaction to the poor guy\u2019s situation. In short, we read to share in others\u2019 worlds, and we\u00a0write to share our worlds with others.<\/p>\n

Contents of This Lesson<\/strong><\/h3>\n

This lesson takes a step-by-step approach to exploring expository text and how to go about\u00a0interpreting it. The following topics will be discussed: strategies for reading comprehension, modes\u00a0of exposition, rhetorical tactics, supporting an argument, logical fallacies, and text and graphic\u00a0elements.<\/p>\n

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Workshop Index\u00a0Next Lesson \u27a1 Introduction: The \u201cWhat,\u201d \u201cHow,\u201d & \u201cWhy\u201d of Expository Text Objective Review what expository text is and what purpose it serves. What Is Expository Text? The word \u201cexposition\u201d basically means \u201cexplanation.\u201d Text that is expository, therefore, sets forth some sort of explanation or\u00a0description of a given theory, issue, or problem. In everyday […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-32","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanboard.org\/Subjects\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/32","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanboard.org\/Subjects\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanboard.org\/Subjects\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanboard.org\/Subjects\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanboard.org\/Subjects\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/americanboard.org\/Subjects\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/32\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":422,"href":"https:\/\/americanboard.org\/Subjects\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/32\/revisions\/422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanboard.org\/Subjects\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}