Janene van Loon, Arnoud Thüss, Nicole Schmidt and Kevin Haines - Academic Writing in English

1.6 Academic papers: the expository essay

There are five common approaches to organising information logically in the body of an expository text: ■■ Description: a topic is introduced and followed by its attributes ■■ Sequence: a topic is introduced and followed by details that need to be presented step by step ■■ Cause/effect: an event or act and its effects are described ■■ Comparison/contrast: the similarities in and differences between two or more things are presented ■■ Problem/solution: a problem is presented, followed by one or more solu tions Applying this information about structure to an essay on health consequenc es of the economic crisis in Iceland in 2008 could result in the following out line. The shapes in the first column illustrate the theory described in the mid dle column. The third column provides the actual text of the example essay. Expository essay structure: Health behaviour consequences of the economic crisis in Iceland in 2008 Visual representation: Writing theory: Example:

People cope with financial instability in a variety of ways, and extreme events tend to cause extreme behaviours. This is especially true when it comes to per sonal health. One of the most dramatic and severe economic events of the twenty-first century, the crisis of 2008, affected behaviours of citizens in nearly every country in the world. For Iceland ers, in particular, the crisis indirectly led to an increase in both health-promot ing and health-inhibiting behaviours via changes in macroeconomic and microeconomic contexts. Paragraph topic: Health-promoting behaviours ■ ■ Reductions in smoking, heavy drink ing, and consumption of sweets

Introductory paragraph ■ ■ General introduction of the topic ■ ■ Narrow down to thesis statement (final sentence)

Body paragraph 1 ■ ■ Transition/Topic sentence ■ ■ Supporting details ■ ■ Concluding sentence

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