What is an Explanatory Essay Definition?

Written by

David J. Malan

August 6, 2023

7 min read

There is no definite black and white in our multifaceted world. Any number of situation, topic, or event can have more than one viewpoint for it. The core consideration is the approach of that specific situation, topic, or event. Hence, it is quite difficult to sway any of the core way of thinking or ideological beliefs. Hence, the best way to approach usually involves the incorporation of different facts, logic, statistics, and critical evidences to provide an insight to the idea and its validity. An explanatory essay is the literal definition of it.

So, what do you have to write in an explanatory essay? It is somewhat simple to understand. An explanatory paper is a form of writing that involves the incorporation of the author’s presentation of a certain viewpoint based on certain event, topic, or even a situation. It is quite important to note that the view does not have to be agreed upon by the writer; however, it requires attention to facts and figures backed by intensive research for writing an explanatory essay. As a writer, you would have to elucidate the situation, event, or topic without any criticism by supporting it with sound analysis.

Explanatory Essay Outline

While you are going to write an explanatory essay, the key to success is formulating a logical plan. The outline of an explanatory essay can vary from one subject matter to another. It is mainly because of the depth of the topic and associated information that is essential to be presented in an explanatory paper. However, most of the explanatory essay varies from one to two pages in length. Prior to writing an explanatory essay, you should prepare an outline by following the underlying steps:

• You should start writing by an introduction that should be concise and information for the readers.
• After a concise introduction, you should start by writing a main body that usually comprises of five paragraphs. Each of the three to five paragraphs should be backed by concrete evidences, findings, and analysis on the subject matter.
• Based on the body, you will have to wrap up by concluding the existing facts and analysis as presented in the previous section.

Writing Introduction for an Explanatory Essay

The introduction paragraph for explanatory writing is your first attention-seeking beacon and can be considered as the most important part of it. You need to make it vivid and eye-catching so that your reader will be interested in your explanatory essay. Hence, it is of vital importance that you pay substantial attention to an opening statement. You can provide the readers with three core prompts:

• Asking about a highly disputable question, providing the readers with an ethical dilemma, a relevant quote, even something that could captivate the attention of readers at the first instance.
• Provide the key details pertaining to available information that does not appear to be common knowledge for the readers. By doing that, you can easily draw a clear picture for the readers of your explanatory essay thesis statement.
• Writing an effective and impressive thesis statement for the explanatory essay. A thesis statement for explanatory writing should present logical facts to the readers while helping them to clearly articulate your main idea.

Body Paragraphs of an Explanatory Essay

Based on the depth of the topic, the body can vary from three to five paragraphs by following steps:

• Use key ideas for every paragraph, each with their own approach. However, each paragraph could have an identical general style. The topic sentence should be presented that would concisely explain the information that would be introduced. At the very same instance your sentences need to flow smoothly from the first to the next point for every paragraph.
• Facilitate each of the paragraphs with substantial supporting logical evidence. Hence, presenting a claim or thesis is essential for supporting the thesis statement. It is vital to establish a good connection between the topic sentence and the provided facts so that your readers can easily connect the dots.
• Elaborate the reason why the provided logical facts and evidences play an important role. By doing it, you can readily validate your logical claim and successfully strengthen your position, as provided in the explanatory paper. At the end of each body paragraph, it is essential to provide readers with a concluding statement that can iterate the significance of the logical facts and topic sentence. By doing that, you can link the paragraphs to the thesis statement. Following this systematic approach for three to five paragraphs can result in the completion of a body of the explanatory essay.

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Conclusion: How to End an Explanatory Essay

You are now at the end of your explanatory essay. But there are still three key components that are essential for properly concluding an explanatory essay. It includes:

• In the first step, you will need to reiterate your thesis statement. By doing that you are going to bring back the attention of readers back to the core of your explanatory essay. You can also strengthen your elaborated viewpoint.
• For the next step, summarization of the key supporting statements as presented in each body paragraph is an essential important part. You can restate the key points highlighted in each of the paragraph concisely. By doing that, you will tell the readers that you have successfully and logically strengthened your thesis statement, thereby increasing the overall credibility of your writing.
• In the last part, you will need to make concluding remarks for an explanatory essay. It can also include an elaboration of your viewpoint from a global point of view. You can also ask your readers for a call for potential action so that you can captivate your readers for further research.

What is an Explanatory Essay Example?

College and university students are overwhelmed by a number of complex tasks that can negatively impact their grades and performance. If you are having problems to maintain a healthy work-life balance, you can find the readymade explanatory essay. This will not only make you manage your time effectively, but, it will also help you to find help writing the explanatory essays. For more information on the explanatory paper, you can find in the following article:

Bottom Line

An explanatory essay is a form of writing that can allow you to showcase your writing talent and skills effectively if it is written properly. Choosing an interesting or even non-interesting topic can be the first step for you. By doing that, you can even make the non-interesting topic quite interesting by spending ample time researching about the facts and figures. Your readers will have to see the details through your lens and that will make you the most important character in your explanatory essay. Besides that, adhering to details by developing logical arguments that are supported by thorough analysis can make your explanatory paper to be captivating for the readers. The explanatory writing is not as technical as it looks like. All you have to do is to captivate the readers through concise arguments that are backed by thorough, logical analysis, facts, and figures. That would make your explanatory essay a perfect one.

Writing an explanatory essay has never been that easy. So what are you waiting for? Come and have a look to make your essays stand out from the rest.