Characteristics of Expository Essays

The first website I chose was the Art of Cookery. This article is an expository essay and one can tell that from the first paragraph. The first paragraph states the thesis of the article, "Inviting a guest into our home means being responsible for their happiness for the entire duration of their stay". The first paragraph then goes more in depth to support its thesis by stating “it’s not just about the foods you serve, but the atmosphere you have your guest in.” The article then starts listing a step by step process to help the reader understand what to do. This is another characteristic of an expository essay.
The author uses a specific topic about this article. This article is being used for people who are entertaining guests in their home. This article choose to talk about being more prepared then the food you serve that your atmosphere will help set the mood. The author also uses the information process. The author creates a “how to” feeling. The author tells the readers step by step how to set their table and what type of plates, cups and utensils to use.
I think the author choice to use the information process because then it is broken down so readers do not need to read word for word. The author used a number strategy which I feel will catch the reader’s attention more than the author just writing a paragraphs. The author also broke down the information only including the keys points again which will help keep the attention of the reader. I think that the author could have used the time order organization to help the readers. Instead of listing step by step what should be on the table for the “looks” maybe incorporated some of the time order. Things like when to serve what and how to take dishes away from the table.
The second website I chose was How to Fillet a Fish. This article is also an expository essay. In the first paragraph the author states his thesis, “There are three primary ways to clean a fish.” Unlike, the first paragraph does not go into any more detail about the article and gives no hints to what the article will be like.
Like the first article the author uses a specific topic for this article. The article will be used for people who have went fishing and needs help on how to clean the fish. The article does state the how you clean them depends on how you want to cook them. The author also uses the information process. Doing this the author is able to spell out exactly how to clean the fish. This article also uses picture diagrams to help their reader’s understand the process.
I think that the author had a good idea using the information process however; he was not detailed in his article. Since I know nothing about cleaning a fish, I found it very hard to follow. Having details would have helped this author. Also, after a few short paragraphs about cleaning a fish the author begins a new subject of the anatomy of a fish. If he wanted to present this information it would have benefited him to present it while explaining how to clean a fish.
There are a few differences between the two articles I read. The first is how the information was presented. The first article was easy to read and follow where the second article was one big paragraph to me. The second article trailed off their main purpose which was how to clean a fish. The next difference I saw between the articles was how the information was presented. The second article just wrote paragraphs making the reader read the entire article. The first article used bullet points and highlighted the important facts. Both articles lacked a conclusion. The first article ended it with the bulleted list and did not wrap up its ideas. The second article began rambling about another subject. Both articles used a topic to narrow their article down and both used the informative process to inform the readers on how to do something.