How to Write an Expository Essay

We have been spending a lot of our language arts class time preparing for Hillsborough Writes!, our district writing assessment. Patterned after Florida Writes!, the state writing assessment that eighth-graders must pass in order to be promoted, Hillsborough Writes! requires that students be able to write a 4-paragraph expository essay.

During the first semester our writing focused primarily on poetry, freewriting, creativity, sentence structure, grammar, and conventions. When we returned to school after the winter break, we started learning how to write expository essays. Isolated writing lessons are helpful, but I know that in order for students to understand the writing process, they must be able to clearly see how it works. That is why I model the process for my students from beginning to end. As a teacher, it is one of the most challenging tasks that I undertake, but I believe it is worth it. Several years ago, after attending a writing workshop, I made the decision to write a collaborative class essay with every writing class in order to model the process. This year was no different.

I began by teaching students how to brainstorm and do pre-writing, a process essential to effective writing, using my 4-square method. Then we read a model essay so students could see what a "6," the highest score a paper can earn, looked like. Students identified the essential parts of effective essays such as leads, topic sentences, examples, anecdotes, and conclusions. After that we discussed what to write about. The AM class chose to write about cruise vacations and the PM class decided to write about practical jokes. Together we wrote our 3-part prompts, and then students completed their individual pre-writing and wrote their own timed 45-minute expository essays. After I scored and returned their essays, we used their ideas to write a class collaborative essay. Students contributed their ideas while I, as recorder, wrote the class essay on the overhead. They were able to see exactly how to write an introduction, two sub-topic paragraphs, and a conclusion. When we finished, Sara typed up both essays, I proofread them, then we posted both essays on Tomlin Internal for other teachers to use in their writing classes.

In order to share our collaborative class essays with a broader audience, I have posted them here for our online readers:

AM Class Expository Essay: Cruise Vacations

PM Class Expository Essay: Practical Jokes

PM Class Expository Essay: Practical Jokes

Don’t you just love the great rush of adrenaline you get when you’re trying not to get caught? You have just pulled off the perfect practical joke, and no one knows you were the culprit. The only problem is that no one but you is laughing. Has your prank been naughty or nice?

A harmless practical joke is when no one gets hurt, physically or emotionally. Harmless pranks should be fun for everyone involved including the perpetrator, the bystanders, and especially the victim. Traditional practical jokes include gadgets like the hand buzzer, squirting flower, pepper gum, and the ever popular whoopee cushion. Over the years, however, pranksters have forsaken the old-school devices and have designed more elaborate tricks. Last Halloween, my whole family dressed up like mummies. My parents stayed behind to give out candy and possibly scare a few kids with their bandaged bodies, while my brother and I went trick-or-treating around our neighborhood. Most of the houses we visited handed out candy, but a few houses were dark. We decided to ring their doorbells anyway, and run. It was our twisted version of ding-dong-ditching. When our candy sacks were full, my brother and I headed back to our house to sort through our loot. When we opened our bedroom door and switched on the lights, we saw a horrifying sight. Our room was completely woven with toilet paper from ceiling to floor like a giant spider’s web. As if that was not enough, our parents suddenly sprang from the closet and tried to grab us. We started screaming bloody murder! Mom and Dad had observed our doorbell prank and decided to get us back. Our room was a mess to clean up, but we all had a good laugh.

Not all practical jokes are fun. Some pranks can be harmful to everyone involved. Practical jokes cross the line when the victim, bystanders, or even the perpetrator gets hurt physically or emotionally. If property is damaged in the process, the prank is called vandalism, and that is against the law. When I was in fifth grade I made one of the biggest mistakes of my life. I was trying to have fun, but when it was all over the joke was on me. I was walking home from the store when I met up with some kids from my neighborhood. One girl was holding a carton of eggs, and I could tell they were up to something. “I dare you to throw an egg at Old Man Jenkins’ house,” somebody said. That sounded fun, so I grabbed an egg, wound up, and fired away. The egg splattered all over Mr. Jenkins’ front door. But before I could even laugh, I was all wet. When I looked up, my elderly neighbor was aiming a garden hose straight at me. Apparently, he had been waiting in the bushes to see what we were up to. The next thing I knew, my “friends” disappeared and a police car slid into the driveway. Mrs. Rodriguez from across the street was standing on the porch with her phone in her hand. I was SO busted, but in the end Mr. Jenkins agreed not to press charges if I cleaned up the mess. Did you know there is nothing that smells more disgusting and is as hard to scrub clean as dried raw egg?

Even though many practical jokes are harmless, it is important to make sure that they don’t turn into harmful pranks or even vandalism. Such is the case with TP-ing. If you decide to TP a friend’s house or yard, you better pray it doesn’t rain! Better to be a clown than a bully.

AM Class Expository Essay: Cruise Vacations

Some people enjoy them and some people hate them, and I’m not talking about sushi bars. I’m talking about cruise ship vacations. You may think cruises are all about sea, sailing, and sunshine, but there is also a dark side to those sleek Leviathans.

I’ll be the first to admit that cruise vacations can be a lot of fun! Because my father is a cruise wholesaler and can get tickets at heavily discounted prices, my family has taken many cruises and enjoyed most of them. There are innumerable reasons to love cruises, but I especially enjoy the on-board activities, the never-ending supply of food, and visiting exotic ports. The last cruise my family took was a five-day tour of the Western Caribbean on the Carnival Inspiration, and the experience could not have been better. On our first day at sea I decided to participate in the no-boundaries scavenger hunt. I didn’t win, but I had a blast exploring that monstrous ocean liner. When we finally arrived in the Mexican port of Cozumel, we took a day trip to the San Gervasio Mayan ruins. The jeep trip through the jungle and touring the ancient temple was an unforgettable experience. All cruises have food available 24-hours a day, and I always eat my fill. But the best dining experience to me on this trip was the Captain’s Dinner. I ordered steak AND lobster while watching the entertainment provided by our servers. As we left the dining room that last evening on board, the ship captain shook everyone’s hand. I remember thinking, wouldn’t it be great if all cruises were like this one.

Unfortunately, all cruises are not as heavenly as the Inspiration. In fact, some cruises seem to have surfaced from Davy Jones locker. My first cruise on the Carnival Liberty almost ruined me because I was sick the entire time. To tell you the truth, 700 people, including passengers and crew, came down with the Norwalk virus. The symptoms were headache, stomach cramps, vomiting, and diarrhea. Everyone on the ship who was sick had to be quarantined in their rooms. My family had reserved a tiny inside room in the belly of the ship, and that led to my next problem---claustrophobia. I thought I would climb the walls! Sad to say, I had no strength to even move. Without a balcony or porthole, I was trapped. Even after I started to feel better and went out on the Lido deck, I still felt imprisoned because I had two days left at sea. Then I started worrying that the ship would sink. To make matters worse, the featured movie that night was Titanic. Unlike most of the ship, my illness lasted only three days. That’s when I realized that the ticket price was not all-inclusive. At every turn, ship staff members were bugging us by taking our pictures and then trying to sell them to us, hawking souvenirs, and advertising spa treatments. (Not that I didn’t need one.) In desperation, my dad exclaimed, “These people are going to nickel-and-dime me to death!”

Even though I’ve had some bad experiences on cruise vacations, when I remember them now I can look back and laugh. And I can’t help getting excited whenever my dad walks in the room with a big smile on his face and announces, “We’re going on a cruise!”