120 Expository Essay Topics

Without knowing it, students often need to write an expository essay for quizzes, standardized tests, or general writing assignments for a course of study.

This type of writing assignment includes any articles, essays, or reports meant to inform its readers about a subject that they have little to no previous knowledge of. Sometimes referred to as “nonfiction,” expository writing is written by journalists, writers, scientists, and other professionals who need to explain their thoughts in detail.

Simply put, an expository essay is designed to be an informative journey for the reader – supported with facts and evidence rather than new opinions, arguments, or anecdotes.

The hardest part about writing an expository essay for many students isn’t so much the content as it is settling on a topic they feel comfortable writing about.

Fortunately, this guide will cover 120 expository essay topics along with helpful tips for writing an expository essay that is clear, concise, and easy to understand.

What Types of Expository Essays Can Be Written?

To write what is considered an expository essay, students must ensure that their content does one or more of the following:

Presents cause and effect reasoning
Discusses an issue
Groups items together for a compare and contrast
Explains, defines, or classifies a topic

If the essay you are writing starts to argue a particular point of view, tell a descriptive narrative, or otherwise move away from explaining or describing, then you are no longer writing an expository essay.

How Long Should an Expository Essay Be?

Since this is an informative type of writing, the length can vary widely depending on what needs to be explained. However, many teachers expect their students to follow a standard structure of at least five paragraphs for the essay, including:

An introduction paragraph
Three body paragraphs
A conclusion paragraph

Depending on the assignment parameters set by your instructor, you may need to write more than three body paragraphs to meet the word or page count of the topic.

How Do I Write an Expository Essay?

Writing an expository essay is actually pretty easy if you first make an outline that covers each section you want to include with supporting details or facts to validate your topic.

With a detailed outline, you can then begin to write your essay, starting with the introduction. The introduction of an expository essay should include:

An engaging hook or topic sentence that brings the reader into the main idea of the essay. This can be as simple as, “Did you know that elephants are the only mammals that can’t jump?” or “Do you know how sharks find their prey?”
A brief explanation of the topic and why readers need to learn about it. For example, if your topic is elephants, you might say something like, “Today, I’m going to discuss the fact that these large mammals can’t jump. While this seems odd at first glance, there are some cool and unique aspects of their anatomy and locomotion that prohibit them from doing so.”
The final sentence of the introduction should be your thesis statement. This sentence will detail the central point you want to make throughout the entirety of your expository essay. For example, continuing with the elephant topic, “In this paper, I will show why elephants can’t jump through a detailed anatomical explanation.”

Once your intro is concluded, it’s time to move on to writing your body paragraphs. These paragraphs will be the bulk of your essay and should include one key point or fact about your topic that supports the thesis statement of your introductory paragraph.

For example, if you decide to write about the anatomy and locomotion of elephants in order to explain why they can’t jump, your first body paragraph could begin:

“Most animals have some form of anatomical feature that allows them to bend and propel themselves forward. Mammals like dogs, cats, and horses can do this by contracting their muscles in a specific sequence, but elephants don’t follow this pattern.”

The following two body paragraphs could be dedicated to either continuing your explanation about the elephant’s lack of an anatomical feature, or you could move on to discuss another reason why elephants can’t jump.

However, you choose to structure your main points, be sure to organize each one based on relevance and importance, with the final body paragraph containing the most essential fact the reader should take away with them.

Don’t forget to use transition words between paragraphs in the final sentence to create better readability and flow from one thought to the next. These words include:

Similarly
Additionally
Another reason is that
Finally

When you are ready to conclude your expository essay, simply summarize your main points, along with your thesis, and tie everything together with a final sentence to leave your readers with a lasting impression.