Expository Writing Materials for a College Course in Exposition by Analysis and Imitation Compiled and Edited, With Questions and Exercises Classic Reprint

Excerpt from Expository Writing: Materials for a College Course in Exposition by Analysis and Imitation; Compiled and Edited, With Questions and Exercises

According to method and purpose, two kinds Of expository writing may be distinguished, which we may call, for want of more exact designations, scientific exposition, and familiar exposition. In scientific exposition, the writer selects a sub ject within his powers, states it clearly and accurately, gathers material by careful thinking and reading, and develops it into a serious, thorough, and sustained piece Of explanation. The writings of Macaulay, Huxley, Bryce, Tyndall, Mill, Spencer, Newman, are examples of this type Of exposition showing its severity of method and careful accuracy.

Familiar exposition, on the other hand, is generally looser in structure and aims to give the personal impressions Of the writer, his whims and fancies, in a manner resembling the easy confidential tone Of conversation. The subjects chosen are usually of a light character, and an original point of View is not infrequently presented. The essays of Charles Lamb, Steele, Addison, Thackeray, and Stevenson are illustrations of this type of exposition. It was this looser type of exposition which first gave vogue to the term essay, but the development of this form of literature has been SO markedly away from a subjective, personal, and leisurely discussion towards an Objec tive, concentrated, and unemotional method, that when we hear the word essay to-day we think rather of the scientific exposition than the familiar.

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