What is an Expressive Essay? An expressive essay is a type of essay where you write an experience about yourself. When writing this type of essay, you use first-person pronouns to describe your thoughts and emotions regarding a certain experience in your life. This article describes what an expressive essay entails and how to write it.
When writing an expressive essay coursework assignment, you should vividly describe the experience you are writing about and make it interesting. You should avoid writing a boring expressive essay since the reader may stop reading before completing the essay. You should be authentic and creative when writing an expressive essay and be honest about how the experience you are writing about impacted your life either positively or negatively.
How to write an expressive essay
Below is how to write an expressive essay:
Expressive essay outline
Before you start writing your experience essay, you should write an outline. On the expressive essay outline, you strategically analyze your ideas of the personal experience you want to write your essay on. When planning on what to write in your essay, you stick to one experience to avoid confusing the reader.
The expressive essay is meant to express how an experience impacted your life whether positively on negatively. If it was a negative experience, you should mention how you overcame the challenge and the lesson you learned from it. When writing the expressive essay outline, note down key points that you will include in your essay once you begin writing it.
Expressive essay structure
You should write a well-structured expressive essay with a consistent flow of information from the introduction through the body to the conclusion. You should describe your experience in a creative way to catch the attention of the reader. Stick to one experience throughout the essay to avoid an improper flow of information.
When writing your expressive essay, give your opinion on how the experience made you feel. The expressive essay structure should be the correct flow of your story from the beginning to the end. You can be vulnerable as you write an expressive essay so that the reader can relate to your experience.
Expressive essay format
Below is an expressive essay format:
a) Choose a good topic
The topic of your expressive essay is what your essay will entail. You should choose a topic from a past personal experience. It can be an experience from your childhood or a place you visited. Always ensure the topic you choose is an experience that you can compose a good expressive essay on.
b) Expressive essay introductory paragraph
An expressive essay introductory paragraph should have a hook to grab the attention of the reader. You should make it interesting since it determines if the reader will be interested in reading your entire essay. You should briefly explain what your expressive essay will entail in a creative and captivating way.
c) Expressive essay body paragraphs
The expressive essay body paragraphs explain your topic in depth. You should properly structure your paragraph and once you complete a paragraph, you use transitional words to start the next paragraph. Always ensure you have a proper flow of information from the first body paragraph to the last body paragraph.
Mostly the writing format of an expressive essay is given in the instructions when you are assigned the essay. It could be either a one-inch margin or double space. The word count is also given in the instructions of the essay. You should always ensure you follow all the given instructions throughout your essay.
d) Expressive essay conclusion
The expressive essay conclusion gives the summary of the essay. You should not bring a new idea to the conclusion. You should end your essay with a memorable statement that will stick in the mind of the reader.
Once you complete your expressive essay, proofread it severally to remove any mistakes. You can run it on Grammarly to remove any mistakes you missed when proofreading. In addition, always ensure your essay is authentic and uniquely written free to avoid penalization due to plagiarism. Using the steps above you can write a good essay.
Tips for writing a good expressive essay
Below are tips for writing a good expressive essay
a) Choose a topic you are passionate about
When choosing the topic for your expressive essay, always choose the atopic you are passionate about. This could be an experience in your life that is memorable to you and it brought an impact to your life. Choosing a topic you are passionate about makes writing the essay an enjoyable experience and you end up composing a good expressive essay.
b) Plan your work
Before you start writing your expressive essay, you should write down the important information that you will include in your essay. This helps you not to forget any key points once you start writing your essay. You should plan your work in the essay’s outline and briefly note the idea of your expressive essay.
c) Be authentic and honest
When writing an expressive essay, you should maintain authenticity and honesty even if the experience did not turn out as you expected. You can write how you persevered through the challenge of the negative experience and the lesson you learned from it even though you did experience what you expected. Originality makes you stand out and attracts the attention of the reader.
d) Proper flow of information
Your expressive essay should have a proper flow of information from the introduction through the body to the conclusion. You should write your experience in a well-structured manner to avoid contradicting the reader. You should always be creative and interesting throughout the whole essay. In addition, always ensure your essay has zero plagiarism.
e) Always proofread your work
Most students assume there is no need to proofread their essays, but it’s important to proofread them. When you proofread your expressive essay, you remove any spelling and incorrect punctuation. You should proofread your essay several times and edit it before you submit it for marking.
Expressive essay example
Below is an expressive essay example:
My best experience
Winning my scholarship is one of my best experiences. I applied for a scholarship to study at Harvard University for my nursing degree. The scholarship agency sent me an email that I had won the scholarship. After reading the email, I jumped up and down with so much joy and informed my parents about it. Being from a poor background, this was a dream come true for me and my family.
The scholarship was to pay for my school fees and my upkeep at the university. I had to pinch myself severally to believe that I won the scholarship and that I am going to study for the career of my dreams. I replied to the scholarship urgency email and thanked them for giving me this opportunity of a lifetime.
Getting this scholarship was such a highlight in my life because my parents could not afford my university fees. Joining the Harvard nursing school would make a great impact on my life and I will not only help the sick but also change the situation at my home. This was one of my best experiences.
The above is a brief expressive essay example. An expressive essay can be short or long depending on the number of words instructed for your essay. You should always adhere to the word count when writing your expressive essay.
Expressive essay topics
Below are expressive essay topics:
- The most memorable childhood experience
- A place I visited and loved
- A time when I lost my friend
- The moment I knew I was an adult
- The best day of my life
- My school life
- My favorite season
- My biggest achievement
- My plan in 5 years to come
- A movie that changed my life
- If I could invest in something
- A moment that impacted my life
- My talent
- My dream place to live
- What I am passionate about
- Why do I always tell the truth?
- My most painful experience
- The best gift I have ever received
- The sickness that almost killed me
- The best choice I have made in my life
- My hobby
- A home chore I like to do
- Why I chose my career path
- The most beautiful thing I have ever seen
- My favorite food
- A book that I enjoyed reading
- A time when I made someone happy
- What I believe in most
- My best family time memory
- A skill that I learned
To sum up
Writing an expressive essay requires you to write a personal experience and express your feelings and emotions from the experience. You can use this article as a guide to writing a good expressive essay. If you need assistance with your expressive essay, we provide professional essay writing help.
