EXPOSITION

What is AN EXPOSITION?

An exposition is a piece of text that presents one side of an issue. The purpose
of an exposition is to persuade the reader or listener by presenting one side of
an argument, that is, the case for or the case against.

Examples of exposition texts include:

advertisements
spoken arguments
editorials
legal defences
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Features of An exposition

Constructing a discussion

An exposition texts usually has three sections. The first sections

introduces the authors point of view and can preview arguments that
may follow in the text. Next comes a series of arguments that aim to
convince the audience. The final section is the conclusion that sums up
the arguments and reinforces the authors point of view.

Grammatical features of a discussion

Exposition texts usually include the following grammatical features:
the words that express the author's attitude (modality), for
example, will, may, must, always, rarely
emotive nouns and verbs
adverbs that show a time sequence and link the arguments.
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The EXPOSITION scaffold

1 An introductory statement
The authors point of view is called the thesis of the argument and this is given in
the introduction.
The introduction can include a preview of the arguments that will follow in the next
section of the text.
A question or emotional statement can be used to capture the audiences attention.
2 A series of arguments to convince the audience
A new paragraph is used for each new argument.
Each new paragraph begins with a topic sentence that introduces the argument.
Details supporting the argument follow the topic sentence.
Emotive words are used to persuade the audience to believe the author.
3 A conclusion summing up the arguments
The author restates his or her thesis (point of view).
A summary of what have been stated in the section above may be included here.
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MODEL OF An exposition

Structures Grammatical
Im sick of seeing so much rubbish on the roadside. features
Last week I drove from Gosford to Terrigal and
INTRODUCTORY
STATEMENT
counted more that 200 soft-drink cans and 80
SHOWING bottles littering the kerb.
AUTHORS POINT The recycling and Do the Right Thing EMOTIVE
OF VIEW campaigns have obviously failed. Maybe the police LANGUAGE
should use litter cameras as well as speed cameras
SERIES OF
to catch the motorists who pollute our roads.
ARGUMENTS TO In South Australia, for example, you pay a
CONVINCE THE deposit of five cents on bottles and cans and this
AUDIENCE encourages people to return them rather than dump MODALITY
them. The system should be introduced across
Australia to encourage people to recycle rather than
dump.
CONCLUSION If we are to improve our environment then
THAT ENFORCES something as simple as these ideas must be
AUTHORS implemented now.
POINT OF VIEW