Writing Excellent Exploratory Essay: Examples, Guide

What is an Exploratory Essay?

As illustrated above, exploratory essays are quite different from typical essays. However, it is proper to reach some form of definition that so as to give students some point to begin from.

Exploratory essay definition

It is a form of writing that allows a writer the privilege of exploring a problem when writing without necessarily giving a thesis statement followed by supportive arguments. It is unique in its composition and requires careful analysis.

When writing such an essay, you have the freedom to research comprehensively on your chosen topic, which you then share with people. Thus, you are not confined to a thesis that would constrict the way you think about a topic.

Ideally, this type of writing may also be thought of as investigative, and if gotten right, it can be so much fun to write since you do not have to prove any line of thought. This should accord you some freedom of seeking a variety of information.

Is it easy? Is it difficult? Depending on the approach you take, such an essay can be easy or very difficult. There are some unique characteristics of an exploratory essay that you should know if you are to prepare an excellent piece.

You are free to consider various perspectives on the topic based on the resources used in research. Afterward, you can develop your standpoint based on the relative weights of the different perspectives from your research on the topic.

When you begin your writing process, it is important to select a good topic, develop an outline, research on the topic chosen, and finally write the paper. These procedure are important although may seem unnecessary to students.

How to Choose Good Exploratory Essay Topics

The choice you make in terms of the topic will determine if your essay gets you good grades. It will also determine if you get enough content to write about. You need to answer several questions when choosing your topic.

• Does your topic cover a weighted issue? Weighted issues refer to current things that affect the daily lives. The topic should cover social problems, health issues, taxation, government policies, education, work, and many other social events.
• Is the topic controversial? The issues should also be contradictory and be part of the discussions people have on a daily basis. The topic should be very interesting to the people.

Does it belong to the type of questions that lead to comprehensive research? A good topic should have a wide content that you research on. Thus, your choice should focus on what can have content to write about.

Good Exploratory Essay Topics

A range of exploratory topics is available to write on. Some of the topics under which one can write on can include health, social issues, government policy issues, and technological problems – among others.

List of exploratory essay topics

The list below some of the common exploratory essay topics that students can choose from, under each category:

Social topics

• Discuss the impact of teenage pregnancy?
• How divorce affects the social and academic life of children.
• Is renewable energy an alternative to traditional energy sources in the modern generation?
• Is drug and alcohol abuse the leading cause of juvenile delinquency.

Health issues

• Effect of organic food on health.
• Does red meat lead to increased cases of cancer?
• Can cell phones and other technological gadgets cause brain cancer?
• Can caffeine be categorized as an addictive substance? How addictive is it?

Technology problems

• Consider nanotechnology. What are the benefits and drawbacks of its use?
• Can technology have positive effects on education on not? How so?
• Discuss internet and copyright protection?

Exploratory Essay Outline

After selecting a good topic, it should be prudent to draft an outline before writing your essay. An exploratory essay, like other conventional academic writings, typically has 3 sections:

• Introduction
• Body
• Conclusion

The opening paragraph is the introduction where you should state the problem you have chosen to write about and elaborate the relevance it holds. In this paragraph, you should also describe the likely causes of the problems as well as the stakeholders/institutions involved. You should then provide an overview of likely solutions to the problem.

In the body paragraphs, it is important to elaborate on the inquiry process you undertook while conducting the research on the chosen topic. The paragraph should comprise a brief overview of the resource selected for the research and the rationale for choosing it. Then, you should elaborate on the significant information derived from the selected source(s) that relate to your topic. To follow up, you should illustrate why the information derived from the sources is relatable or significant. Finally, you should provide a critique of the source by showing how it has been helpful in changing your perspective and how it may have fallen short of the expectations you had.

In the concluding paragraph, you need to restate the topic problem. You should then highlight on its likely causes as explored in the body paragraphs and then illustrate the possible solutions. This paragraph can also contain the stakeholders/institutions involved in the problem and the roles they play. You should then highlight any other unanswered questions you have regarding the topic, the weight of such questions, and the possibility of doing further research to cover the unanswered questions.

With the outline in mind, let us dwell on steps taken when writing an exploratory essay.

How to write an exploratory essay

The steps below can be helpful when writing an exploratory essay:

1. Create a standard outline for your essay with main points based on research questions you developed while choosing the research topic.
2. With the topic in mind, gather all the resources you need, be it primary sources, secondary sources or government reports. Critically study the resources and analyze them.
3. Attempt to relate the resources you have gathered with the topic problem you have selected. Discuss the way in which the resources support the points outlined in the outline.
4. Share your outcome with your classmates or friends through a peer review exercise. Read through and ask if they have understood your essay. They should be able to edit your work and add any other key points.
5. Collect a few visual aids such as graphs, pictures, statistical tables or any other that you that you may add to your completed essay.
6. Embark on writing your first draft with coherent and well-arranged paragraphs. You should pass your essay with transition phrases such as “on a different note…,” “one way to perceive this…,” “on the contrary…,” and many other applicable ones that you can think of.
7. In your essay, include a summary of the concepts that may be paraphrased or directly quoted. In most cases, paraphrasing in your own words is the best way to go about your write; otherwise, you may risk plagiarizing the work. Relevant quotes should only be used when they strongly make your point, particularly where statistical values are concerned.
8. Try to include valid points from the peer review exercise and then write your final draft.

In this article, we have offered you significant tips helpful in the process of writing your exploratory essay. However, in case you are still not confident that you can manage to create a great essay, it is good if you get in touch with our professionals who will be more than glad to help out. Just post a comment and we will link you up with
our professional writers.

Exploratory essay example

You can get examples of well-written essays from our website.