The expository essay, a composition that explains a subject, is the focus of Unit 5. Indeed, it is the focus of the entire DCCCD Writing Program. This unit brings together all the patterns and techniques introduced and developed in each of the previous exercises. The essay is the extended development of ideas. It is the formal presentation of critical thinking. Refined to suit the needs of a specific audience, the essay is the publication of private insight transformed into public insight.

Unit 5 explores four patterns of essays including (1) process analysis, (2) comparison/ contrast, (3) cause/effect, and (4) evaluation/persuasion. While most essays, in their final forms, employ a combination of patterns like these, writing exercises that conform to these types will help to discipline your critical thinking and writing skills within a controlled context. With the completion of the essay assignments in this unit, you should feel more comfortable and confident when employing these patterns in more complicated discussions that you may need to address beyond this course.

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