How to Write an Expository Essay in Leadership Studies

Leadership qualities are not integral to any student. Thus, some of them tend to study auxiliary materials related to these features and learn from motivational stories. Others discover such basics when entering the university or college. Both approaches are good especially if you want to know inside out of Leadership phenomenon. But, to master it in the fullest manner, it is worth practicing writing the essays that help to possess knowledge about the origin, impact, and practices that make people lead others. Here comes an expository essay that, in turn, perfectly serves students who need to research this subject.

What is this type of essay? An expository essay is all about investigating one or several ideas, events, situations. It is a thesis that allows writers to understand the problem and find a solution. Finally, it is an argument that can persuade the audience to change their minds about one or another fact.

How to Write an Expository Essay in Leadership Studies: Identification

Leadership Studies is a multidisciplinary field that focuses on investigating the role of leadership in human lives and organizational processes. Accordingly, there are many categories where this study can be based on. They are family, education, business, science, politics, and so on. If talking about universities, there students have opportunities to listen to the inspirational speeches of various leaders. Otherwise, there is always a chance to visit platforms that host leaders from different industries or listen to them recorded on such sources as TED or YouTube.

If you just began your studying process, do not think that graduating from related faculty allows you to become a leader. This discipline just gives a profound knowledge of how it works, what practices and strategies are the most common within leaders and what is the historical vision on this subject.

How to Write an Expository Essay in Leadership Studies: Choose a Type

Note, this type of paper is usually assigned to evaluate the knowledge during the classes. Its form should not exceed 800 words, thus one hour of the lecture is more than enough to submit work. If you have such a task as your homework, try to choose the type that can demonstrate your skills to the fullest. Today, students have a choice from:

• Compare/Contrast essay. It is necessary to select two objects and start evaluating them according to their benefits and cons. The main idea is to research them equally without emphasizing how one object gains the lead over another one. Besides, there should be an equal number of supporting clues.
• Process. Sounds easy? In fact, it is. Describe the process of something. For example, how Julius Caesar became a leader. To make it academical, attach the facts or evidence of his battles or wars where he demonstrated his tactical skills.
• Problem and Solution. Have you heard of Greta Thunberg? She might be the main character of your essay, where you speak of climate change and her vision and solution to this problem. She is the representative of active youth who wants to change the world and has already millions of people who follow her.
• Descriptive. Telling the truth, this type is perfect for lazybones. You choose a topic such as Political Leaders and describe them, their accomplishments or what differentiates them from others.
• Cause and Effect. For example, how children are raised in their families? A student may take his example or the one from the general statistics, and see how some behavioral lessons from parents affect the self-development, leadership, and confidence in their children.

After choosing the type, let’s move on to choosing a topic.

A Guide to How to Write an Expository Essay in Leadership Studies

Many students keep on doing the same mistakes when it comes to the structure. And, it still doesn’t make any sense as far as there are plenty of informational sources that spoon-feed material to the students. However, all you have to do is just to follow a simple formula:

Introduction-Main Body-Conclusion

Some forget about the introduction, others think that conclusion can be formulated in one small sentence. If you are not an attendant of primary school, think of complying with the academical rules. Anyway, here is a guide to making your essay exceptional.

Go with a Topic

Your choice will tell the result. If you choose a simple topic or easy-manageable one, it will not seem engaging and interesting even for professors. If you risk taking a hard nut to crack, your efforts will be awarded an excellent grade and boosted self-esteem. For your convenience, check the list of possible topics to write your expository essay on:

• Leadership Theories at School: How to Raise a Leader?
• Political Impact: Who Are the Successful Leaders in the 21st Century;
• Business Tactics: Win over Your Competitors;
• Recruiting Leaders;
• The Influence of the Top Management in Companies;
• Basic Principles of Leadership;
• The Most Influencing Leaders in Culture;
• Youth Speak Their Truth: How the Young Generation Can Lead Millions of People;
• The Lifestyle of Leaders: Why Less Is Better;
• Personality: What Makes You Different from Others?
• Leadership or Submission;
• Hero or Villain: How to Differentiate a Leader from the Offender?
• A Role of Motivation in Becoming an Influencer;
• Online Leaders: Are They Necessary?
• Can a Person Stop Being a Victim and Start Ruling the World?

These topics are actual in today’s Leadership Studies. After choosing one, move on to the context page or outline.

Outline

Keep in mind, there is no requirement to attach the context page or outline when submitting a paper but it radically helps to structurize everything you will write about. It can be considered as a prewriting stage where you only presume possible paragraphs.

Note, some students tend to make an outline after finishing their sample. They think it helps to confirm the structure and have a full picture of what paragraphs will be present for sure.

Introduction

This is the must-have of any paper because it is your only chance to make a reader interested in your essay. So, here come a thesis and hook. The first option is the most common one. As an example, let’s take the topic “Youth Speak their truth: How young generation can lead millions of people.” A thesis will look like this:

‘Greta Thunberg is one of the influencing youth of 2019. She is a 16 years old Swedish girl that wants to make others aware of climate change. She possesses a few tricks on how to persuade people to follow her but not everything as good as it seems so. She faces many negative and haters.’

As you see you made an example of a main character of youth and intrigued a reader with the availability of tricks that he may learn to be successful like her.

Here are also a few tips for your introduction:

1. Do not make it too long. Two-three sentences are enough otherwise it will be considered the main body. Just make your reader hooked without revealing all the information.
2. Check online samples if your topic is well-researched. It will help you to avoid repetition or plagiarism or banal details.
3. You can use an anecdote, a rhetorical question. If your topic allows adding jokes, go for it. If you want to make a reader think about one idea starting from the beginning, a question will fit the context but again make sure your topic allows to use it.

Now, let’s deal with the main stuffing of your paper.

Main Body

Here, a student has to define the literature and materials he will use for research. Otherwise, it is always welcomed to conduct your own research. The main body of an expository essay should be comprised of a minimum of 3 sub-paragraphs. They are enough to cover the matter from different perspectives. If you write less, it may not be enough to meet the rules of your educational establishment, so please check with your supervisor.

This part of an essay does not solely deal with problems, events, or causes. Each paragraph should present facts, evidence. It allows readers to understand why you tell one or another thing. For instance, Greta Thunberg is an influencer. Why? Add evidence support and tell that she met presidents to discuss her concern, she was on the cover of magazines, and she was one of the controversial faces on the Internet.

Do not forget about adding creativity. Leadership Studies predetermine that each person who studies it can have their own vision to Leadership and maybe their features can make them become influencers one day. What is creativity in the essay? It is your surveyed people whom you have asked an opinion on what means to be a Leader. Or, it is your research on how you tried to lead people.

At last, make sure the last paragraphs put a final point of what you tried to deliver. The conclusion will only summarize the thesis and significance. Make a statement such as Youth is the future political leaders. Such a statement will make a reader think about it, disagree or agree, but it will not leave him indifferent.

Conclusion

As it was said before, a conclusion is all about significance. There you explain what you have received from your conducted research and what were the results. If possible, make a joke again. After finishing your conclusion, you may leave a paper for some time. It will help to generate new ideas, double-check the results or find a new significance that can change a vector of your essay. To make it look professional, do not neglect the chance to use helpful phrases such as To crown it all, To Sum up, In the end, and so on.

A Few Observations for How to Write an Expository Essay in Leadership Studies

When you about to submit your essay, you must probably have some time to reread it a few times. This stage may deprive you of mistakes. If you seek auxiliary help, check the top 6 tips when finishing an essay:

1. Check the mistakes with online editors such as Grammarly. If you lack knowledge about grammatical tenses or spelling of some terminology, a system will highlight in your inserted text the mistakes, and you can edit them from there.
2. Avoid I, You, Me. An expository essay is written in the third person. The only time when you can indicate these words is the conclusion. But make it in one sentence when you just explain the significance of subject to your vision and life.
3. Avoid cliches. Only professional vocabulary. Use the TED platform, and listen there to leaders’ speeches. It helps to understand how they manipulate people’s minds with simple words. Otherwise, check your studying materials, there are probably some columns with vocabulary to learn.
4. References matter. Try to not take all the information from Wikipedia. It will mean only that you are too lazy to study other materials and conduct your research. Of course, if you need to find the best definition this source is suitable but make sure you use it as a reference only once.
5. Be honest. Do not lie about the facts. Some students use this trick to imagine something and add it as evidence. A professor is not a lazybones who will skip confirming the validity of your statements.
6. Do not use Passive voice. Or, at least it should be minimized as much as possible. It affects the readability of your text and does not look interesting.

At last, remember never write an essay to get only an excellent grade. Write it because you want to make your writing skills better or widen your knowledge about a particular subject. When students run to impress their professors, it looks ridiculous and it is not inherent to leadership behavior. If you want to find more materials to master this writing, check the next references that may come in handy when you lack reliable information.

References:

• Curl, M. (2013). Expository Writing. Project Gutenberg.
• Northouse, P. G. (2019). Leadership: theory and practice. Los Angeles: SAGE Publications.
• Shelton, L. (2009). Banish boring words!. New York: Scholastic.