Five Expository Essay Topics To Stay Away From

The importance of the choice of topic for any expository essay is always important. Choosing a topic in which you have an interest or which lends itself to excellent research material is always a good idea. But there are a number of topics which should be avoided. The reason or reasons for this are obvious.

  • they have been done to death
  • there is such a thing as privacy
  • this is not a soapbox
  • you are not in therapy
  • think of the reader

Repeating a topic time and again can be crushingly boring for the person who has to read and mark your essay. Think about that. You might want to write about a particular topic such as how you have done something wonderful in the community, but that could be seen as blowing your own trumpet, and is a topic which has been written about time and time again, and which is something you should avoid.

Choosing a topic which delves into your personal life is never to be recommended. Writing an essay which involves details of your use of drugs or your sexual activity or any other form of personal behavior is not acceptable. That topic is certainly in the category of ‘too much information’.

You’re writing an essay, you are not preaching a sermon. Do not use the essay topic of your expository essay as a means of promulgating your religious or political points of view. Keep your own beliefs out of your essay writing. There is a marked difference between what you believe in and what you practice and in what you choose to write about in your college essay. Keep the two apart.

No teacher or lecturer wants to know about your health issues which have required you to attend therapy. This too comes into the category of ‘too much information’. What has happened to you in the past and how you are dealing with it is not a topic for an expository essay.

Think of the reader. They have to read and mark not just hundreds but possibly thousands of essays. Do not choose a topic which is dead boring, which is way too personal or which has been done to death before. There is one easy way to avoid choosing the wrong essay topic. Ask. Check the topic with your tutor and make sure that it gets the tick of approval before you start researching and writing.

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