What Is The Difference Between A Narrative And An Expository Essay?


No matter if you are in high school or younger, you have to know how to handle different kinds of essays. You will encounter them all your life and it can be a real problem if you don’t know how to write them. A narrative and an expository essay are very similar, but they still have some unique distinctive elements that you need to watch out for. Here are the main differences that you have to consider:


  • An expository essay is highly informative and you have to focus on giving the right information and evidence. Very rare you will be allowed to use creative expressions or to change the meaning of a sentence. On the other hand, a narrative essay is for the reader’s pleasure, which means that it can contain anything. You can write about a personal event, about a small story, something that happened when you were little and so on. In general, anything is allowed.

  • The language. When you tell a story, you use all kind of synonyms and figures of speech to give life to your characters. At the same time, it is perfectly allowed to introduce dialogue in your composition or to write from different points of view. On the other hand, when you write an expository composition you must remove any unnecessary sentences. Also, the reader does not have to know about what other people think about this subject or what is your opinion. You must be clear and concise and avoid anything that is not related to the topic.

  • Facts and evidence. An expository essay needs not only to inform people about a certain issue, but also to explain everything around it. This means that you will have to take a few days for research and make sure that you bring evidence for anything that you write. Of course, when you tell a story nobody needs to know what is the reality. You can invent something or you can pretend to be someone else; no one will care.

  • The structure. A story can be very complicated and it can take the reader very fast from one situation to another. Naturally, when you explain something to someone you want to make it as clear and straightforward as possible. This means that you must keep the structure simple and without too many chapters or subtitles.