D. Composition: Expressing Ideas and Creating Texts · Composing Complex Texts: Research, Story, Argument, Analysis and Media

Expository Writing: The Analytical Essay

D2.1 D1.4 A3.1About 55 minutes

Learning goals

I can explain how expository writing differs from narrative, persuasive and informational writing.
I can write an analytical thesis that makes a specific, supportable point about a text.
I can build body paragraphs with a point, evidence, analysis and a link (PEAL).
I can integrate short quotations smoothly, write about literature in the present tense, and write an introduction and conclusion.

Words to know

expository writing
Writing that explains or analyzes an idea, process or text, supported by evidence.

analytical essay
An expository essay that examines how something works or what it means, such as how a story develops its theme.

thesis
The one-sentence main point the whole essay proves.

topic sentence
The first sentence of a body paragraph, stating the point the paragraph will prove.

evidence
Specific details or short quotations from the text that support your point.

analysis
Your explanation of how and why the evidence supports your point.

integrate
To blend a quotation into your own sentence so it reads smoothly.

literary present tense
Writing about events in a story in the present tense: Theo rushes the job.

Remember from Grade 7

In Grade 7 you introduced, quoted and explained sources with the quotation sandwich, and wrote in an objective tone. You've also written arguments with claim, evidence and reasoning.

The Grade 8 curriculum names expository texts alongside narrative, persuasive and informational ones. In this lesson you'll write an analytical essay, a kind of expository writing you'll do often in Grade 9 English, Science and History.

Kind of text	Main job	Example
Narrative	Tell a story	Thin Layers
Persuasive	Convince someone to believe or do something	A speech to council
Informational	Present facts about a topic	A news article about a food drive
Expository	Explain or analyze how or why	An essay explaining how Thin Layers develops its theme

Informational and expository writing overlap. A useful difference: informational writing reports what; expository writing explains how and why.

The thesis: specific and supportable

An analytical thesis makes a point that someone could examine with evidence. It isn't a plot summary and it isn't just your opinion.

Summary (weak): Thin Layers is about a boy who floods a rink.
Opinion (weak): Thin Layers is a good story.
Analytical (strong): In "Thin Layers," the author uses a flashback and the image of thin layers of ice to show that Theo grows from impatience to patience, suggesting that the people who teach us stay with us even when they're far away.

The strong thesis names how (techniques) and what (the meaning). It also previews the body paragraphs: one on the flashback, one on the thin layers image.

Body paragraphs: PEAL

Point: a topic sentence that supports the thesis.
Evidence: a short, integrated quotation or specific detail.
Analysis: explain how the evidence proves your point. This should be the longest part.
Link: connect back to the thesis.

The shape of a short analytical essay. Longer essays add more body paragraphs.

Read the story again

Thin Layers (a short story written for this site)
The hose had frozen again.
Theo stood in the dark backyard, banging the nozzle against his boot while the floodlight buzzed above him. Minus eighteen, the radio had said. Perfect rink weather. His fingers had stopped feeling like fingers twenty minutes ago.
Last winter, Nadia had done the cold part. She had stood out here every night in her old green parka, spraying the ice in slow, even sweeps, while Theo complained from the back step.
"Just dump a whole bucket," he'd said. "It'll be done in one night."
"Thin layers," she said, without turning around. "Rush it and it cracks."
"You sound like Dad."
"Someone has to."
Now the green parka hung on the hook by the door, and Nadia was far away in Thunder Bay, starting her first real job. The rink was patchy. Last night Theo had dumped three buckets on the low corner, and this morning a crack ran across it like a lightning bolt.
The hose finally coughed. Water sputtered, then flowed. Theo raised it to blast the corner, and his phone buzzed in his pocket. He pulled off one mitt with his teeth.
Dad says you're flooding tonight, Nadia had written. How's the ice?
Theo looked at the crack. He typed Fine, then deleted it.
Cracked, he wrote. I rushed it.
Three dots appeared, disappeared, then appeared again.
Thin layers, she wrote. You've got all winter.
Theo put his mitt back on. He turned the nozzle to a fine spray and swept it slowly across the ice, back and forth, the way she used to, while the floodlight buzzed and the water spread thin and silver and began, quietly, to freeze.

Worked example

Let's build a PEAL body paragraph

Write the body paragraph about the thin layers image.

Point: The repeated phrase "thin layers" turns a rink-making tip into the story's central symbol of patience.
Evidence (integrated): Last winter, Nadia warns Theo, "Rush it and it cracks," but this winter, working alone, he dumps "three buckets" on the low corner until "a crack ran across it like a lightning bolt."
Analysis: The crack is the visible result of rushing, so it proves Nadia right. When she texts "Thin layers" again, the words now carry a memory of her and of his mistake. Her added line, "You've got all winter," shifts the meaning from ice to Theo himself: he doesn't have to solve everything in one night, including missing her.
Link: By repeating the phrase, the author shows that patience is something Theo learns from his sister, which is why her advice stays with him even from far away.

Notice: the quotations are short and blended into sentences, the analysis is longer than the evidence, and events are described in the present tense (Nadia warns, he ignores).

In a strong PEAL paragraph, the analysis takes up the most space. If your evidence is longer than your analysis, you are probably summarizing.

Integrating quotations smoothly

Dropped quotation (avoid): Theo is impatient. "Just dump a whole bucket."
Integrated: Theo's impatience shows when he urges his sister to "just dump a whole bucket."
Use short quotations (a few words or one line). Change a word's capital letter or tense only with square brackets: Theo "[types] Fine, then [deletes] it." (Often it's easier to paraphrase.)
When you quote a story in an essay, cite it the way your teacher asks. For a short story without page numbers, you might simply name the title in your introduction.

Introduction and conclusion

Introduction: a hook related to the theme (Anyone who has built something by hand knows the temptation to rush.), context (title, author, a one-sentence summary), then your thesis.
Conclusion: restate your thesis in new words, sum up how your points connect, then broaden: why does this insight matter beyond the story? Don't add new evidence.

Worked example

Let's fix a paragraph that only summarizes

Draft: In the story, Theo floods the rink. His sister Nadia used to do it. She is in Thunder Bay now. She texts him and says thin layers. Then he sprays the rink slowly.

Diagnose: every sentence retells the plot. There's no point, no analysis and no link.
Add a point: Theo's final actions show that he has changed from impatient to patient.
Choose evidence and integrate it: At the start he raises the hose "to blast the corner," but at the end he turns the nozzle to "a fine spray" and sweeps it "slowly... the way she used to."
Analyze: The contrast between "blast" and "fine spray" shows his new patience in a single gesture. The phrase "the way she used to" shows that he is not only making a rink but carrying on his sister's way of doing it.
Link: This change proves that Nadia's lesson has become Theo's own.

The revised paragraph uses the plot as evidence for a point, instead of just retelling it.

Expository writing in other subjects

The same structure works across subjects (A3.1): a science lab conclusion (The results show... because...), a history paragraph explaining why an event happened, a geography explanation of how a landform was shaped. Point, evidence, analysis, link.

Just for fun

Q: What did the evidence say to the analysis?

A: "You complete me. Also, you're supposed to be longer than me."

Hands-on activity

Analyze a song, ad or story from home

You need: a short text from home (song lyrics, a picture book, a cereal box ad, a short story), paper, a pencil, two coloured pencils or highlighters.

Read or listen to the text twice.
Write a summary sentence, then turn it into an analytical thesis that names how (a technique) and what (a meaning).
Highlight two short quotations or details that support your thesis.
Write one PEAL paragraph. Use one colour to underline your evidence and another for your analysis. Your analysis should be longer than your evidence.
Check: Did you use the present tense? Is every quotation integrated?

Your turn

What is the main job of expository writing?

What do the letters in PEAL stand for?

Which is an analytical thesis? (a) Thin Layers is about a rink. (b) I liked Thin Layers. (c) In Thin Layers, the image of thin layers of ice shows Theo learning patience from his sister.

Rewrite in the literary present tense: Theo deleted the word Fine.

Integrate this quotation into a sentence: "Someone has to."

Which part of a PEAL paragraph should usually be the longest?

What should a conclusion not do?

More practice: warm-up

What is a topic sentence?

What does integrate a quotation mean?

What three things go in an introduction?

Expository or narrative: a lab report explaining why the salted ice cube melted faster?

Should quotations in an analytical essay usually be long or short?

More practice: on your own

Fix this dropped quotation: Theo is cold. "His fingers had stopped feeling like fingers."

Write analysis (two sentences) for this evidence: Theo types "Fine," then deletes it and writes "Cracked. I rushed it."

Write a thesis for an analytical essay about a favourite song or picture book that names a technique and a meaning.

Write a conclusion sentence for the Thin Layers essay that broadens the idea beyond the story.

Explain how PEAL could help you answer this Science question: Why did the puddle freeze before the lake?

Challenge

Write the flashback body paragraph for the Thin Layers essay using PEAL.

Write a complete introduction (hook, context, thesis) for an analytical essay on Thin Layers.

Explain the difference between informational and expository writing using an example about the same topic, such as snow plows.

Check your understanding

Quiz

Which is an expository text?

Which is the strongest thesis?

In PEAL, the A stands for…

Which sentence uses the literary present tense?

Which quotation is integrated smoothly?

A conclusion should…

For parents and teachers

Big ideas (D2.1, D1.4): Grade 8 students draft complex texts of various forms, including expository texts, and organize relevant content. The analytical essay prepares students for Grade 9 English and for explanations in science, history and geography (A3.1).

How to help at home:

After a movie or show, ask how it made you feel something: What did the director do to make that scene tense? That's analysis.
When your child writes a paragraph, ask: Where is your point? Where is your proof? Where do you explain it?
Read the draft aloud together; dropped quotations are easy to hear.

Common difficulties:

Summarizing instead of analyzing. Ask So what? How does that prove your point?
Long quotations with little explanation.
Switching tenses when describing a story.

The essay examples analyze Thin Layers, the original story from the narrative lesson.