Exploratory Essay
200 points
2500-3000 words
MLA Format
There is no source requirement. You should simply have as many sources as you need to hit the word limit. If you are having trouble hitting the word count, you need to either find more sources, or further analyze and comment on the ones you do have.
Many paper assignments call for you to establish a position and defend that position with an effective argument. However, some assignments are not argumentative, but rather, they are exploratory. Exploratory essays ask questions and gather information that may answer these questions. However, the main point of the exploratory or inquiry essay is not to find definite answers. The main point is to conduct inquiry into a topic, gather information, and share that information with readers.
Introductions for Exploratory Essays
The introduction is the broad beginning of the paper that answers three important questions:
What is this?
Why am I reading it?
What do you want me to do?
You should answer these questions in an exploratory essay by doing the following:
Set the context
 – provide general information about the main idea, explaining the situation so the reader can make sense of the topic and the questions you will ask
State why the main idea is important
 – tell the reader why s/he should care and keep reading. Your goal is to create a compelling, clear, and educational essay people will want to read and act upon
State your research question
 – compose a question or two that clearly communicate what you want to discover and why you are interested in the topic. An overview of the types of sources you explored might follow your research question.
You do not have to argue for a solution to the problem at this point.
 The point of the exploratory essay is to ask an inquiry question and find out as much as you can to try to answer your question. Then write about your inquiry and findings.
Exploratory essays are very different from argumentative essays. In fact, an exploratory essay is likely different from any other essay you’ve written. Instead of writing to convince an audience of the validity of a thesis, you will be writing to find out about a problem and perhaps to form some preliminary conclusions about how it might be solved.
But there is another aspect the exploratory genre that is equally important. An exploratory essay is, in essence, a retrospective of your writing and thinking process as you work through a problem. It describes when, how, and why you completed certain types of research. This kind of writing is about how you work through problems that require writing and research. You will have to be introspective and think about your thinking process in order for your essay to turn out well.
Very roughly, then, your exploratory essay may follow this sort of structure:
Introduction
The introduction should outline the problem you explored and why it’s important. In addition, you should briefly discuss 1) some of the problem’s possible causes; 2) the institutions and people involved with the problem; 3) some of the possible solutions to the problem. A brief overview of the types of sources your researched during your inquiry.
Body Paragraphs
Body paragraphs should discuss the inquiry process you followed to research your problem. These paragraphs should include the following:
Introduction of source (title, author, type of media, publisher, publication date, etc.) and why you chose to use it in your exploration
Important information you found in the source regarding your problem
Why the information is important and dependable in relation to the problem
Some personal introspection on how the source helped you, allowed you to think differently about the problem, or even fell short of your expectations and led you in a new direction in your research, which forms a transition into your next source.
Conclusion
The conclusion should restate the problem you explored, outline some of its possible causes, review the institutions and people involved, and highlight some possible solutions. If you still have any questions about the problem (and it’s ok to have some), you will discuss them here. Talk about why you think you still have questions regarding the problem you explored, where you might look to answer these questions, and what other forms of research you would have to do.
Your conclusion (or close to it) is also a place where you can insert your own opinion about the issue you’ve chosen to write about. If you do include your own thoughts, which I encourage you to do, you should talk about how your ideas about the topic changed (or didn’t change) after reading and studying different sources.