Chapter 40: Exploratory Essays
As a student, you may be asked to explain your position on a topic. An instructor may ask you to consider what experiences have helped you formulate your ideas or position on a topic. To develop your position, you will need to think about which aspect of a topic you’re most interested in and what questions you need to ask as you begin your research.
Exploratory Essays
The Exploratory Essay is often introduced as a research project that presents a set of questions about a topic and attempts to answers these questions through informal sources such as non-specific Google searches, strategic Google searches, or article databases including newspapers and magazines. This type of essay is written from the perspective of someone who seeks general answers and encourages students to begin learning basic citation formatting and practice honing keyword lists to navigate online search engines while applying evaluation tools to assess the reliability of these sources.
Many instructors encourage students to participate in the exploratory essay process as a tool to explore your own perspectives while learning about the research process. You will likely be asked to complete this process during your college writing journey.
Many college writing assignments call for you to establish a position and defend that position with an effective argument. However, some assignments, like the exploratory essay, are not argumentative but exploratory in nature. Exploratory essays ask questions and gather information that may answer these questions. However, the main point of the exploratory 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.
The exploratory essay serves as an early and informal entry into research where students can continue to explore multiple issues related to their research topic and ask, “what questions about myself or my community emerge from this topic?”
Using an earlier assignment, such as a narrative, as springboard, students will explore multiple issues related to their assignment. For example, a student who writes a narrative about generational language loss may choose to research language policies in the U.S., or, a student who writes a community narrative about being a bicyclist in New Mexico might research cyclists’ rights to the road and national vs. statewide safety statistics. Your goal is to ask questions about your topic, find sources to help you answer those questions, and determine if the sources you found are helpful. For more information, review this Exploratory Essay PowerPoint.
According to the Table: Research Source Tiers from Writing in College, reproduced in the previous chapter, sources can be categorized into four tiers according to type, content, uses, and research methods.
As you consider your topic, you will learn to utilize that information to begin honing keyword lists to navigate online search engine