How to Write an Expository Essay in Criminal Law: Identify the Task

Writing guide
Posted on August 7, 2020

The expository definition comes from the word exposition that, in turn, means that a writer or, in our case, a student has to explain something, interpret the situation, event or subject. Imagine, you are sitting next to your friend and have to explain to him that you watched a movie and what was a plot. It works the same with an essay, choose a topic and cover it.

As of now, there is quite a sufficient choice of the types of expository essays.

  • Cause/Effect. You simply indicate the cause of any situation and speak of the results.
  • Compare/Contrast. Take two objects and evaluate them with advantages and disadvantages.
  • Descriptive. Describe the event, product, thing, so on.
  • Problem/Solution. Here a student should provide an explication of an actual problem and offer his vision on how to solve it.
  • Process. Write about how something is ongoing, what is the process of creation, etc.

All in all, after selecting the type, move on to the subject.

How to Write an Expository Essay in Criminal Law: What Is Subject About?

Criminal Law is very similar to Criminal Justice, they coincide in the major disciplines and can be equally sufficient to possess knowledge in the overall law operations. However, if thinking of the subject as a chance to climb up the career ladder, Criminal Law is the true way to become a lawyer or judge. While Criminal Justice perfectly fits those who dream of being a policeman or working in the FBI.

What is the identification of our subject? Criminal Law is a set of laws protecting the victims and punishing the offenders for committing crimes. Thus, when your supervisor assigns you to write an expository essay you can take to composing it like a duck to water. Especially it concerns the situations when you study international laws and can take a fundamental platform for your paper as many law materials of other countries as possible.

It all adds up to the understanding of the Expository Essay in Criminal Law, so it is a type of paper where a student has to reveal the explication, description, evaluation of particular crimes, their causes, results, and legislation.

Check Stellar Topics for Your Expository Essay in Criminal Law

Even though a student who studies this discipline is quite aware of possible variants he might feel to write on, there should be helpers that allow him to choose an actual matter. Thus, the first rule that is an ultimate one is to pick up the hardest topics. Imagine such a situation, your group consists of 10 people, most probably half of it will choose the easy topic to not waste their precious time. Another half is stuck with the selection due to the complexity of the subject. And, one to two students choose the path of risks and further on the win with an A-Grade. Be among the last people. So, once you start practicing writing these essays in the college, and then when you start your duty as a lawyer, any composition of a paper will seem for you as easy as ABC.

For your convenience, here is an extensive list of approximate topics that may interest you and your professor.

  • Crime Prevention by Educating the Youth;
  • Wrong Convictions: How the Lives of Innocent People Do Change for the Worst?
  • How to Deal with Gangs Legally?
  • Online Crimes: Facts That Make You Be a Part of Committing a Crime;
  • Criminal Law of the Neighbor Countries;
  • Jury Selection: What Is the Procedure?
  • Discriminations in the Supreme Courts;
  • Self-Defense: How to Save Your Life Without Being Imprisoned;
  • The Psychology of Confessions Within Offenders;
  • All Your Rights to Remain Silent;
  • What Do You Need to Know About Police Interrogation?
  • Lethal Injections or Guide to Death Penalty Cases in History;
  • Criminal Law in Today’s Movies: Propaganda of Violence?
  • What Are the Skills of Exceptional Lawyers?
  • How to Determine Global Justice?
  • Criminal Law Toward Political Attendants;
  • Driving to Suicide: How to Punish Invisible Instigators?
  • Terrorism in Islamic Countries;
  • Prostitution and Human Trafficking;
  • Mental Illnesses: How to Punish This Category of Offenders.

Try to seek advice from your professor when you select the topic. Only he may give you an evaluation of whether one or another topic is worth spending your time. Another option is to ask graduates about what essays did gain an excellent grade in the previous years.

Exercise Before Writing an Expository Essay in Criminal Law: How to Refresh Your Brain

Exercising does not mean organizing a physical activity, however, a gym, swimming can perfectly change your mood, fasten the metabolism, and somehow activate your brain for productivity. But, let’s speak of writing exercises that may help you to have the guts to cover the selected matter.

Let’s take as an example Cybercrime topic.

  1. Set a timer for 20 minutes and start writing everything coming to your mind related to this word. It does not matter whether you have spelling or grammar mistakes. Think of movies, of your time-spending online and imagine hacking situations. On your paper should be reflected all your thoughts and ideas. Once the time is over, underline the worth ideas and cross unnecessary ones. This exercise helps to activate your critical thinking.
  2. Choose a time frame required for professional lawyers to announce the verdict or explain the crime mentioning the laws. For instance, one gentleman was imprisoned because he has hacked the governmental website, now he waits for the final verdict. Give yourself 10 minutes to quickly write down the clauses in the constitution that will be exercised to the gentlemen. It will help to understand if you picked up the right topic and if you have enough knowledge about the matter.
  3. Watch criminal law videos. Surprisingly, there are plenty of videos from the court where a student or potential lawyer or judge can get inspiration. When watching them, try to write down the professional language that further on you can use in your expository essay. Especially, it will give value if you are on the last course and need to show your proficiency.

Other options for refreshing are simple but effective. Drink water, break your writing in intervals, every 20 minutes relax, and breath with fresh air.

How to Write an Expository Essay in Criminal Law: Instructions

Topic and Subject are clear, what is the next? The next phase concerns the format, structure, or rules of the composition. Here you can sign with relief because an expository essay does not differ much from other types of papers. The same, there are an introduction, main body, and conclusion.

Introduction or Thesis

Criminal Law is quite a serious subject that does not tolerate poor awareness of its purpose and stuffing. So, your thesis should not be anecdotal or in the form of a joke, it is an unnecessary risk and no one knows how a professor will consider such confidence. Again, taking as an example topic Cybercrime. Write something like this,

‘Cybercrime in the 21st century is nothing than a safe way to commit the offense to other users. Why safe? Because, popular social networks work well on confidentiality, and to find out the offender will take ages. What are the ways of fighting this plague and how can you reveal a hacker on your own following a few police strategies?’

Look, first of all, you emphasized that such a crime is hard to investigate, so this is the first problem to cover in the main body. Secondly, your reader may get hooked because you give the promise to tell police’s strategies to reveal offenders online.

Main Body

3 sub-paragraphs are more than enough to attach evidence and facts to your words. For instance,

  1. The first problem – is the Cybercrime phenomenon. The supporting clues – When was the first scalar online hacking, what was the effect?
  2. The second problem – How do people protect their accounts? The supporting clues – What information posted online will bear illegal character, what are the recommendations to save your personal data from unauthorized access, what are the clauses of constitution that can help to punish offenders who use your information against you?
  3. The third problem – How to get rid of Cybercrime. The supporting clues – What are the biggest punishment for such crimes, your vision on solving such events, and the cogitation on the possibility of eliminating such crimes.

Conclusion

If you involved 3 sub-paragraphs in the main body, think about composing 1-2 sub-paragraphs for your conclusion. It will be enough to address the thesis and results you researched. No need to explain everything from scratch, just emphasize significance. For example, explain that Cybercrime will not disappear until there will be tremendous punishments for it equivalent to the death sentence. Explain how it affects users who have been bullied because of being hacked, and how it can even lead to suicide.

To make it academical looking, add such phrases as Finally, In conclusion, Briefly, To sum up, All in all, Thus, At the end, and so on.

High Time to Proofread Your Expository Essay in Criminal Law

When you finished writing your conclusion, it does not mean a burden is gone. Actually, it is the beginning of a new stage, proofreading. Some students underestimate it and as a result, they have a bad grade. What is it for?

Proofreading – a process of rereading the text to identify the spelling, grammatical and content mistakes.
Remember one thing, it does not matter how brilliant your essay is if you did not manage to meet the requirements of professional language and writing skills. Check your text on the next criteria:

  1. Slang. It is not acceptable for Criminal Law subjects. The only time when you really can turn to such a vocabulary is when you write about Gangs and you need to mention their terminology to understand their coding of drugs, guns, and crimes.
  2. Too much I, you, me. If you have ever heard or watched events when a lawyer announced the crime, you would have noticed that he spoke on behalf of the country, justice, and constitution. Leave your opinion only in the conclusion.
  3. No sense. It is a common situation when you spoke in the main body about one matter, and in conclusion, a reader sees the new information. Make sure, you do not reveal new facts at the end of your essay.
  4. Passive voice. It is completely fine to use it in the text but sometimes it deteriorates the readability. Try to minimize its usage.
  5. Double negatives. For instance, An offender cannot hardly listen to the verdict on his case. – WRONG. An offender can hardly listen to the verdict on his case. – CORRECT.

It is just an approximate example of what mistakes students keep on doing. Another thing is to prevent them or possess tricks to master expository essay writing.

In case, your college or university does not provide the students with syllabus or information about composing the papers, learn how educational establishments set their rules for writing an essay.

Ask someone to check your essay on relevance. Your friends and relatives are not counted because they may hide their true opinion just not to hurt your feelings. Today, there are plenty of online services where writers and students from around the world post their works to get feedback. You can upload there your sketch and see what people may recommend to you. Otherwise, there are services that take little money for proofreading but believe it is possible without any paid helpers.

Listen to speeches found online in such sources as TED. There you may also get inspiration. The speakers represent various fields, and you can find your subject or related one to possess more knowledge. Or, again just listen to their language and try to borrow some speaking forms for your essay.

Note, expository essay in Criminal Law is a piece of cake but only if you know how to schedule the writing. Plan your time, and dedicate it to studying the materials. As a result, you and your professor will be satisfied with the results.

References:

  • Dressler, J., Thomas, G. and Dressler, J. (2017). Criminal procedure. St. Paul, Minn.: West Academic Publishing.
  • Kadish, S. and Paulsen, M. (1979). Criminal Law and Its Processes: Cases and Materials. Boston: Little, Brown.
  • MacDermott-Duffy, B. (2018). Expository Writing: Reaching New Standards: – Primary Grades to College and Beyond.
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