ABSTRACT

Philosophies, histories, literary essays, theories of economics, studies in government and law, the finds of sociology, the investigations of science—all these, however different, have for their purpose to explain. Although exposition often is formal and academic, it appears also in magazines and newspapers, in any place where people look for explanations. It is the most common kind of writing, the sort with which we conduct our workday affairs—the business letter, the doctor‧s case study, the lawyer‧s brief, the engineer‧s report—and the writing with which we attempt to control our world, whether our means of doing so is a complicated system of philosophy or a cookbook.