Is it okay to pick a point of view in an expository essay?

I think that you will have to pick a particular topic or
aspect of a topic upon which to base your expository essay.  Since most of it is
informational, based on evidence or analysis that you can find or assert, I think you
have to select some aspect of a point of view to defend and explain.  It is not like a
persuasive essay, but to a great extent, your purpose in an expository essay is going to
be writing about information, aspects of it, and defending it with your analysis and the
evidence that you find in a text.  This is what makes the selection of a point of view
critical.  Another way to think of this is with the idea of a thesis statement.  Your
thesis statement, or what you are going to prove, has a specific point of view.  This is
something that is understood and the point of view in the thesis is what will be
demonstrated over the course of the writing.  In this light, one sees that a particular
point of view is critical in writing.  It is the nature of the expository essay to have
a definite point of view from which evidence and analysis can be posited in convincing
the reader of an informed and informational mode of written
presentation.