Whether you are a student or a professional writer, it is essential to know that there are many types of essays out there. Tackling each type of essay requires a different set of skills therefore, we believe it is necessary to be aware of all types and fundamentals of essay writing.
What is an Essay in the first place?
Before we head towards the types and fundamentals, it is important to understand what actually is an essay assignment. An essay is a precise piece of writing that revolves around some particular subject/topic. Generally, essay format is used to deliver your perception regarding some topic or argue a dissertation or thesis.
Essays exist in different types – starting from narrative essays, which are focused to tell tales, to persuasive essays, which target arguments. Now you may wonder about the length of essays, well, they can range from a few essays to several pages and can be of both formal and informal tone or nature.
8 Standard Type of Essays
To understand which essay styles suits you the best as a student(in case your professor has asked you to choose the essay type of your preference) or a writer, go through the list provided below:
Expository Essay
An expository essay also called a description of definition essay, is the most primary type essay. The aim of these essays is to shed light on some specific topic to explain the idea and the concept without the touch of augmenting tone. To be precise, expository essays tend to be shorter as compared to other essays written mostly to answer questions like “How to make a paper”.
Expository essays assess your knowledge of a topic as well as your ability to arrange and communicate information. They are frequently assigned in high school or used in college exam questions.
An expository essay’s introduction states the topic and provides some background information, the body presents the facts, and the conclusion summarises the information offered.
Analytical Essay
In the same way that an expository essay presents a concept, an analytical essay takes the issue a step further by discussing the subject’s benefits and drawbacks in order to provide an objective analysis. An explanatory essay, for example, might explain how the president is elected, but an analytical essay would explain how the president is elected as well as the potential benefits and drawbacks of the electoral process.
Persuasive Essay
A persuasive essay, also known as an argumentative essay, is one that takes a position on a topic. A good argumentative essay tries to persuade readers to comprehend and accept a writer’s specific point of view on a topic by explaining their reasoning and supporting it with facts. An introduction, a thesis statement, body paragraphs with a counterargument and data to support your key point, and a conclusion are typical components of a persuasive essay.
Narrative Essay
A narrative essay, also known as a personal essay or a reflective essay, is a type of writing that mixes a personal narrative with an academic argument. This essay genre allows the writer to use personal experience to convey a point or teach a lesson. Narrative essays are nonfiction pieces that are frequently autobiographical and written in the first person. Literacy narrative essays are written in a more creative approach than academic or journalistic writing, which is completely objective and fact-based. Narrative essays can be structured in any way the author sees fit to highlight their main point. Narrative essays can be found in many personal statements, college application essays, and scholarship essays.
Descriptive Essay
A descriptive essay seeks to provide vivid sensory details to describe a specific event or thing (sight, smell, taste, touch, and sound). A descriptive essay, like a narrative essay, is sometimes written in a more creative style; but, unlike a narrative essay, a descriptive essay does not usually present a complete tale or attempt to make an argument. Before beginning a narrative essay, many authors choose to compose descriptive essays as a writing exercise.
Contrast and Compare Essay
A compare and contrast essay compares and contrasts two objects and highlights their similarities and differences, usually to demonstrate a wider point. Body paragraphs in compare and contrast essays are usually divided into two sections: a comparison portion and a contrast section.
Effect and Cause Essay
An effect and cause essay (commonly written as cause and effect), like a compare and contrast essay, tries to demonstrate the relationship between things in particular, how something was influenced (e.g., how an unjust ordinance caused a disturbance). Cause and effect essays are frequently ordered chronologically, with the cause being explained first, followed by the effect.
Critical Analysis Essay
A critical analysis (also known as a critical essay) is a literature-based essay in which the writer dissects a brief piece of literature (sometimes as little as a single line) to make an argument about what the author is attempting to communicate. Critical essays, like persuasive essays, usually follow a traditional argument format—introduction, thesis, body, and conclusion—and support their points with textual evidence and other critics’ writing.
Since we have covered the main types of essays, we think it will also be beneficial if we cover the three main portions of an essay to help students and writers understand thoroughly what they are writing.
Essays in Three Portions
Part 1: The Introduction:
The introduction has the opportunity to become the leading and starting portion of an essay. If you are about to write a long essay, it is necessary to introduce the subject you are going to cover in 2 to 4 paragraphs. An effective introduction has three things:
- Gaining Reader’s Attention: Telling a tale, offering a statistic, pointing out something weird or fascinating, providing and discussing an interesting quotation, and so on are all ways to grab a reader’s attention. Make your topic fascinating by coming up with a unique way to engage others in it.
- Deliver the needed information: Don’t begin by talking about how literature helps us understand life; instead, tell your readers what they need to know to get a handle on your subject, such as who wrote the tale you’re writing about, when it was published, where it was published, and so on.
- Provides Debatable Thesis and Specific Statement: The thesis statement is normally one phrase long, but if the essay you’re writing is big, it could be longer—even a paragraph. An excellent thesis statement makes a disputed point, which means it is something that someone may disagree with and argue against. It also serves as a road map for your paper’s arguments.
Part 2: The Conclusion
The conclusion is supposed to be the last paragraph of an essay assignment. But in case you are writing a long essay, you may require three to four paragraphs for the conclusion. Conclusion overall does the following two things separate or all together:
- Summarizing the debate: Some professors expect you to mention nothing new at the end of your paper. All they want you to do now is restate your primary ideas. It’s helpful to restate your primary points for your reader by the time you’ve reached your conclusion, especially if you’ve made a long and intricate argument. If you choose to do so, keep in mind that the wording you employ in your introduction and body paragraphs should be different. It’s not a good idea to have an identical opening and conclusion.
- Explain the importance of the essay: Instead of restating your primary points, some professors want you to clarify the significance of your argument. In other words, they want you to address the “so what” question by explaining why your argument is important to your reader.
Part 3: The Body Paragraphs
Body paragraphs aid in the proofing of your thesis and the progression of your argument from the introduction to the conclusion. If your thesis is straightforward, you may not require a large number of body paragraphs to support it. But if it’s more complicated, You’ll need more body paragraphs.
Conclusion:
A wholesome understanding is the only thing that can lead you to a brilliant outcome – and that’s why we feel the need to incorporate the following article.
In starting years of higher education or a writing job most people are seen getting confused between different kinds of essays. This confusion becomes the main reason why students seek services such as “writemyessay” in the first place. Moreover, due to a lack of knowledge, guidance, and understanding the written outcome is not effective and students end up making some mistakes.
Therefore, with thorough research, we have stated all types of essay formats that are used in the academic essay writing journey. An essential thing to understand here is that each topic requires a different approach hence you cannot go with the same format for every essay. We highly hope that our efforts help you in reaching the perfect picture of essay writing. Best of luck to the team!