2 general kinds of an essay
An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument — but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a paper , an article , a pamphlet , and a short story. Essays have traditionally been sub-classified as formal and informal. Formal essays are characterized by "serious purpose, dignity, logical organization, length," whereas the informal essay is characterized by "the personal element self-revelation, individual tastes and experiences, confidential manner , humor, graceful style, rambling structure, unconventionality or novelty of theme," etc. Essays are commonly used as literary criticism , political manifestos , learned arguments , observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author. Almost all modern essays are written in prose , but works in verse have been dubbed essays e. In some countries e.
Types of Essay
As you progress through school, you'll be required to write essays. And the farther along in school you get, the more complex and demanding the essays will become. It's important that you learn early on how to write effective essays that communicate clearly and accomplish specific objectives.
An essay is a written composition where you express a specific idea and then support it with facts, statements, analysis and explanations. The basic format for an essay is known as the five paragraph essay — but an essay may have as many paragraphs as needed. A five paragraph essay contains five paragraphs. However, the essay itself consists of three sections: an introduction, a body and a conclusion.
When you first start writing essays in school, it's not uncommon to have a topic assigned to you. However, as you progress in grade level, you'll increasingly be given the opportunity to choose the topic of your essays.
When selecting a topic for your essay, you'll want to make sure your topic supports the type of paper you're expected to write.
If you're expected to produce a paper that is a general overview, then a general topic will suffice. However, if you're expected to write a specific analysis, then you're topic should be fairly specific. For example, lets assume the objective of your essay is to write an overview. However, if the objective or your essay is to write a specific analysis, then "RUSSIA" would be far too general a topic. If you're expected to choose your own topic, then the first step is to define the purpose of your essay.
Is your purpose to persuade? To explain how to accomplish something? Or to education about a person, place, thing or idea? The topic you choose needs to support the purpose of your essay. The purpose of your essay is defined by the type of paper you're writing. There are three basic types of essay papers:. Once you have defined the purpose of your essay, it's time to brainstorm.
Don't choose just one topic right of the bat. Take some time to consider, contrast and weight your options. Get out a piece of paper and make a list of all the different topics that fit the purpose of your essay.
Once they're all down on paper, start by eliminating those topics that are difficult or not as relevant as others topics. Also, get rid of those topics that are too challenging or that you're just not that interested in. Pretty soon you will have whittled your list down to just a few topics and then you can make a final choice.
Some students get scared to start writing. They want to make sure they have all their thoughts organized in their head before they put anything down on paper. Creating a diagram or outline allows you to put pen to paper and start organizing your ideas. Don't worry or agonize over organization at this point, just create a moderately organized format for your information.
Whether you use a diagram or outline doesn't really matter. Some people prefer and work better with the flowing structure of a diagram.
Others like the rigid and logical structure of an outline. Don't fret, once you get started, you can always change formats if the format you chose isn't working out for you. The following are useful steps for developing a diagram to organize ideas for your essay. Outline The following are useful steps for developing an outline to organize ideas for your essay.
Once you have an idea for the basic structure of your essay, and what information you're going to present in your essay, it's time to develop your thesis statement. A thesis statement states or outlines what you intend to prove in your essay.
A good thesis statement should be clear, concise, specific, and takes a position. The word "thesis" just sounds intimidating to most students, but a thesis is actually quite simple.
A thesis statement 1 tells the reader what the essay is about and 2 what points you'll be making. If you've already selected an essay topic, and developed an outline or diagram, you now can decide what points you want to communicate through your essay.
A thesis statement has two key components. The first component is the topic, and the second is the point s of the essay.
The following is an example of an expository explanatory thesis statement:. The life of a child raised in Pena Blanca is characterized by little playing, a lot of hard work and extreme poverty. An example of an analytical thesis statement:.
An analysis of the loan application process for citizens of third world countries reveals one major obstacle: applicants must already have money in order to qualify for a loan. Instead of sending tax money overseas to buoy struggling governments and economies, U. Once you're done developing a thesis statement that supports the type of essay your writing and the purpose of the essay, you're ready to get started on your introduction. The introduction is the first paragraph of the essay.
It introduces the reader to the idea that the essay will address. It is also intended to capture the reader's attention and interest. The first sentence of the introduction paragraph should be as captivating and interesting as possible. The sentences that follow should clarify your opening statement. Conclude the introduction paragraph with your thesis statement. The body of your essay is where you explain, describe or argue the topic you've chosen.
Each of the main ideas you included in your outline or diagram will become of the body paragraphs. If you wrote down four main ideas in your outline or diagram, then you'll have four body paragraphs.
Each paragraph will address one main idea that supports the thesis statement. The first paragraph of the body should put forth your strongest argument to support your thesis. Start the paragraph out by stating the supporting idea. Then follow up with additional sentences that contain supporting information, facts, evidence or examples — as shown in your diagram or outline.
The concluding sentence should sum up what you've discussed in the paragraph. The second body paragraph will follow the same format as the first body paragraph. This paragraph should put forth your second strongest argument supporting your thesis statement. Likewise, the third and fourth body paragraphs, like the first and second, will contain your third and fourth strongest arguments supporting your thesis statement.
Again, the last sentence of both the third and fourth paragraphs should sum up what you've discussed in each paragraph and indicate to the reader that the paragraph contains the final supporting argument. The final paragraph of the essay provides the conclusion. This paragraph should should restate your thesis statement using slightly different wording than employed in your introduction.
The paragraph should summarize the arguments presented in the body of the essay. The last sentence in the conclusion paragraph should communicate that your essay has come to and end. Your concluding paragraph should communicate to the reader that you're confident that you've proven the idea as set forth in your thesis statement.
Having the ability to write effective essays will become increasingly important as you progress through high school and into college. If you'll internalize the format presented above, you'll develop the ability to write clear and compelling essays. Below we'll explore the basics of writing an essay. Select a Topic When you first start writing essays in school, it's not uncommon to have a topic assigned to you.
There are three basic types of essay papers: Analytical - An analytical essay paper breaks down an idea or issue into its its key components.
Expository - Also known as explanatory essays, expositories provide explanations of something. Argumentative - These type of essays, also known as persuasive essays, make a specific claim about a topic and then provide evidence and arguments to support the claim.
The claim set forth in argumentative persuasive essays may be an opinion, an evaluation, an interpretation, cause-effect statement or a policy proposal. The purpose of argumentative essays is to convince or persuade the reader that a claim is valid.
Diagram The following are useful steps for developing a diagram to organize ideas for your essay. Get started by drawing a circle in the middle of a paper just big enough to write in.
Inside your circle, write your essay topic. Now draw three or four lines out from your circle. At the end of each of lines, draw another circle just slightly smaller than the circle in the middle of the page.
In each smaller circle, write a main idea about your topic, or point you want to make. If this is persuasive argumentative essay, then write down your arguments. If the object of the essay is to explain a process expository , then write down a step in each circle.
If your essay is intended to be informative or explain analytical , write the major categories into which information can be divided. Now draw three more lines out from each circle containing a main idea.
At the end of each of these lines, draw another circle. Finally, in each of these circles write down facts or information that help support the main idea. Take a page of paper and write your topic at the top. Next to each Roman numeral, write the main points, or ideas, about your essay topic. If this is persuasive essay, write your arguments.
Essay examples would vary according to the type of essay you wish to write. As the daughter of an Air Force major, I had the pleasure of traveling across. Types of essays include narrative, descriptive, expository, compare-&-contrast, and These are 2 different types of essays. Develop a presentation and supporting speech to perform in front of your class as it helps to prove your major points.
Show AWL words on this page. Show sorted lists of these words. Any words you don't know?
Expository The function of " expository " essays is to describe, analyse or explain something.
What is it? This is the type of essay where you prove that your opinion, theory or hypothesis about an issue is correct or more truthful than those of others. In short, it is very similar to the persuasive essay see above , but the difference is that you are arguing for your opinion as opposed to others, rather than directly trying to persuade someone to adopt your point of view.
Four types of essay: expository, persuasive, analytical, argumentative
As you progress through school, you'll be required to write essays. And the farther along in school you get, the more complex and demanding the essays will become. It's important that you learn early on how to write effective essays that communicate clearly and accomplish specific objectives. An essay is a written composition where you express a specific idea and then support it with facts, statements, analysis and explanations. The basic format for an essay is known as the five paragraph essay — but an essay may have as many paragraphs as needed. A five paragraph essay contains five paragraphs.
The Ultimate Guide to Writing 5 Types of Essays
A student may hate writing homework on particular subjects while writing specific types of essays might be fun. The main goal of each writing assignment is to meet the initial prompt. The article breaks the myth about numerous kinds of essays by offering the basic categorization of this writing assignment and corresponding examples. Being overwhelmed with multiple writing assignments makes students purchase custom essays online. Professional writers are able to write any essay within the timeframe without forcing a customer to waste a lot of money. It would be wise to start studying different types of essays from the most time-consuming one — an expository essay. Five main categories of academic essays exist. Those are:. An expository essay requires the greatest amount of time because the volume is large.
To succeed at school, you need to be able to write different types of essays. Your teachers will seldom tell you exactly which type of essay you should be writing , so you need to be able to figure it out from the question you have been asked.
This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience. Learn more Got it! There are four main types of essays: narrative, descriptive, expository, and argumentative.
The Basics of Effective Essay Writing
An essay is a short academic composition. Presently, essay is part of every degree program. Each subject has specific requirements for the essays to be written. Some subjects need longer essays, while others need shorter ones, such as a five-paragraph essay. In composition, the start is made from a five-paragraph essay. Based on the requirements, there are seventeen types of essays. Generally, a simple a five-paragraph has five paragraphs including an introduction , three body paragraphs, and a conclusion. An argumentative essay, however, has an additional paragraph which presents counter argument or opposing arguments in the same sequence. However, at the end of this paragraph, both the arguments are weighed in the favor of stronger arguments presented earlier in three body paragraphs. An essay is a specific discussion or debate on a topic from a specific point of view. A student discusses the topic from his own specific angle. Readers not only get a glimpse of what the other aspect of the topic is, they also come to know about the tone and voice of the student writers to decide whether he has achieved a certain level of capability in writing. In literary essays, a writer becomes discusses the influence that literary piece has upon the readers about a certain point of view. Essays are also useful in winning public approval about certain political ideas. Definition of Types of Essay An essay is a short academic composition.
The Different Types of Essays
Almost all students will at some time be expected to write an essay, or some other kind of argument, e. In English, an essay is a piece of argumentative writing several paragraphs long written about one topic, usually based on your reading. The aim of the essay should be deduced strictly from the wording of the title or question See Academic Writing: Understanding the Question , and needs to be defined at the beginning. The purpose of an essay is for you to say something for yourself using the ideas of the subject, for you to present ideas you have learned in your own way. The emphasis should be on working with other people's ideas, rather than reproducing their words, but your own voice should show clearly.
