Academic success for every student depends on their ability to express their thoughts and opinions in writing. Every high school and college student is expected to know how to write an essay. Choosing the correct type of essay impacts your chances of success in whatever field you find yourself in. Creating a well-written and engaging essay does not necessarily translate to success, so you must have a good grasp of the different formats and styles of writing articles.
Essay writing is categorized into five distinct types, each one having its application and features. Each of these styles entails writing skills that every student will need throughout their academic journey while helping them to focus more on content instead of form. This piece will break down the types of essays and explain the features of each one, especially as it applies to students.
What Is an Essay?
An essay is an interpretative, analytic or critical literary composition that is usually formal, less systematic and shorter than a thesis or dissertation. Therefore, an essay is designed with a focus to either persuade or inform the reader. An ideal piece is made up of three core components, which include the introduction, body and conclusion. The introduction is where the reader finds out what they are about to read and is presented almost in the form of a thesis statement.
The body of this write-up gives the content or evidence used to persuade the reader to accept the writer’s position. An article conclusion is a part that summarizes the body of the text and briefly discusses the findings.
Expository Essay
An expository essay is one of the types of essay which helps in communicating factual information. Usually, they depend on certain structures to convey their views, such as process essays, compare and contrast and the analysis of cause and effect.
When writing, your focus shouldn’t be to appear clever or witty. You are expected to state your observations and facts clearly.
An expository essay involves analyzing any information assigned to you. It also involves critically thinking about the concepts behind it while giving detailed explanations of the reasons and processes backing your conclusions. An expository essay is supposed to help the reader understand the viewpoint of the author.
Argumentative Essays
An argumentative essay is a type of writing which involves the author proposing their views on certain issues and attempting to back up the same with evidence.
High school and college students often fear this type of article as it may seem multilayered and complex. They are given to students on ACT, SAT, IELTS and TOEFL tests and can also be assigned as coursework.
An argumentative paper is designed primarily to inform and not convince the reader, which makes it different from a persuasive essay. Argumentative essays can significantly improve a student’s debating ability and, by extension, their public speaking ability. The elements of an argumentative essay include position, evidence, and counterarguments. Note that there are three major ways to approach an argumentative essay: the Classical Approach, Rogerian Approach, and the Toulmin Approach.
Descriptive Essays
A descriptive essay attempts to paint a vivid picture in the mind of the reader in as much details as possible. Typically, a paper could be about a place, object, person, situation, or emotion. This type of writing is adopted to help improve the students’ analytical skills, which is quite significant in their professional and educational lives.
This, perhaps, is why it is given to college and high school students. The components of a descriptive essay include sensory details, figurative language, precise language, and a central theme. When writing this, you are expected to choose a topic, create an outline, write the introduction, create a thesis statement, compose the body paragraphs, and write the conclusion.
Narrative Essays
When applying for college, a student may be asked to engage in narrative writing about the candidate’s personal qualities. Ideally, this paper type is written from the first person perspective, and you are to engage the reader of the texts fully. Narrative essays involve descriptive techniques and vivid details. One drawback of a narrative essay is that it is always limitations in its length. In order words, your summary technique must be top-notch, and you must be able to tell a complex story shortly. Sometimes, students may engage the services of experts such as research writing service by Edusson to help with the process. Note that narrative essays are non-fiction written from the author’s viewpoint, and they include the elements of a story and give information in a defined order. Also, this type attempts to inform the readers of something and involves a lot of details used in describing a person, event or scene.
Persuasive Essay
A persuasive essay is designed to help explain a certain topic and attempts to influence the audience into adopting your view as the best. This is one of the types of research papers, also known as an argumentative essay. Persuasive essays have the same structure as expository and informative reports.
The critical elements of a good persuasive essay include an opening paragraph introducing the thesis, a clear thesis idea, body paragraphs and smooth transitions. They also use counterarguments to refute and summarize opposing views and the conclusion.
To Sum Up
Every college or High school student will write a paper at some point in their academic or professional journeys. Essay writing shouldn’t create fear in your heart, especially if you are equipped with the relevant information about the five types of essays. It doesn’t matter if you write a persuasive, narrative, argumentative, descriptive, or expository essay. What counts is your ability to comprehend the topic, research it and present it in a manner that conveys the message.
