Essays are not just short stories describing action or process (Like the beloved “How I spent this summer” essay). The work is much more complex. People use essays as a way to analyze, discuss some topics, persuade readers or prove ideas. So each custom essay should be specific and unique depending on purpose and type.
Purposes or essays differ. A list of the most commonly used types of them in the English language looks like this:
- Argumentative;
- Persuasive;
- Critical;
- Narrative;
- Descriptive (Sensory);
- Definition;
- Compare/Contrast;
- Cause/Effect;
- Process;
- Expository.
Each type has its rules and unique features. Understanding the structure, style, or anything else in a particular kind, and how it differs from another will help to write better essays and spend less time on doing the preparation and work itself.
Now let’s start learning, shall we?
Argumentative Essay (Convincing the reader that you are spot on)
Several students find the concept of writing argumentative essays appealing, though it can be quite an arduous task. Argumentative essays give you the ability to write your own exclusive opinions and thoughts and then find relevant evidence to back your argument. The real challenge lies in coming up with the right evidence and effectively learning how to defend your viewpoint. The best argumentative essays focus on just one aspect of a debate. For a detailed explanation of how to write an argumentative essay, visit here.
You should persuade the reader at some point. By giving proper argumentations, examples, etc., you convince them, that, for instance:
- Earth is round (It may sound funny today, but people in the past died trying to prove that);
- Coffee has greater taste than tea;
- Using an essay writing service is a good thing (And it is!)
We don’t try to convince you that an essay of this type should be 100% serious and has no space for humor or anything like that. You can make a funny essay but a persuasive one. However, it has to follow the structure. It looks something like this:
- Stating the point;
- Proving it with the right argumentation/examples;
- Stating the point once again. This time much more confident.
Academic works, like dissertations, coursework, or whatever are similar to argumentative essays from this perspective. Think about it.
What is the purpose of this essay?
The main purpose of an argumentative essay is to defend a debatable position on a certain issue with the ultimate goal to encourage a reader to accept the argument. In other words, your goal is to decide whether to agree or disagree with an essay subject, take a side, and develop an argument to demonstrate why you’re right. Of course, to show your argument is valid it needs to be supported by evidence.
What are the elements/parts of the essay?
- Introduction – starts with an attention-grabbing hook, provides background information on the subject, and announces the thesis statement (argument you’re going to discuss)
- Developing the argument – the body of the essay, divided into paragraphs containing a claim and evidence. Each paragraph should be dedicated to one claim (reasons why you’re right) and evidence to support it. Avoid writing multiple claims in one section. The number of paragraphs isn’t defined, but most students stick to 3-4 depending on the subject, word count etc.
- Debunking opponent’s arguments – there’s always the opposite side of the issue. This section addresses opposing arguments and demonstrates why they’re wrong
- Conclusion – restates the primary premise or argument, provides a general warning of the consequences that could happen if the main premise isn’t followed i.e. explains why we need to take action and solve some major problem
What are the methods?
Since argumentative essay and other types of academic writing should be written in a precise manner, you have to be careful not to overdo it with figures of speech. The purpose of figures of speech is to emphasize the argument, not to lessen its impact. Useful figures of speech to add moderately include:
- Metaphor – an implied comparison between two similar things that have something in common
- Personification – an inanimate object or abstraction is endowed with human abilities
- Simile – a stated comparison between two things, people, ideas
- Alliteration – repetition of an initial consonant sound
Form of writing
The argumentative essay uses formal, academic writing style to discuss a certain subject. A writer focuses on developing the argument in a manner that keeps the reader glued to the paper to the very end.
Point of view
Even though the argumentative essay requires a writer to take a stand and back it up with evidence, it should be written from a third-person perspective. First-person writing can downplay the importance of facts and evidence while third-person writing emphasizes them.
Tone of the essay
This type of academic writing requires an authoritative and formal tone, but it should also appeal to the reader. Take into consideration the audience and avoid writing “big” words randomly.
Persuasive Essay
A persuasive essay is a form of academic writing wherein a writer tries to convince the reader that one idea is more legitimate and accurate than the other. Nowadays, a persuasive essay is used as a synonym for argumentative papers, but they’re not the same. Argumentative essays use logic and reason while persuasive essays may involve a writer’s emotions and feelings too.
What is the purpose of this essay?
The purpose of the persuasive essay is to convince the reader that the assertion, claim, or opinion of the writer is valid. The goal is to try to persuade the audience to adopt your view on the matter. While it can involve emotions, the paper also needs evidence to make your “persuasion” even stronger.
What are the elements/parts of the essay?
- Introduction – grabs the reader’s attention, makes audience relate to the subject, and announces thesis
- Body paragraphs – each paragraph features one reason/claim and evidence to support it
- Conclusion – short summary of the subject, benefits to the reader, and call-to-action in one paragraph
What are the methods?
The power of persuasion is an art form and there are different ways to make it stronger. Careful use of figures of speech and other stylistic methods can intensify your arguments. Useful methods to use include hyperbole for extravagant statements, irony, metaphor, imagery, simile, puns (but avoid clichés), you name it.
Form of writing
The persuasive essay focuses on an in-depth assessment of the subject in order to defend your claims and make them appear superior to others. While it involves one’s emotions and passions, it’s crucial not to overdo it.
Point of view
Although the power of persuasion comes down to a person’s beliefs and passions, the essay requires third-person writing. It’s important to stay away from first-person writing because it can lessen the significance of evidence you include.
Tone of the essay
A formal type of writing that uses sarcasm and irony to emphasize strong voice and opinion.
Critical Essay
Don’t think you should criticize someone or something in this type of work. The idea is to analyze strengths and weaknesses, meanings, methods or even their absence.
It can be a movie, a play, a speech, or even another person’s essay (Essay that analyzes essay that analyzes another essay that…). Or anything else, examples:
- What are the pros and cons of pastarians’ perception of God (No religious feelings are meant to be offended);
- Strengths and weaknesses of “American Pie’s” plot;
- Morality issues of my friend Stephen’s action. What will be the punishment for toilet papering our teacher’s house?
The structure of such types of essays is more complex and has more variations. It should resemble this:
- Asking a question;
- Proving strengths and weaknesses, pros and cons. You can write some points first and then the opposite to them or vice versa. Contrasting them, like good-bad, good-bad is also possible. Alternatively, you can create your own way of doing it. It may be a great plus.
- Answering the question. You should decide if Stephen is a great guy or should his parents lock him in his room. Never leave the issue unsolved.
Critical essays are the hardest ones. It is crucial to make vast research before starting it. Shortness of knowledge on the topic may lead to making false statements in the conclusion of the work.
Narrative Essay (Imagine you are a storyteller)
In narrative essays, you are basically writing about a real-life episode or experience that has occurred in your life. It may appear easy, and numerous students choose this essay type thinking it would be a piece of cake; however, a narrative essay is quite challenging to write. This is primarily because students are not well versed with writing about themselves.
If you opt to write a narrative essay, ensure that you utilize all your senses wherever possible. Writing about sights, thoughts, feelings, and sounds will engage the interest of the readers and give them the feeling that they are present with you while you narrate your experience.
Beloved “How I spent this Summer” is a great example of a narrative essay based on personal experience.
You just tell a story about something, you’ve experienced, or create it on your own. Titles of such works:
- How Drrrhgraalllgarr defeated evil orcs;
- A trip to Vegas with my dog that didn’t end well…;
- How I stopped smoking and started believing in myself.
People often call them short stories as they have the simplest structure:
- Introduction (Why I/they did it and what are the reasons);
- Main body (What happened);
- What lesson is learnt from it.
Nothing hard nor fancy, if you can tell an interesting story to a friend, this task won’t be a challenge at all.
What is the purpose of this essay?
The purpose of a narrative essay is to tell a story or narrate an event or series of events. Of course, the narration is non-fictional but it still allows students to explore their creativity. The narrative essay can be experiential, anecdotal, etc.
What are the elements/parts of the essay?
- Introduction – starts with an attention-grabbing hook, describes significance of the subject, and ends with a thesis statement
- Body paragraphs – include the background of some event, characters (people involved), short anecdote or foreshadowing, onset of the event, climax, and ending or resolution
- Conclusion – moral of the story, significance of the overall subject, call-to-action (if applicable)
What are the methods?
Bearing in mind narrative essays revolve around telling a story, a writer can use multiple figures of speech to add more “soul” into the content. Anaphora (repetition of the same word/phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or verses) can be very useful for cases when you want to make a big impact. Other figures to use include simile, metaphor, hyperbole, imagery, litotes (an understatement wherein an affirmative is expressed by negating its opposite), personification, and others.
Form of writing
Although narrative essay revolves around telling a story, it should still convey and send a strong message about a certain subject. A writer uses personal experiences to get the point across.
Point of view
Unlike other types of essay writing, this paper encourages the use of the first person.
Tone of the essay
The tone should be engaging, approachable, storytelling, but you should still avoid using clichés, abbreviations, slang, etc.
Descriptive Essay (Pretend that you are a Painter of a Picture)
Quite similar to narrative essays, descriptive essays paint a picture utilizing the words you jot down. You may opt to write a descriptive essay about an individual, place, event, or object. Several students end up struggling with this type of essay because despite the fact that you are effectively describing something, you are not merely writing the essay for the purpose of describing something. You must find a deeper value and meaning and eventually communicate that to the reader through your description. The most excellent descriptive essays enliven a single object in all the magnificent details that it possesses.
“Yesterday I ate a chocolate bar. It was tasty and had peanut butter stuffing…”
You got the idea. Simple description of something. Of course, it should not be as short and generalized as an example provided in the previous paragraph. Use as much details as possible, try to express in your work every aspect of something.
There are no limitations on what it should be about. It may be stuff like:
- Your favorite toothbrush;
- Abandoned house on street you live on;
- New Lego set you bought for yourself;
- And anything that exists in multiverse.
It’s structure has tons of variations. It can be a story-like description, similar to narrative essays, a list of traits. Anything that comes to mind.
Definition Essay
In definition essays you do not only explain meaning of words or terms, you try to analyze why is called that way. An abstract concept or something more specific.
- Beauty;
- Respect;
- Nature;
- Family;
- Toyota Corolla;
- Cleaving knife;
- Etc.
Defining of an object usually goes in three steps:
- You tell readers, what are you going to define;
- Give them basic information about it (similar to what is given in the dictionary);
- Examples, facts and other things needed for deeper analysis of object itself. Or why people named it that way.
It’s up to you how to handle this type task. You can define by different criteria: function, structure, by comparing something to other things. Even by telling readers, how your subject is not defined as.
It may seem as an easy task, but it’s a trap. Especially when you write about some abstract concept, like “Good” or “Evil”. Such things are subjective thus your point of view may differ from readers’. If you are not persuasive enough, it will spoil an essay you’ve worked so hard on.
Comparative Essay
You may compare two places, techniques, concepts, goals, works of literature, etc. Find similarities, and differences and discuss them in your work. It is possible to add a third object or even a fourth.
We believe that two is more than enough to create a great comparative type essay.
It is a bad idea to compare incomparable like the Moon and Peter’s left hand. The contrast is too strong. Different cars, colleges, pens, cities, people, would be nice to use in an essay.
The idea is not to just name things that objects have in common but to come up with a conclusion on which is better. Or that they are basically the same, like left and right shoes.
Compare and contrast essay looks at the similarities and differences between two or more objects, events, or ideas. This type of an essay is particularly common at the university where lecturers test their understanding of the subject by asking students to compare and contrast two theories, historical periods, methods, characters in a novel, etc. Sometimes students are asked to compare or contrast only, but in other instances, they are required to do both within a single essay.
What is the purpose of this essay?
The purpose of compare and contrast essay is not to state the obvious, but to illuminate unexpected similarities or unexpected differences. A writer has to dig deep below the surface to analyze the subject and use evidence to confirm both similarities and differences.
What are the elements/parts of the essay?
- Introduction – introduces the main topic and specific ideas or subjects the paper will compare/contrast, announces the thesis statement
- Body paragraphs – each paragraph starts with a topic sentence focused on the aspect you’re about to compare/contrast. After the topic sentence, it’s important to introduce the evidence you obtained while researching
- Conclusion – summary of the topic, specifies the significance of the subject, provides a short evaluation of future developments
What are the methods?
Compare and contrast essay is the perfect opportunity to use figures of speech such as simile and metaphor as they allow you to compare two objects/ideas both directly and indirectly. The use of oxymorons can also be practical when done correctly.
Form of writing
The focus of this paper is to connect two subjects or ideas in a meaningful way. Drawing distinctions between two (or more) elements within the same category enhances the understanding of the subject and demonstrates the writer’s critical thinking skills and the ability to evaluate a topic from different angles.
Point of view
Although you are the one who chooses key similarities/differences, it’s necessary to stick to the third-person writing.
The tone of the essay
This type of essay requires a clear and authoritative tone. Depending on the subject, a humorous tone can also be fitting.
Cause/effect Essay
This type of work is a symbiosis of two: cause essay and effect essay.
Cause essay explains why something happened. For instance:
- Why I am so handsome (could be an essay for your biology class, where you explain how you inherited features from ancestors);
- Why Neo from “Matrix” appeared to be the chosen one;
- Why Earth is moving around its orbit.
Effect essay tells readers about things that happened after particular event:
- How my handsomeness affects my life since I was born;
- How people defeated machines in “Matrix” after rebels found Neo, the chosen one;
- How Earth’s movement made it possible for life forms to develop on the planet.
Multiple causes may lead to one effect and. Multiple effects can be caused by one cause. Talking about Earth, its movement did not lead only to life forms creation. It made it possible for us to have daytime and nighttime, water waves, strong atmosphere and many other pleasant things.
Talking about multiple causes, your handsomeness (Yes, you are handsome), is not only caused by genes you’ve inherited. Nutrition, exercising, even weather conditions, all of that contributed to your well looking.
While working on a cause/effect paper, we recommend you to get ideas for every part of it on the first place. Then combine them in one well-written work.
Such an attitude will help you to:
- Find all possible causes and effects of particular event, process or action;
- Have a better structured work;
- Understand the matter better.
You may even decide to divide work in two essays and get two good marks instead of only one. It’s up to you.
What is the purpose of this essay?
The main purpose of a cause and effect essay is to demonstrate your ability to connect reasons and their consequences in an evidence-based and logical fashion. It’s not uncommon for students to confuse this type of writing for compare and contrast essay. The main difference here is that you don’t analyze similarities/differences, but evaluate causes and effects or results of some actions, ideas, behaviors.
What are the elements/parts of the essay?
- Introduction – sets the tone, catches reader’s attention, announces thesis statement
- Causes/effects paragraphs – there is no limit here, you can write as many paragraphs as necessary to discuss causes and effects you want. Remember, one cause/effect requires one paragraph, second cause/effect needs a separate paragraph, and so on. This is the section where you include research notes and back up all your claims with strong evidence
- Conclusion – restates the topic, summarizes key causes and effects, includes call-to-action (if applicable)
What are the methods?
Bearing in mind the cause and effect essay requires a logical flow of events and an in-depth analysis of the relationship between some events and their consequences, too many figures of speech could lessen the impact of your argument. When using these “devices” one should be careful because they can distract the reader. In order to achieve heightened effect one can use hyperbole, but with caution. Metaphor and simile can also be useful when used in moderation.
Form of writing
A writer focuses on the deductive analysis of the existing data to provide a logical reasoning for some event.
Point of view
Cause and effect essay requires third-person writing. Imagine yourself as a bystander who’s witnessing some event or development and reporting it and its consequences to his/her audience.
Tone of the essay
This paper requires causal chains, logical flow of events, systematic order of happenings.
Process Essay
It may be a tutorial on how to do things, a story depicting changes in one’s world perception or anything like that. Structure of such essay is simple. You need to describe the process in the natural order of events.
If you decide to describe morning routine (very interesting topic, we know, but it is a great example), then it would look like that:
1. Describe how you got up;
2. You cleaned your teeth;
3. Made breakfast;
4. Finally put on pants with flowers printed on them so that your roommate stopped freaking out;
5. Went to classes.
A great idea is to write about things that actually changed after the process. Life lesson you’ve learnt or if you write a tutorial/instruction for something, describe what a person should get after the work is done.
Expository Essay (Merely state the facts)
Expository essays are common at the college level, and they are primarily research papers. You accumulate facts and information and then successfully organize them in a manner that is logical, so that you can demonstrate your findings to your readers. You commence with an idea and then effectively present the research findings and data, following which you draw a conclusion on the basis of your findings. It is vital to note that your personal opinions, feelings, and thoughts should not be a part of this type of essay.
When you work on expository type essay, you are required to investigate some idea, event or fact. For example, you decided to write about some urban legends of your town/city. You need to do a proper research, go to the location, where the event took place and make conclusions from it.
Arguments in an essay should be persuasive and informational. The idea is to make people believe in legitimacy of a conclusion and have no doubts about it. The more facts you use the better.
It is recommended to use five-paragraph structure for expository essays.
- A paragraph, where you introduce idea or whatever you are going to investigate;
- Three paragraphs, where you present facts and evidences;
- Closing paragraph (conclusion).
What is the purpose of this essay?
The purpose of the expository essay is to “expose” and explain some subject in a straightforward manner. A writer carries out extensive research to approach the topic from different angles, analyze obtained information, and compose an essay. It is a fair and balanced analysis of a subject and it is strictly based on facts.
What are the elements/parts of the essay?
- Introduction – a brief overview of the subject and announcement of thesis statement
- Body paragraphs – each paragraph discusses a specific topic within a given subject. It should contain facts and evidence that support them followed by their analysis
- Conclusion – summary of key points, reestablished significance of the subject
What are the methods?
Bearing in mind that expository essay is based on facts only, using figures of speech could decrease their influence. It would be ideal to keep this essay concise and specific from top to bottom, without adding words and phrases that aren’t necessary
Form of writing
The expository essay focuses on obtaining information and analyzing gathered data. A writer takes the role of a documentary narrator who just describes what is shown on screen. The paper doesn’t set a pro or con argument that persuades the reader to adopt a certain idea.
Point of view
Ideally, you should use third-person writing to compose an expository essay.
Tone of the essay
An expository essay is written in a logical and concise manner. A writer should be unbiased and avoid taking sides on the issue/subject.
Tips, advice, and explanations
We did not include all the structures that are being used for essays due to various reasons. To begin with, there are more of possible ways to format essays, including Dalmatians infamous movie (101). More to that, the main principles of structuring an essay are the same in every work of the kind. Even children know this “10-80-10” rule which means how much information should be included in each of the essay parts.
If you have any troubles with classification essay types, you can always find an example of compare-and-contrast, narrative, definitive, or any other kind of worksheets, written by professionals on our sites.
We will publish guides on different types of essays occasionally and hope that you will love them.
Our advice is to try to get pleasure from the things you are doing. Writing papers is also a form of art, you can express yourself here using different styles, approaches, or anything else that could possibly make an essay interesting for you.
Don’t be afraid to experiment.
