What is an Essay?
An essay is a short piece of writing that discusses, describes, or reviews one topic. Essays can consist of a number of elements, including literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, and the research of experimental science.
These assignments are quite common throughout a student’s academic life. And they help them in building their writing skills also. This is what makes them so important for the students.
Unfortunately, many students do not possess good writing skills. For them, writing even the most common kind of essay is also difficult.
To top it off, they do not understand the difference between different types of essays also.
If you are also one such student then you can learn everything here.
What are the Different Types of Essays?
The key to differentiating types of essays is to figure out the writer's objective. Here are the different kinds of academic essays that serve different purposes.
Narrative Essay
Narrative essays reflect on an event in the author's life. They tell stories about cultural experiences and personal journeys. This form of essay can be written from any point within the narrative, including the beginning, the middle, or the end.
In a narrative essay, you must construct an interesting and well-structured tale. They are considerably more personal and innovative than other types of academic writing.
The same writing abilities are required for both a personal statement and a narrative essay.
The introduction, body, and conclusion of a narrative essay aren't always defined as such. But they should start by establishing the narrative and conclude by expressing the story's significance.
Descriptive Essay
This type of essay is often used when storytelling because it provides vivid images for the reader. The aim of a descriptive essay is to give the reader the same kind of experience. The writer does it through his words and imagery.
A descriptive essay is a detailed sensory description of anything. They facilitate more creativity than most academic writing, but they are more focused than narrative essays.
Rather than telling the entire tale, you may describe a specific location or thing instead of a complete narrative.
Descriptive essays evaluate the way you have used language and words. These essays are based on vivid descriptions of the things you are talking about in your essay.
The most essential aspect is to use creative words and imagery in order to offer an original account of your topic.
Persuasive Essay
The objective of a persuasive essay is to convince the reader to accept the writer's point of view. Much as an expository essay does by presenting facts.
The goal of this essay is to persuade the reader that a certain conclusion is correct. The author should create a case with facts and logic as well as examples, professional opinions, and strong reasoning.
The arguments MUST include all sides of the argument. But the writer must be able to establish his views and explain his point of view easily.
Argumentative Essay
An argumentative essay is used to make an argument for or against a particular issue, topic, or theory. During the process of writing this type of essay, authors will take one side of an argument.
They use evidence from personal experience, literature, or real-world events to support their claims.
An argumentative essay is a long, evidence-based argument.
A strong thesis statement—a precisely defined perspective on your subject—is required. Your goal is to persuade the reader of your thesis using evidence (such as quotations) and analysis.
The most common essay type is the argumentative essay. It challenges you to research and present your own viewpoint on a subject.
The majority of papers you'll write at the college level will include some sort of argumentation.
Expository Essay
Expository essays explain or clarify a complex topic to readers. They also may offer background information and history on a certain issue.
The purpose of this type of essay is to help readers understand a topic. It explores all sides, including its origin, development, and key players.
The expository essay is a type of essay in which the author presents a clear, focused explanation of a topic. It just needs an accurate and well-structured perspective on the subject.
They're frequently given as high school assignments or in college-level examination questions.
The body of an expository essay gives the context and details, while the introduction sets your topic and provides basic background. And the conclusion summarizes what you've learned.
Compare and Contrast Essay
In contrast and comparison essays, two items that are comparable yet different are compared. A writer should focus on the similarities and differences between two or more things before beginning an essay.
To write a compare and contrast essay, authors must first plan meticulously and know exactly what information they want to include.
Make a thesis statement, compare the chosen items and arrange them in chronological order, and draw a conclusion.
Reflective Essay
This is a rare sort of essay in academia. Because reflective essays are concerned with the writer rather than the subject, it's an uncommon form of writing.
To compose a reflective essay, a person must select an experience or event from his own life and share it with his readers.
Critical Essay
When writing such essays, it is critical that the author describes the episode in detail. Besides, he should also explain what he or she felt before and after the event.
Finally, the writer should summarize what he or she has learned from this instance
The key difference between analytical and expository essays is that critical papers are more critical.
A writer analyzes books, movies, and artworks, and critiques them. He talks about the weaknesses and strengths of the work.
In this sort of article, a writer delivers educational information to his or her readers.
Cause and Effect Essay
In a cause-and-effect essay, the writer establishes a connection between events and the consequence of those events.
The paper should explain the reason behind the ways different things are, how they came to be so, and what is going to happen next. The logical relationship between several causes and consequences must be determined.
Cause and effect essays are the most challenging sort of essay. They must analyze a number of potential causes and consequences.
One should fully research the topic at hand and eliminate all possible reasons and results. Ecological and political issues may be discussed in cause-and-effect essays.
Textual Analysis Essays
Although every essay type assesses your writing abilities, some essays also evaluate your capacity to read critically and carefully. Textual essays are a form of analytical essays that analyses a work of literature or art.
In a textual analysis essay, you analyze a text closely to demonstrate how it achieves certain outcomes.
- Rhetorical analysis
Generally, a rhetorical analysis examines the effectiveness of a persuasive text via its use of rhetorical devices and assigns grades.
Rather than evaluating whether you agree with the author's thesis, this essay seeks to analyze how they've structured it.
The introduction of a rhetorical analysis provides the text, some historical context, and your thesis statement.
The body is made up of the evaluation, and the conclusion summarizes your study and its relevance to bigger issues.
- Literary analysis
The goal of a literary analysis essay is to apply the close reading to a piece of literature to analyze the author's decisions. And the way they contribute to the text's message.
It's not only a book report or review; it's also an in-depth interpretation of the work.
Setting, characters, themes, and figurative language are all topics that may be addressed in literary analysis. The goal is to examine the author's message and how it is delivered.
These can focus on a wide range of issues including the reasons for the success of a book, the themes, and characters of a novel, the legality, and morality of controversial issues, etc.
