Types of Essay

Everything You Need to Know about 5 Different Types of Essays!
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:
1. Expository
2. Descriptive
3. Narrative
4. Compare-&-contrast
5. Persuasive/argumentative
Look at the definition of each essay category to be ready for the writing battle!
Expository Essay
An expository essay requires the greatest amount of time because the volume is large. It is possible to divide this essay into several categories. Those are interpretation, definition, cause-&-effect, response, and analysis.
• A basic explanation essay refers to the process of interpreting some process step-by-step (providing detailed instructions). Such assignments answer the “how” questions. The straightforward topics of this sort could be the way The President of the United States is elected; write about the way chocolate factory creates its best candies.
• A definition essay is the simplest one, but do not come up with a single definition copied from the English dictionary. Plagiarism will result in F. A writer should include both the official definitions (several of them) and personal understanding of the specific word/phrase: define “justice,” “hatred,” or “school bullying” in the essay.
• The cause-&-effect essay is the one, which proves that things are interrelated in this world. In such an essay, a writer should draw a parallel between some subjects/events by specifying the reasons for some things to happen and the consequences. An example of such essay could be the causes & effects of the Civil War in the US.
• Reflection essay (or personal response essay) is in the realm of subjectivity on one side. A writer still has to explain the main topic of the essay based on the credible evidence and facts. Focus on personal opinion regarding the analyzed piece in such essay.
• A critical analysis essay is an essay, which goal is to make a writer understand the covered material. A teacher/student chooses a related piece of text (from book chapter to scholarly article) to write, analyze, and interpret the results in own way. The teacher compares the essay to the actual interpretation of work. Go line by line to provide a clear explanation of this type of essay.
Descriptive Essay
It is the answer to the question, “What type of essay describes something?” The descriptive essay is an original essay, which is based on the detailed description and detailed analysis of the chosen literary piece, object, event, etc. An essay writer will deal with adjectives, adverbs, etc. Write many different descriptive words to describe the topic. Analogies, metaphors, similes, allegories, and personifications are the most popular literary tools writers use in descriptive essays. They help to visualize things. English composition and literature teachers assign such essays. A student has several options: sharing emotions, describing a personal experience in details, explaining the ways to cook tasty pizza, etc.
Narrative Essay
The narrative essay reminds of a short story written by the famous author like Ernest Hemingway’s “Old Man and the Sea.” A writer can talk about the weirdest thing he met in life. Another good idea is to talk about the first love. Many students choose to recall a particular day from their life to show how 24 hours can change someone’s life for better or worse. A narrative essay is all about expressing various things a writer has gone through in his/her life to make the target audience of readers interested. Writing narrative essays does not require the usage of external sources. This fact makes this kind of academic writing easy, but a student has to develop a creative approach to receive the best grade.
Compare-&-Contrast Essay
The compare-&-contrast essay belongs to the expository essay category. An essay writer will have to mention the differences & similarities between the selected subjects/people/locations/events to let the reader compare and contrast things. Comparing refers to finding similarities while contrasting in an essay is finding differences. This essay helps to understand more than one topic at a time. It is possible to compare/contrast various categories of essays (write about differences & similarities). Do not forget that you can mix essays of different types: involve a comparison of your previous job experience to the current one - that would be a mix of a narrative & compare-&-contrast writing.
Persuasive/Argumentative Essay
The persuasive or argumentative essay is a type of essay where a writer has to insist on the specific point of view regarding the chosen problem. These are 2 different types of essays. A persuasive essay has to convince the reader of the truth of the main argument, thesis; an argumentative essay just must state the thesis and defend it with other related arguments & evidence. Writing persuasive essays is the most challenging task. A student should learn how to write an argumentative essay first.