Essay WritingBy: Heather Geisel

What is an Essay?

• A way to get students to look deeper at their own ideas to a particular topic.

• Short piece of writing that tests the students skills in reading, analysis, persuasion, comparisons, and exposition.

Purpose of an Essay

• Develop new ideas and concepts through writing.

Essay Genres

• Expository

• Descriptive

• Narrative

• Argumentative (Persuasive)

Expository Essays

• Essay where a student must research an idea, evaluate what they learned, and make an argument on that idea.

Descriptive Essay

• Essay where a student must describe a person, place, object, emotion, etc.

• These are helpful for telling stories about an event or experience using imagery.

Narrative Essay

• These essays are anecdotal, experiential, and personal. They allow the writer to make the essay express themselves.

• If they are written in story form they must contain all parts of the story.

Argumentative Essay

• These essays are meant to persuade the reader into the writers standpoint on an issue.

• They inform about an idea but are for one side over another.