Know Your Essay Types: A Complete Guide

Essays have become a salient feature not only in academics but also in various professions. In either case, it is important to know the various essay types. 

Students are seldom told to produce a specific type of topic, leaving it for them to judge it by the question. It is beneficial for the essay writer either a student of a professional to produce an essay under its appropriate type. It will provide ease for the reader’s understanding.

While the essay types are several, they can be classed into four major types:

1. Narrative2. Expository3. Descriptive4. Persuasive

The other types of essays that are popping up in your head at the moment are just are a combination of these four. 

Narrative EssaysNarrative essays test your creative writing skills. You are allowed to employ every creative writing element from the story arch, plot, sensory descriptions, to dialogues. 

The narrative essay prompt will ask you to reflect upon a moment of your life and write upon it.

With you as the central character, you write the essay in the ‘first-person’ voice. 

Foremost, the essay should follow a story arch, so that you lead the reader to a conclusion at the end. After that comes the visual description, you should evoke as many senses in the readers’ minds as possible. 

Remember that passive voice and adverbs are your enemies. So always use the active voice and strong action verbs that don’t require adverbs. 

Lastly, you should follow the habit of ‘show, don’t tell’; rather than narrating the story. For the characters’ interaction, you should use dialogues accompanied with dialogue tags to add more life to the narration. 

Expository EssayUnlike Narrative Essays, expository essays don’t require the writer’s emotional input and opinions. An expository essay prompts you to write   my essay  on the topic which might involve one or more subjects through logical analysis and examples. This type of essay requires the writer to be informed about the subject through prior knowledge or active research.

The most common type of expository essays are:

1. Compare and Contrast: This type of essay expects you to delineate between subjects that have various similarities and differences. An incisive essay reveals various areas of comparison that would miss the common eye.

2. Cause and Effect: You are expected to mention various causes for an event or the subject matter. Such causes are developed into the effects they caused, using various examples.

3. Definition Essays: This type of essay takes on a subject and allows the user to showcase their research skills as they go about explaining a simple idea or concept through various references and points of view. 

Other types of expository essays include Process Essays and Classification essays.

Descriptive EssaysAn essay help where you use many of the same creative tools as in the narrative essay. The only difference is the lack of a narrative’s personal experience. You are expected to paint a picture and evoke the reader’s senses, as you talk about the subject at hand. 

It should allow the reader to see the world as you see and live it. If you make them feel connected to the subject just by reading the essay, the essay has done its job.

Persuasive EssaysPersuasive essays take on an issue and ask the reader to argue either for or against it.

Each topic requires you to take your stance; your defence for it should be backed by expert opinions and examples. You will weaken the opposing opinion using your analysis of either the history or educated future predictions. Thorough research is compulsory to talk about the subject. 

It is important that you avoid being the polemic and fill the essay typer with only your side of the argument. Also, you shouldn’t be indecisive and end up agreeing with both the opinions, trying to find a feeble middle ground. 

More Resources:

Strategies for Essay Writing Basic Essay and Paragraph Format How To Write A College Essay 

How To Write A Scholarship Essay The Beginner's Guide to Writing an Essay | Steps & Examples