Types of Essays: End the Confusion

Effectively writing different types of essays has become critical to academic success.
Essay writing is a common school assignment, a part of standardized tests, and a
requirement on college applications. Often on tests, choosing the correct type of essay
to write in response to a writing prompt is key to getting the question right. Clearly,
students can’t afford to remain confused about types of essays.

There are over a dozen types of essays, so it’s easy to get confused. However, rest
assured, the number is actually more manageable. Essentially there are four major
types of essays, with the variations making up the remainder.

Four Major Types of Essays

Distinguishing between types of essays is simply a matter of determining the writer’s
goal. Does the writer want to tell about a personal experience, describe something,
explain an issue, or convince the reader to accept a certain viewpoint? The four major
types of essays address these purposes:

1. Narrative Essays: Telling a Story

In a narrative essay, the writer tells a story about a real-life experience. While telling a
story may sound easy to do, the narrative essay challenges students to think and write
about themselves. When writing a narrative essay, writers should try to involve the
reader by making the story as vivid as possible. The fact that narrative essays are
usually written in the first person helps engage the reader. “I” sentences give readers a
feeling of being part of the story. A well-crafted narrative essay will also build towards
drawing a conclusion or making a personal statement.

2. Descriptive Essays: Painting a Picture

A cousin of the narrative essay, a descriptive essay paints a picture with words. A
writer might describe a person, place, object, or even memory of special significance.
However, this type of essay is not description for description’s sake. The descriptive
essay strives to communicate a deeper meaning through the description. In a
descriptive essay, the writer should show, not tell, through the use of colorful words and
sensory details. The best descriptive essays appeal to the reader’s emotions, with a
result that is highly evocative.

3. Expository Essays: Just the Facts

The expository essay is an informative piece of writing that presents a balanced
analysis of a topic. In an expository essay, the writer explains or defines a topic, using
facts, statistics, and examples. Expository writing encompasses a wide range of essay
variations, such as the comparison and contrast essay, the cause and effect essay, and
the “how to” or process essay. Because expository essays are based on facts and not
personal feelings, writers don’t reveal their emotions or write in the first person.

4. Persuasive Essays: Convince Me

While like an expository essay in its presentation of facts, the goal of the persuasive
essay is to convince the reader to accept the writer’s point of view or recommendation.
The writer must build a case using facts and logic, as well as examples, expert opinion,
and sound reasoning. The writer should present all sides of the argument, but must be
able to communicate clearly and without equivocation why a certain position is correct.

Four types of essay: expository, persuasive,

analytical, argumentative
For our academic writing purposes we will focus on four types of essay.

1) The expository essay

What is it?
This is a writer’s explanation of a short theme, idea or issue.

The key here is that you are explaining an issue, theme or idea to your intended audience. Your
reaction to a work of literature could be in the form of an expository essay, for example if you
decide to simply explain your personal response to a work. The expository essay can also be
used to give a personal response to a world event, political debate, football game, work of art
and so on.

What are its most important qualities?

You want to get and, of course, keep your reader’s attention. So, you should:

 Have a well defined thesis. Start with a thesis statement/research question/statement of

intent. Make sure you answer your question or do what you say you set out to do. Do not
wander from your topic.
 Provide evidence to back up what you are saying. Support your arguments with facts
and reasoning. Do not simply list facts, incorporate these as examples supporting your
position, but at the same time make your point as succinctly as possible.
 The essay should be concise. Make your point and conclude your essay. Don’t make the
mistake of believing that repetition and over-stating your case will score points with your
readers.
2) The persuasive essay

What is it?
This is the type of essay where you try to convince the reader to adopt your position on an issue
or point of view.

Here your rationale, your argument, is most important. You are presenting an opinion and trying
to persuade readers, you want to win readers over to your point of view.

What are its most important qualities?

 Have a definite point of view.

 Maintain the reader’s interest.
 Use sound reasoning.
 Use solid evidence.
 Be aware of your intended audience. How can you win them over?
 Research your topic so your evidence is convincing.
 Don’t get so sentimental or so passionate that you lose the reader, as Irish poet W. B.
Yeats put it:
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity
 Your purpose is to convince someone else so don’t overdo your language and don’t bore
the reader. And don’t keep repeating your points!
 Remember the rules of the good paragraph. One single topic per paragraph, and natural
progression from one to the next.
 End with a strong conclusion.

3) The analytical essay

What is it?
In this type of essay you analyze, examine and interpret such things as an event, book, poem,
play or other work of art.

What are its most important qualities?

Your analytical essay should have an:

 Introduction and presentation of argument

The introductory paragraph is used to tell the reader what text or texts you will be
discussing. Every literary work raises at least one major issue. In your introduction you
will also define the idea or issue of the text that you wish to examine in your analysis.
This is sometimes called the thesis or research question. It is important that you narrow
the focus of your essay.
 Analysis of the text (the longest part of the essay)
The issue you have chosen to analyze is connected to your argument. After stating the
problem, present your argument. When you start analyzing the text, pay attention to the
stylistic devices (the “hows” of the text) the author uses to convey some specific
meaning. You must decide if the author accomplishes his goal of conveying his ideas to
 the reader. Do not forget to support your assumptions with examples and reasonable
judgment.
 Personal response
Your personal response will show a deeper understanding of the text and by forming a
personal meaning about the text you will get more out of it. Do not make the mistake of
thinking that you only have to have a positive response to a text. If a writer is trying to
convince you of something but fails to do so, in your opinion, your critical personal
response can be very enlightening. The key word here is critical. Base any objections on
the text and use evidence from the text. Personal response should be in evidence
throughout the essay, not tacked on at the end.
 Conclusion (related to the analysis and the argument)
Your conclusion should explain the relation between the analyzed text and the presented
argument.
Tips for writing analytical essays:
 Be well organized. Plan what you want to write before you start. It is a good idea to know
exactly what your conclusion is going to be before you start to write. When you know
where you are going, you tend to get there in a well organized way with logical
progression.
 Analytical essays normally use the present tense. When talking about a text, write about
it in the present tense.
 Be “objective”: avoid using the first person too much. For example, instead of saying “I
think Louisa is imaginative because…”, try: “It appears that Louisa has a vivid
imagination, because…”.
 Do not use slang or colloquial language (the language of informal speech).
 Do not use contractions.
 Avoid using “etc.” This is an expression that is generally used by writers who have
nothing more to say.
 Create an original title, do not use the title of the text.
 Analysis does not mean retelling the story. Many students fall into the trap of telling the
reader what is happening in the text instead of analyzing it. Analysis aims to explain how
the writer makes us see what he or she wants us to see, the effect of the writing
techniques, the text’s themes and your personal response to these.

4) The argumentative essay

What is it?
This is the type of essay where you prove that your opinion, theory or hypothesis about
an issue is correct or more truthful than those of others. In short, it is very similar to the
persuasive essay (see above), but the difference is that you are arguing for your opinion
as opposed to others, rather than directly trying to persuade someone to adopt your
point of view.

What are its most important qualities?

 The argument should be focused
 The argument should be a clear statement (a question cannot be an argument)
 It should be a topic that you can support with solid evidence
  The argumentative essay should be based on pros and cons (see below)
 Structure your approach well (see below)
 Use good transition words/phrases (see below)
 Be aware of your intended audience. How can you win them over?
 Research your topic so your evidence is convincing.
 Don’t overdo your language and don’t bore the reader. And don’t keep repeating your
points!
 Remember the rules of the good paragraph. One single topic per paragraph, and natural
progression from one to the next.
 End with a strong conclusion.

Tips for writing argumentative essays:

1) Make a list of the pros and cons in your plan before you start writing. Choose the
most important that support your argument (the pros) and the most important to refute
(the cons) and focus on them.
2) The argumentative essay has three approaches. Choose the one that you find most
effective for your argument. Do you find it better to “sell” your argument first and then
present the counter arguments and refute them? Or do you prefer to save the best for
last?
 Approach 1:
Thesis statement (main argument):
Pro idea 1
Pro idea 2
Con(s) + Refutation(s): these are the opinions of others that you disagree with. You must
clearly specify these opinions if you are to refute them convincingly.
Conclusion
 Approach 2:
Thesis statement:
Con(s) + Refutation(s)
Pro idea 1
Pro idea 2
Conclusion
 Approach 3
Thesis statement:
Con idea 1 and the your refutation
Con idea 2 and the your refutation
Con idea 3 and the your refutation
Conclusion
3) Use good transition words when moving between arguments and most importantly
when moving from pros to cons and vice versa. For example:
 While I have shown that.... other may say
 Opponents of this idea claim / maintain that …
 Those who disagree claim that …
 While some people may disagree with this idea...
When you want to refute or counter the cons you may start with:
 However,
  Nonetheless,
 but
 On the other hand,
 This claim notwithstanding
If you want to mark your total disagreement:
 After seeing this evidence, it is impossible to agree with what they say
 Their argument is irrelevant
 Contrary to what they might think ...
These are just a few suggestions. You can, of course, come up with many good
transitions of your own.
4) Use facts, statistics, quotes and examples to convince your readers of your argument