Essay Types

Essay Writing Steps

Writing a College Application Essay

How to Use Stories to Support Your Essay

© Ugur Akinci

Essay writing is a fundamental skill that all students and writers should possess.

First, however, you have to decide on the essay type.

What type of essay would you like to write?

Here are some alternatives:

1) Thesis essay. You have a view point, an argument, and you debate it to convince others about the correctness of your position. This is an appropriate style both for academic and popular pieces.

Example: “Why higher gas prices is good for developing green technologies.”

2) Creative essay. This is an artistic expression of an emotion. Or perhaps, you’d like to narrate an event with great poetic license. The aim is to move the reader emotionally along a narrative thread. It’s similar to story-telling.

Example: “The Bossa Nova nights in Rio…”

3) Comparative essay. You compare and contrast to related or perhaps opposing concepts in order to expand your reader’s mindset. You dig out the issues, point out to the pros and cons of both sides, and try to assess the relative merits of both concepts or subjects.

Example: “Parliamentary systems in the United States and India: a Comparison”

4) Review essay. You write an essay to review a hotel, a gadget, a restaurant, a product or service, a movie, etc. The idea is to introduce the subject to the reader with some background and expert guidance.

Example: “10 Things to Remember When Visiting Malaysia.”

. This is the kind of essay that is published in the Op-Ed section of print and web newspapers and magazines. This is adversarial writing on a topical issue. You take sides and defend your side. It’s not meant to be objective and impartial. But you need to explain with supporting facts why you are not so.

Example: “As the federal debt gets out of hand…”

6) Definitional essay. You take a concept, a word, an object, and expand on it by giving not only it’s dictionary definition but also facts and anecdotal material about that subject matter. You take a two-dimensional definition, breathe life into it, and make it a three-dimensional live object by providing background, context, related concepts, its history, a personal story that involves the word/concept, etc.

Example: “Pomegranate – The Secrets of a Miracle Fruit.”

Mixing Essay Types

These essay types are not absolute. They can meld into each other and they often do. An essay, for example, can both compare to different systems of movie production and also defend a thesis for a third option. Feel free to mix different styles if you believe that would make an even more effective essay.

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