If you plan to write an essay, you should know the different college essays and their purposes. Types of essays in college also vary according to various topics. You need to know the type of essay in which your topic lies. It will help you to structure it better and fulfill its requirements.
Take an example of a topic that requires you to compare and contrast two subjects. For this, you should be aware of the compare and contrast essay techniques to do it well. However, if you treat it like a simple descriptive essay, you might only describe the two subjects but will lack the actual requirement of the essay.
Most students only know 4 types of essays. Read the blog below to know more types of essays and their requirements to ace each type of essay.
Contents
8 Types of Essays and their Requirements
Expository Essay
Analytical Essay
Compare and Contrast Essay
Argumentative Essay
Narrative Essay
Descriptive Essay
Cause and Effect Essay
Critical Analysis Essay
8 Types of Essays and their Requirements
To explain what are the different types of essays, we have mentioned below some common kinds of essays and their descriptions that all essay writer must know to write an essay well:
Expository Essay
An expository essay is written to describe processes and series of steps required to achieve a certain goal. It tests your knowledge about the topic. It requires technical vocabulary and knowledge about the subject. Common types of expository essays include process essays, problem and solution essays, etc.
Structure of an Expository Essay
Its structure is simply in the form of an introduction, body, and conclusion. The introduction paragraph should have the necessary definitions of the key terms in the topic.
The body paragraph will describe the process in a series of steps. Finally, the conclusion should summarize the whole process explained in the essay in a single paragraph.
Analytical Essay
In an analysis essay, you will be required to state the advantages and limitations of a subject mentioned in the topic. Make sure that you have to take a balanced approach.
You will not be drawing conclusions based on these perks and drawbacks. You will leave that to the reader to decide. An analytical essay only evaluates the topic.
How to Write an Analytical Essay?
The introduction of this type of essay will also require you to describe the topic. In this essay, you will briefly describe a major advantage and disadvantage of the subject also.
The body of this essay can be categorized into two parts. One can describe the advantages and the other can mention the disadvantages.
The conclusion will finally reiterate all these advantages and disadvantages. It will show your analysis of the topic briefly.
Compare and Contrast Essay
In a compare and contrast essay, you will simultaneously be evaluating two entities based on their similarities and differences. Therefore, you first describe the comparable points between both and then their contrasting points.
Requirements of a Compare and Contrast Essay:
You will write this essay by briefly describing the two entities in the introduction. After that, you will mention the major reason, which makes them both comparable. Further on, you will also mention how they differ in a sentence or two in the introduction.
The body of this type of essay will also be divided into two parts. One will compare the two entities, enlisting their similarities. The other part of the body will show their contrast by describing their differences.
The conclusion of the essay will mention the major points of compare and contrast between both points. Thus, a person reading the conclusion should be able to understand how the two things are similar yet different from each other.
Argumentative Essay
An argumentative essay is a tricky essay. In this type of essay, you have to take a specific stance. It will be an affirmative or a negative stance over the topic.
If you take an affirmative stance, that means you agree with the topic stance, and if you take a negative stance, that means you disagree with it. You will be required to prove your stance through evidence. You will also have to point out the limitations in the opposite stance.
Sometimes argumentative essays are mixed with persuasive essays. However, they have a slight difference. The argumentative essays are written to prove your stance, while the persuasive essay is written to convince the reader of your point.
Tips for an Argumentative Essay:
The introduction of an argumentative essay has a strong thesis statement that tells about your stance on the topic. You will also briefly discuss in the introduction why you have taken that particular stance.
The body of an argumentative essay can be structured in two ways. First, you can divide it into two sections, one each of thesis and antithesis.
In the thesis of the essay, you have to mention the reasons why your stance is correct. In the antithesis, you will be mentioning the opposing stance and the counter-narrative of your points.
Another way to structure the body is to write one thesis paragraph and its subsequent antithesis paragraph and keep writing them alternatively.
The paragraph structure of the argumentative essay is also very particular. In order to prove your argument well, you should follow this structure.
There should be a topic sentence that tells the main reason for your stance. Then there should be supporting details for your topic sentence. After that, there should be necessary evidence. The last line of the paragraph will be the concluding sentence that links to your thesis statement.
Narrative Essay
Writing a narrative essay is to describe a personal experience. The common examples of narrative essays are biographies and autobiographies. The purpose of explaining a person’s personal experiences in this essay is to draw a message based on their life history.
“Which types of essays are most likely to be written in the first-person point of view?”
When biographies are written in a narrative essay, they are usually written in the first-person perspective. This is because the biographies will describe your own life experience, which is better communicated from the first-person perspective.
Structure of a Narrative Essay:
Its introduction will include background information about the personality whose life will be described in the essay. The background information may include name, gender, profession, reason of popularity, etc.
A narrative essay’s body structure is very simple, but the order is very important. It comprises paragraphs that describe the series of events in order. For example, if someone’s life is being narrated, their childhood would be explained before their teenage years.
Finally, a narrative essay is concluded with a message that can be driven from the story that has been narrated in the essay. Then, that message is explained using the prior mentioned details and events.
Descriptive Essay
A descriptive essay is another form of a creative essay. Descriptive essays also describe a personal experience but not of the whole life. Instead, it describes any place, thing, or event mentioned in the topic. For example, a descriptive essay’s topic could require you to explain your favorite dish.
Ways to Write a Descriptive Essay:
In the introduction of a descriptive essay, you will briefly introduce the subject you will talk about. Moreover, you will mention your encounter with the subject also.
The body of the essay will focus on the description of the topic. You could simply describe multiple points one after the other in the form of paragraphs.
Another way is to categorize the body into different parts. For instance, if your description is about a traveling destination, one category could be about its food, another about its sceneries, and so on.
The conclusion of the essay will summarize the whole essay and describe the subject in a single paragraph. But do not include any new information in this paragraph.
Cause and Effect Essay
A cause and effect essay relates two subjects mentioned in the topic. First, it does it in a way to explain how one thing results in another. Or what are the reasons behind the occurrence of it, and what could be the possible outcomes?
How to structure a Cause and Effect Essay?
The introduction of this essay will briefly introduce the two subjects being discussed in the topic. It should also explain how and why are two things related to each other. Finally, it explains the basis of their relationship.
The body of a cause-and-effect essay is evidently divided into two categories. One category will describe the causes, and the other will describe the effects. But make sure that all causes and effects relate to each other. Do not write random reasons or outcomes.
The conclusion finally states which entity causes the other and why. It restates the reasons and outcomes of the topic also.
Critical Analysis Essay
A critical analysis essay is not just a simple evaluation of the topic. Firstly, the topics for such essays are mostly literary writings or some current affairs topics. Then, a detailed evaluation is written based on the merits and demerits of the topic.
Tips for Writing a Critical Analysis Essay:
The introduction of this should most preferably include an attention grabber because this type of essay tends to get complicated. So attention grabbers ensure to hook your reader. You will then describe the topic and introduce it. Some common types of hooks for essays include quotations, facts, etc.
The essay’s body will be so structured that the merits and demerits of the topic can be explained separately. Also, you can write similar opinions of other writers or specialists as evidence of your analysis.
The conclusion of the essay will provide a conclusive opinion on the topic. This opinion is based on the merits and demerits previously written in the essay.
This blog helps you be aware of the requirements of 8 common types of essays in academic essay writing service. By understanding their requirements, you can write a good essay accordingly.
Moreover, if you want to secure good marks in your high school and college, then these requirements may also help in your marking criteria.
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