Different Types of Essays You Might Ecounter in Academic Writing as a Student

1. Narrative Essays

If you are a student or a scholar who wants to tell a story or convey a message, then this is the most suitable type of essay that you can opt for. Narrative essays give you the freedom to showcase your imagination and creative skills. They are often based on general topics or personal experiences.

In higher education, narrative essays are usually used by students to write personal statements or statements of purpose. These statements play an important role for students applying for admission to international universities.

Narrative essays give students the freedom to use different literary techniques similar to those seen in fictional writing. These include:

• Metaphors
• Analogies
• Alliteration
• Imagery
• Dialogue

Narrative essays usually start with catchy phrases. The idea behind this is to instantly grab the attention of the readers. It also provides readers with some background information pertaining to the essay. It also makes the essay engaging and encourages the readers to stay hooked till the end. Narrative essays also consist of a conclusion part where you can summarise the major points mentioned in the essay. The conclusion part used can also be helpful in giving readers the key takeaways from the essay. For example, if you are writing a narrative essay, such as a statement of purpose for your degree application, you can creatively summarise how your life experiences have shaped you to opt for the potential educational course and why you are seeking admission to the respective university.

 

2. Descriptive Essays

These types of essays come up with a detailed description of the subject or topic being studied. It can be based on any of the following:

• Person
• Place
• Thing
• Event

Similar to narrative essays, descriptive essays allow students to use a creative element in their writing. However, the main difference between these essays is that, unlike narrative essays that explain the story that is based on a detailed setting, descriptive essays mainly focus on the subject.

An ideal way to engage your readers while writing a descriptive essay is to include specific thoughts, actions, sensory details and emotions related to the subject. You can also use a combination of action verbs and adjectives to make the essay more appealing. However, make sure to appropriately use your language and pay attention to the choice of words to create a striking impression on the readers. The aim of a descriptive essay is to make the readers feel involved and intertwined with the characters and incidents mentioned in the essay.

3. Expository Essays

An expository essay is a unique type of essay that allows students to explain or define a topic in a neutral tone. In other words, students use this type of essay to demonstrate their knowledge or expertise about a particular topic.

These essays are usually assigned to students as a part of their curriculum. They help university professors in assessing the subject knowledge of the students.

Expository essays do not contain any emotions or personal opinions and focus purely on facts and data collected through reliable sources. An essay on ‘Global Warming’ is an ideal example of an expository essay. While writing this essay, students will have to avoid the controversies or unwarranted claims made in the past and focus only on the factual data to tell readers more about the topic.

A well-structured expository essay consists of the following sections:

• An introduction that includes a thesis statement and explains what the essay is about.
• An appealing body which contains the facts about the subject along with the sources.
• A conclusion which summarises the main points discussed in the essay.

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4. Critical Essays

Critical essays are essays that can provide the reader with in-depth analysis of a particular topic. Along with in-depth analysis, critical essays contain a critical evaluation of the subject discussed. It also included claims and evidence collected from primary or secondary resources to support the subject.

Critical essays are widely used in the fields of literature and the humanities. These subject areas need students to develop critical and rational thinking skills. While writing a critical essay, you will have to identify data, collect evidence from multiple resources, evaluate all the information and validate your opinions. The different characteristics of a critical essay include:

• Central claim: This is similar to the introduction section, where you will express your argument at the start of the essay. A thesis statement can be used in addition to some evidence from existing literature. To make your essay more interesting, you can also add potential counterarguments and use evidence to critically analyse them.
• Evidence: To support your central claim, you will have to provide evidence in the form of facts, figures, data, descriptions or word choices. Evidence from previous scholarly work can be used to support your main argument.
• Conclusion: Once you have made a claim and provided supporting evidence, you can write a conclusion to summarise your claim and viewpoints. In this section, emphasise more on the important insights of the essay and suggest how your claims can prove to be more useful than other claims made in the past.

 

5. Compare and Contrast Essays

Compare and contrast essays are generally written to analyse and discuss two different subjects. These essays help students explain the similarities, differences or both between the two subjects. Similar to other essays, a compare and contrast essay also starts with an introduction where you can tell readers about the background of the two subjects. This type of essay can be organised in one of the following ways:

• Based on the subjects, where both subjects are discussed one after the other.
• Based on specific points where each subject is discussed under different scenarios.

 

6. Argumentative Essays

Argumentative essays have a special preference in academic writing. These types of essays require students to thoroughly investigate a topic, collect data, evaluate it and present the findings in a concise manner. These essays also compel the reader to take a certain stand based on the facts and data provided in the essay. Moreover, in an argumentative essay, students need to present adequate information to support their claims and invalidate the perspectives discussed in previous studies.

Argumentative essays also end with a logical conclusion where you can clearly define your claims. Additionally, first and second-person statements are avoided in argumentative essays. Thus, you will have to come up with neutral statements to define facts that support an argument against the other. These types of essays use phrases taken directly from the research quoted, like ‘research suggests’ or ‘according to a recent study’. By using these phrases, you can emphasise the facts and add value to your arguments.

 

7. Persuasive Essays

Persuasive essays are similar to argumentative essays in terms of presenting a logical series of arguments. However, one factor that makes persuasive essays different from argumentative essays is that these essays use an emotional appeal to influence the readers to follow the writer’s perspective. Argumentative essays introduce the readers to different facts based on the debate and give them the freedom to make their own choice. On the other hand, persuasive essays use different statements and data to support the thesis statement. It mostly involves counterarguments and using moral or emotional reasoning to support the points being discussed.

To write an effective persuasive essay, make sure to add some empathy along with factual data. This will influence the readers to believe you and relate to your experiences. By using an emotional appeal, you can make a connection with the readers first and then give a logical explanation to change their viewpoint about the subject.

Furthermore, you can ask different rhetorical questions in your persuasive essay. These questions will trigger the thoughts of the readers, and they will try to answer them based on the data presented in the essay. To emphasise your points more, you can also repeat the data and keep reminding the readers about your message at different stages. This can be done either by rephrasing the central point, using true and relatable stories or by naturally reinforcing your point at different instances.

 

8. Definition Essays

Definition essays belong to the category of exposition essays that outline an idea or a term. These essays aim to critically examine complex topics and provide a detailed analysis of the subject. It is a rhetorical style of essay that starts with a simple definition of the topic and further elaborates on the definition to fully explain the concept. These essays are widely used in academic and research settings as they allow students to discuss the accurate meaning of the subject under study.

 

9. Process Essays

If you want to explain how to do something or how the process works in a particular setting, then you will have to write a process essay. This type of essay is usually written in chronological order and gives a step-by-step explanation of the entire topic under discussion. Process essays are written in an organised structure to present a clear picture to the readers.

A process essay consists of the following main elements:

• The introduction part makes readers familiar with the topic under discussion.
• The body part of the process essay represents the information in a step-by-step chronological order. In this section, the use of transition words such as moreover, additionally, first, next, etc. is encouraged to keep the readers hooked.
• The conclusion section is written to summarise the key points of the essay.

 

10. Cause and Effect Essays

In academic writing, cause and effect essays are used to explore the causes of an event and its consequences on the surroundings. These types of essays explain in detail to the readers why certain situations have paved the way for other incidents. The writer, with the help of facts and data, draws a clear connection between the two incidents and clearly provides the reader with substantial data about what features connect the subsequent events.

To write a good cause and effect essay, you will have to use your critical thinking skills while writing the essay. This will help you in developing cause-effect reasoning and presenting your ideas in a logical manner. Similar to expository essays, cause-and-effect essays also include facts and data. However, the use of subjective opinions must be avoided in these essays. Additionally, you will have to use a neutral language, tone and formal style to write an engaging cause and effect essay.

Bottom line

The above-mentioned are some of the different types of academic essays you might have to write during your academic journey. While these are the most common types of essays used in academic writing, your teachers or university might occasionally ask you to write a combination of two or more essays.