What are essays? Narrative essays Definition Essay Structure Example

ESSAYS AND TYPES

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   What are essays?
   
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   Narrative essays
   
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   Definition Essay Structure Example
   

Effective written communication is a necessary skill for many jobs, so professionals can convey a message by explaining or describing their ideas. One way to do this is with an essay, and several common types help writers streamline their work into a piece that’s clear, focused and well-organized. Learning about these documents can help you write them better and communicate your ideas more clearly.

In this article, we discuss what essays are and list 10 common types of essays for you to consider.
What are essays?
Essays are long-form writing assignments that persuade or inform a reader about a particular topic. It's important to know which type of essay to use to best deliver your message to readers. When you choose the type of essay most relevant to your topic, you can tailor your essay to your readers and be more organized.
In some cases, such as school or job applications, someone decides which type of essay you write. Other times, you choose what type of essay to write. You may use an essay to convince readers to take your side, explore an abstract topic or try to evoke an emotional response. You often select an essay type based on what you're trying to accomplish. For example, if you want to teach the reader how to do something, you may use a process essay that breaks the directions into individual steps.
Related: What Is an Essay Structure? (With Types and Tips)
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10 types of essays
Here are 10 types of essays you may use in your writing:
1. Narrative essays
Narrative essays tell a story and often are the most personal type of essay you may write. They allow you to exercise creativity and imagination, and you can base them on a particular prompt, such as the first time you drove a car by yourself, or a more open-ended prompt, like a time you overcame a fear. You may submit a narrative essay, usually called a personal statement, for college or graduate school applications.
You can use literary techniques in narrative essays to create an essay that reads like fiction. To do this, consider including metaphors, analogies, alliteration, imagery and dialogue. A narrative essay generally has an opening that gets the reader's attention and provides enough background information for the story to make sense. A conclusion helps summarize the main point of your essay or reiterate your goals. For example, if you’re writing a narrative essay for a job application, you could conclude by summarizing how your experience solidified your desire to become a lawyer.
2. Descriptive essays
Descriptive essays provide a detailed description of your subject. This may be a person, place, thing or event. Descriptive essays, like narrative essays, allow for a more creative approach to writing. Unlike narrative essays, which provide a complete story, descriptive essays often focus only on the subject.
When writing a descriptive essay, consider including vivid imagery and incorporate actions, thoughts, sensory details and emotions to immerse the reader instead of simply explaining the situation or events. You can do this by using strong action verbs and unique, descriptive adjectives. This can make your writing more engaging and help the reader feel more involved and connected to your essay and its characters.
Related: 10 Essay Writing Tips
3. Expository essays
Expository essays explain a topic neutrally. Writers use expository essays to demonstrate their knowledge or expertise in a certain area. Teachers often assign expository essays to test their students' understanding of a topic. These essays often avoid emotion or opinion and instead focus on factual information. For instance, if you're writing about environmental conservation, try to avoid claiming someone should do something or taking a stance on a controversial issue. Expository essays can take different formats, but they typically include:
An introduction with a thesis statement explaining exactly what the essay will discuss
The body that details the facts of the subject, often citing sources
A conclusion that summarizes the main points
Read more: Expository Writing: Types and How To Craft an Expository Paper
4. Definition essays
Definition essays are a type of exposition essay that defines a term or idea. These essays typically examine complex or abstract topics and provide in-depth analysis and explanations. For instance, a definition essay might discuss what existentialism is or the meaning of quantum physics. Definition essays are common in academic and research settings.
Related: How To Write a Thesis Statement (With Examples)
5. Process essays
Process essays are another type of exposition essay that describes how to do something or how something works. You can write a process essay in chronological order to maintain organization and clarity. Process essays usually contain the following elements:
Introduction: Introduce the process you will describe.
Body: These paragraphs describe each step in chronological order. Consider using transition words that signal where you are in the process.
Conclusion: Finish your essay with a conclusion that summarizes the process to help the reader remember the most important idea of the document.
Related: How To Write a Conclusion (With Tips and Examples)
6. Compare and contrast essays
Compare and contrast essays discuss two subjects and detail the similarities and differences between them. These essays include an introduction, at least one paragraph to explain the subjects' similarities, at least one paragraph to discuss differences and a conclusion. Compare and contrast essays are common in academic settings. An example of a compare and contrast essay is one describing the similarities and differences between bees and wasps.
Read more: The Comparative Essay: How To Write One
7. Argumentative essays
Argumentative essays try to convince the reader to take a certain side based on the information the writer presents. Argumentative essays rely on facts rather than emotion to sway the readers. For instance, an argumentative essay may discuss why companies should offer wellness packages as part of their benefits plan. The essay can incorporate research about how regular exercise increases productivity and how people who eat well and work out take fewer sick days.
Argumentative essays avoid first- or second-person statements. Rather, they support one side of an argument and may argue against other sides using objective information. You can use phrases like "Research suggests" or "According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention" to present the facts that support your argument.
Read more: How To Start an Argumentative Essay (With Writing Tips)
8. Persuasive essays
Persuasive essays aim to persuade readers to have an opinion or take a side using facts and emotional appeals. To support an argument or cause, persuasive essays can include moral and emotional reasoning to connect to the reader.
For example, a persuasive essay about the previous topic of companies including wellness packages in employee benefits may include appeals to employers' satisfaction with providing an extra perk for their employees. It also could discuss employers' responsibility to ensure their employees have access to features that keep them healthy or how excited and grateful employees are for the new benefits.
Read more: How To Write an Effective Persuasive Essay in 6 Steps
9. Cause and effect essays
Cause and effect essays detail why certain events or situations led to other events. Writers create a clear connection between the two sets of events or circumstances and explain what features of the initiating event created the subsequent incidents. Cause and effect essays are types of expository essays, so they state facts and avoid subjective opinions. A cause and effect essay may examine how Charles Darwin's scientific discoveries led to the origin of new theories of social science, for instance.
Related: Guide: Using the Question and Answer Format in Essays
10. Critical essays
Critical essays provide an in-depth analysis of a topic. They can critique paintings, books, movies, plays or restaurants. Many college courses, especially literature and humanities courses, require critical essays as a way to test students' ability to think critically and identify evidence from a specific work that validates their observations. Critical essays use facts from the subject to justify an opinion. For instance, in a movie review, a writer could note a movie uses boring dialogue. They then could support that observation by citing specific lines from the film.
Narrative essays narrate, argumentative essays argue, and expository essays … expose? Explain? (It’s a little of both). While these essays may use narrative, argumentative, and expository writing styles to make their points, they’re not the only types of essays to do so. In fact, there are 15 different types of essays — all of which narrate, argue, or explain something to their readers.
1. Narrative Essays
Narrative essays tell stories from your life or the lives of others. They’re told just like fictional short stories, with characters, a setting, a compelling plot, a climax, and a resolution.
Narrative essays use the third person perspective (it happened to someone else) or the first person perspective (it happened to the writer). Narrative essays should be entertaining and engaging to read, so choose a narrative writing topic that speaks to you.
Narrative Essay Example Structure
When writing a narrative essay, a possible structure could include:
Introduction - Hint at what you or the character learned
Body - Tell the story from beginning to end, finishing in an exciting or compelling climax in the last body paragraph
Conclusion - Reflect on what you or the character learned from the experience in the story
2. Argumentative Essays
Argumentative essays (also called argument essays) investigate topics fairly and thoroughly to present the writer’s argument to the reader. The writer makes a claim and argues why evidence and logic support that claim in a well-structured essay.
Strong argumentative essays use rhetorical devices to strengthen their arguments, and they address the opposing argument (known as a counterclaim) as well. When choosing an argumentative essay topic, select an issue that you care about (or a topic you’d like to learn more about), and begin researching your position with reliable sources.
Argumentative Essay Structure Example
You can structure an argumentative essay like this:
Introduction - Introduce the topic and your claim in a thesis statement
Body - Support your position with evidence (and bring up counterclaims)
Conclusion - Restate your claim and summarize how you proved it
3. Expository Essays
Expository essays use research and critical thinking to explain more about a topic. Newspaper articles are a type of expository essay — they provide information to the reader in a concise, factual way. Writing expository essays requires a straightforward outline, evidence-based conclusions, and a strong thesis statement.
Though expository writing reveals information, it’s not the same as technical writing. Expository essays “expose” the truth about a selected topic, not just the information about it.
Expository Essay Structure Example
Most expository essays follow a structure similar to this:
Introduction - Introduce the topic and hint at a deeper truth
Body - Explain more about the topic with evidence; expose the truth and/or implications of the topic in a final body paragraph
Conclusion - Summarize the information and its larger meaning
4. Descriptive Essays
Like narrative essays, descriptive essays use narration to set a scene for the reader. But unlike narrative essays, descriptive essays don’t tell a story from beginning to end. If a painting could be an essay, it would be a descriptive essay — a written experience that you can almost see.
Descriptive essays use lots of sensory details to describe the way something looks, sounds, smells, tastes, or feels. Well-written descriptive essays also use similes, metaphors, hyperboles, or other types of figurative language to pull their readers into the experience.
Descriptive Essay Structure Example
When writing a descriptive essay, you can follow this outline:
Introduction - Introduce the topic you’re going to describe with an engaging, sensory hook sentence
Body - Describe the topic with rich sensory detail and figurative language
Conclusion - Summarize your essay and conclude with a memorable descriptive sentence
5. Persuasive Essays
Persuasive essay writers try to convince their readers to agree with them. You’ll find examples of persuasive writing in both essays and speeches when a speaker, writer, or politician wants the audience on their side.
When you write a persuasive essay, you use similar strategies as you would in an argumentative essay. But persuasive essays use personal anecdotes (stories about yourself or others) and emotional appeals rather than the logic and evidence you’ll find in an argumentative essay. They also include a call to action at the end that inspires their audience to act.
Persuasive Essay Structure Example
You can structure your persuasive essay in a similar way as your argumentative essay, with a few key differences.
Introduction - Use an emotional evocative hook to get the reader interested in your position right away
Body - Use personal anecdotes, dramatic language, and emotional appeals to get the reader on your side
Conclusion - Finish with a call to action for your reader — what should they do now?
6. Informative Essays
Like expository essays, informative essays (also called informational essays) inform their readers about a topic. But the main purpose of an informative essay is to educate the audience rather than to expose them to the truth.
Informative essays require lots of evidence and strong research. Be sure to choose an informative essay topic that interests you, since you’re going to learn a lot about it during the course of your writing.
Informative Essay Structure Example
Outline your informative essay structure in a straightforward, no-nonsense way.
Introduction - Introduce the topic with a strong hook (such as an interesting fact or statistic)
Body - Explain more about the topic with evidence
Conclusion - Restate your thesis and conclude with a general statement about the topic
7. Personal Narrative Essays
Personal narrative essays (also called personal narratives) are a form of narrative writing in which the writer explores how an experience affected or shaped them. They focus on a single event or theme in one’s life, and unlike narrative essays, personal narratives are always true (and always autobiographical).
College entrance essays are a type of personal narrative in which a college applicant considers how a event or person in their past helped them to become the person they are today. Another type of personal narrative is a memoir — a longer narrative about one’s own life.
Personal Narrative Structure Example
It’s tempting to write a personal narrative in an unstructured way, but having a solid structure is the key to writing a compelling personal narrative.
Introduction - Set the scene, both in setting and tone (Where are we? When does it take place?)
Body - Tell the story with rich detail, beginning to end, culminating in a meaningful climax
Conclusion - Reflect on the experience and reveal how it shaped or changed you
8. Reflective Essays
Reflective essays explore an idea, concept, or observation from a writer’s point of view. They may include humor or emotional writing, but they should reveal a lot about the writer themselves (and about the reader).
Both reflective writing and personal narratives are forms of creative writing. But while reflective essays are personal, they don’t need to be written in a narrative format or tell a story. Think about a well-written journal entry — it probably doesn’t tell a story from start to finish, but explores the way something made the writer feel.
Reflective Essay Structure Example
Depending on your topic, reflective essays can be quite structured or more loosely organized. Generally, you can follow a standard format.
Introduction - Introduce the topic with detail and a thesis statement
Body - Reflect on the topic (also including detail)
Conclusion - Restate the thesis statement in a conclusion about the topic
9. Synthesis Essays
Synthesis essays gather opinions, evidence, and proposals from various sources and present it to the reader as one document. They’re similar to argumentative essays (in that they present a claim) and informative essays (in that they present information), but the goal of a synthesis essay is first and foremost to compile a body of evidence.
That evidence may support the writer’s claim, or it may cause them to reexamine their thoughts about the topic. Either way, synthesis essays include a wealth of sources (all of which must be properly cited, of course).
Synthesis Essay Structure Example
You can structure your synthesis essay like an expository essay.
Introduction - Hook the reader with a strong first sentence, then state your position in a thesis statement
Body - Support your thesis with the wealth of evidence you have gathered from different sources
Conclusion - Restate your thesis and summarize how you’ve supported your position
10. Definition Essays
Definition essays define a term or idea. These terms could be vocabulary words, technical terms, abstract concepts, historical words, or any other idea that a writer wants to define for the reader.
It seems like that may only get you a sentence or two, but a well-written definition essay does a lot more than look up word meanings. They can be expository when pointing out little-known facts or implications of the term, reflective when referring to important concepts, and even argumentative if the writer has a stance to defend.