Essay: How to write the major types of essay

Types of Essays:

As students, we will be required to write various types of essay especially at the primary and secondary levels of education. An understanding on what an essay entail will aid you to better write the appropriate kind of contents for that type of essay.

In this article, you will be guided on the appropriate contents to be written in each of the respective types of essay.

By definition, an essay is a piece of writing on a particular subject with an expression of one's perspective.

Please read on the concepts of formal, informal and semi-formal essays here.

Generally, there are four types of essays depending on what you intend to pass to the reader. These are:

1. Narrative Essay

As a student, think of narrative essay as telling or narrating a story through a piece of writing.

This kind of essay could be personal, real or imaginative, thus giving you a chance to be creative while expressing yourself through writing.

Please read on a narration of the biblical account of human disobedience here.

Your goal in writing a narrative essay will be to involve (and engage) the reader into your essay, as if they were right there during the events of your story.

It is important to emphasize the need to make your narrative essay appear more like a reality. It should be clear and unambiguous for the reader to comprehend.

• If you are very good at telling stories, then writing a narrative essay should be your strong point.

Importantly, always remember to create scenes that will capture the attention of the reader in this type of essay.

Please read on the narrative summary of "the gods are not to blame" here.

2. Descriptive Essay

If you are good at describing objects, people, places and things, then descriptive essays should be easier for you.

The way and manner at which you paint the picture of what you are describing is very important in a descriptive essay. Meanwhile, one way to go about this is to capture the 'sense organs' of the reader through your writing.

You can read on the description of the prodigal son with its moral lessons here.

As the writer, you must paint a clear picture through your writings. The nature of your writings can even make the reader feel emotional as he or she reads on. To this end, the reader may end in 'tears of joy' if you had described a touching story through an engrossing write-up. In this regard, the perfect manner at which you had described certain contents in your writing in paramount. The point is:

The reader is meant to feel the emotions you felt while writing this kind of essay.

Please read on a story that describes Joseph here.

A properly written descriptive essay should give the reader a clear picture of whatever you are describing. The reader understands the events of your story through a properly written descriptive essay.

Please read on a description story of 'the true meaning of honesty' here.

3. Expository Essay

Thorough investigation is required before one writes an expository essay.

As the name suggests, this essay attempts to expose the hidden details about an event or occurrence. An expository essay is always based on examples, pictures, facts and statistics.

Please read on an exposition of the harmful traditional practices in Nigeria here.

As a writer, you must carry out some research through careful analysis, comparisons and examples on the subject or topic to be written on. You may want to compare and contrast your points or find previous occurrences and relevant examples to corroborate the truth or fact you intend to expose through your writing.

An expository essay should include evidences. In fact, it is these evidences that exposes the truth on your subject of writing. These evidences could be logical, statistical, factual or pictorial.

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Through various expository essays, we have seen certain government officials, lecturers, financial mismanagement and evil practices exposed through carefully written articles backed up with facts.

Note: An expository essay is sometimes referred to as an explanatory essay.

4. Argumentative Essay

An argumentative essay is generally written when there are two or more sides to a debate or story.

Understand that whatever has an advantage is also likely to have a disadvantage too. Your ability to put valuable points into writing will go a long way in argumentative essays.

Please read on this article which presents an interesting consequence of human disobedience here.

As a writer, you will try to convince the reader to accept your point of view on the argument you present. Also, all your points must be backed up with facts and examples.

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When writing an argumentative essay, do not present your facts in a flat manner; rather they should be carefully arranged in a logical order. To achieve this, always attempt to initially present both sides of the argument, but at the end, It's your logically presented facts that will get the reader on your side of the argument.

An argumentative essay is also known as persuasive essay. The goal of this essay is to persuade or convince the reader into accepting your side of a story.

You can read on the beauty of suffering here.