An essay is a copy of nonfiction writing that concentrates on a single topic. Writers commonly use the essay’s format to defend a thesis or present their viewpoints on a topic.
You write multiple essays during your academic career. Plus, you most likely produce a variety of essays, including analytical and argumentative essays.
Not all forms of essays require the same skill sets!
For example, employing figurative language to bring a personal essay to life or analytical thinking through a multidimensional problem in an analytical essay to drive an ultimate solution.
Depending on their requirements, essays vary in length and structure.
Before diving into the writing phase, you should know these seven types of essays. Moreover, you will become an excellent essayist once you understand how they are different.
1. Personal Essay
In a personal essay, you focus on something that has had a personal impact on you. It could be a past event, your present situation, or a larger look at how many experiences and circumstances formed you into the person you are now.
In writing a personal essay, you usually follow narrative writing approaches. Depending on the essay’s substance and tone, they can also use expository or descriptive techniques.
Other forms of essays, such as argumentative or college application essays, can overlap with personal essays.
Example
The Death of a Moth, an essay of Virginia Woolf’s is the best example of a personal essay. In this essay, Woolf contrasts the transitory aspect of existence with the certainty of death by portraying the dying moments of a moth.
2. Political Essay
History students are quite familiar with political essays. These essays discuss society and how well-known historical and contemporary thinkers should govern it.
Thomas Hobbes, John Rawls, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau are three prominent political essayists. In a political essay, you have to discuss current issues and present a solid solution.
Political essays are usually classified into expository writing.
Example
Sarah Katz’s essay “The Era of Easier Voting for Disabled People Is Over” is a supreme example of a political essay.
In this essay, Katz analyses how pandemic-related modifications to the voting system made voting more accessible for people with disabilities and how new bills to reduce voter fraud could harm this voter population.
3. Compare and Contrast Essay
Most often, professors assign a compare-and-contrast essay to students. That is why it is most common among learners.
In this type of essay, the writer compares and contrasts two themes to reveal significant distinctions and similarities.
You can be asked to compare two novels you read for class, two historical people from the period you are studying, two approaches to delivering the same result, or two concepts presented by your instructor.
Furthermore, you can be asked to compare four or even more subjects. Compare-and-contrast essays usually have two subjects.
Typically, compare-and-contrast essays are expository, as the essay’s thesis is revealed through the writer’s comparisons.
But writing this type of essay is not a cakewalk. Before diving into the writing phase, you should craft a top-quality compare and contrast essay outline. In this way, you can develop a premium essay.
Example
“Harry Potter vs. Draco Malfoy” is an excellent example of compare and contrast essay.
4. Analytical Essay
An analytical essay goes into the critical elements of the topic at hand and concludes after thoroughly exploring these components.
In addition, it examines the themes in a novel or the arguments expressed in a political essay. Analytical essays are expository works of writing to present facts through interpreting information.
While writing this essay, you do not need to persuade the reader to adopt a particular viewpoint.
Example
Island of Fear is the best example of an analytical essay. Moses Martinez, the author of this essay, shows how William Golding utilizes three characters in “Lord of the Flies” in order to present how people react to threats and trauma in various ways, even when they are in the same surroundings.
5. College Application Essay
Not all essays are considered college essays. Before getting admission to a college, you have to write a college application essay.
Typically, college essays are produced in response to specified topics. By asking applicants to reply to some related points, these prompts are designed to assist them in writing engaging and compelling personal essays.
Example
This essay is an excellent example of a college admission essay.
6. Humorous Essay
A humorous essay is another type of essay intended to make the readers laugh and entertain. For example, it might be a personal essay on a funny occurrence in the author’s life or a political essay about current events that incorporates satire.
Humorous essays follow the same approach as other essays but often focus more heavily on narrative writing techniques such as descriptive language and metaphors.
Example
The essay of David Sedaris, “The Santaland Diaries,” is a good example of a humorous essay. Sedaris writes from the standpoint of a man dressed as an elf at a mall Santa setup in this essay. He satirizes this American holiday rite with humorous anecdotes from this point of view.
7. Expository Essay
The most fundamental sort of essay is an expository essay written to define and explain a concept rather than state a point.
In general, it is shorter than directly answering a particular question.
Example
What Makes People Happy is a remarkable example of an expository essay.