Saturday, November 17, 2007

Essay Writing Tips

What is an essay?
An essay is a piece of writing, usually from an author's personal point of view. Essays are non fictional but often subjective, while expository they can also include narrative.

An essay is a persuasive piece written to formally present information, defend a position, or accomplish various other specific tasks. Essays are generally written to demonstrate knowledge and expertise in a subject area.

Types of Essays:

Descriptive Essay
provides details about how something looks, feels, tastes, smells, makes one feel, or sounds. It can also describe what something is, or how something happened. These essays generally use a lot of sensory details. The essay could be a list-like description that provides point by point details.

Definition Essay
it should attempt to explain why the term is defined as such. It could define the term directly, giving no information other than the explanation of the term. Or, it could imply the definition of the term, telling a story that requires the reader to infer the meaning.

Compare/Contrast Essay
discusses the similarities and differences between two things, people, concepts, places, etc. The essay could be an unbiased discussion, or an attempt to convince the reader of the benefits of one thing, person, or concept. A comparison essay usually discusses the similarities between two things, while the contrast essay discusses the differences.

Literary Criticism
A critical essay analyzes the strengths, weaknesses and methods of someone else's work. Generally these essays begin with a brief overview of the main points of the text, movie, or piece of art, followed by an analysis of the work's meaning. It should then discuss how well the author/creator accomplishes his/her goals and makes his/her points.

Learned Arguments
attempts to persuade the reader to the writer's point of view. The writer can either be serious or funny, but always tries to convince the reader of the validity of his or her opinion. The essay may argue openly, or it may attempt to subtly persuade the reader by using irony or sarcasm.

Five-Paragraph Essays
Most essays are written in the five-paragraph style with an introduction, three paragraphs for the body, and the conclusion. The introduction discusses the thesis of the essay with three main points mentioned. A good five-paragraph essay will have a hook to capture the reader. The topic sentences of the body mention each of the three main points. The final paragraph will be the conclusion and will summarize the essay with the thesis.


These are just a few but there are many, many more. ThePaperExperts website defines 52 different types of essays.
Direct Link: http://www.thepaperexperts.com/essays_types.shtml

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