Essay writing is just a part of academic life – you find it in regular assignments, standardized testing, college applications, and scholarship applications. Most students have individual interests or preferences for the kind of essay format they enjoy writing the most. This article does not focus on teaching you how to write an essay but rather on describing what the four major types are:

Descriptive Essay
This type of essay is pretty self-explanatory. A student’s goal is to provide a detailed description of something such as a person, a place, an object, an event, a memory, etc. with a deeper message or theme. This is to say one shouldn’t just provide physical descriptions of a famous person and expect a good grade. Students usually must use descriptive language to paint the picture of the larger personality of a person through details of his or her life.

Expository Essay
This is considered an informative type of essay that provides an unbiased view of a topic. It requires little from the student in terms of opinion or argument forming (if at all) and instead asks students to explain a process and answer the “how”-type of questions. For instance, an expository essay on the congressional election process will likely provide a brief history of the process and how we a member of congress wins his or her right to serve in this branch of government.

Narrative Essay
This is known as the “story-telling” essay because it deals with a personal experience. It is an excellent way to display creative writing talents while still presenting a deeper meaning or theme. It’s often the kind of writing one sees in college and scholarship applications in which a student has a 300 word limit to describe something specific that has happened and how it has played a role in affecting the author’s life. Students like this because more often than not they are encouraged to write from the first person perspective which instantly develops a connection with the reader.

Argumentative Essay
This is perhaps the most common type of writing and the one students will likely encounter throughout their academic careers. It’s also known as the persuasive essay and requires a student to present an argument on an issue and to defend that argument with well-researched evidence and examples. These kinds of writing lends itself to different types of essay hooks which is a tool used to capture the reader’s attention from the start regardless of how technical or obsolete it might seem.

It wasn’t easy for me to master a couple of the types of essays listed above and for a while I thought that my lack in skills in those types would steer me away from certain disciplines. But I acquired valuable assistance form a professional service that did more than just write my essay, it provided me with a well-rounded understanding of what it was I needed to do in order to earn a good grade. After a few tries and some dedicated hard work I became a better overall writer and was capable of handling any type of writing assignment on any topic.