In one of our blog post, we discussed extensively on tips and format of essay writing, it harps succinctly how to write a good essay, the format and expected guidelines that would help you write a mind catching essay. Though that post talks about the general essay writing skills, while this post is about the types of essay writing and how to write them individually.
In this post, we have revealed secrete tips and techniques that would assist you in write an the 4 major types of essays seamlessly. The topic says ‘4 types of essay writing’ in as much as many are aware of the type of essay writing, it would be ideal to refresh our memories on the individual essay writing and how to identify and approach any when we come across them in any test or examination, including the IELTS.
Types of Essay Writing
There are only for types of essay writing as seen below:
- Narrative Essay
- Descriptive Essay
- Expository Essay
- Argumentative Essay
The above are the types of essays. We have carefully written about how to identify a Narrative essay, Descriptive essay, Expository essay and Argumentative essay when you come across any in a test or examination and we have also in a chronological manner put up useful hints on how to answer questions on all the types of essay writing.
What you stand to gain from this post;
- Knowing the types of essay writing available and useful tips on how to answer questions on them.
- How to identify a Narrative essay and useful tips on how to write a good narrative essay.
- Useful tips and hints on how to write a good descriptive essay.
- How to identify and answer questions on Expository essay writing
- Lastly, how to identify and answer questions on Argumentative essay writing
1) Narrative Essay Writing
Narrative essay is a complete account of a story and events or incidents which the writer experienced or witnessed. a narrative essay is one that requires you to narrate an event to tell a story or to relate how an incident happened. narrative essays can call me form of an article writing for publication or a male straight away narration to a specific audience.
Useful Tips on How To Write a Good Narrative Essay
i) Content
a) Narrate event which are believable, credible and possible you should make your story appear true.
b) You are expected to narrate the event in relevant details so as to give you examiner an insight into the events you are narrating.
c) be concerned with the incident or event, the person involved and the time and place, when and where the incident happened.
ii) Organization
a) Write your narrative essay in your loving manner by opening up your essay in separate and interesting opening paragraph (introduction) and end it with equally interesting concluding paragraph.
b) Your paragraphs should be properly developed and linked.
c) You will be awarded a good mark if you could present incidents in your essay in a chronological order and time sequence, that is, in order in which the incident in your narrative occur one after the other.
III) Expression
a) You are expected to use language that is chatty and informal.
b) there should be a mixture of short and long sentences, though short sentences mean predominate.
c) past tense is a normal tense in a narrative. Your things is should be in past tense, past progressive aspect and past perfective aspect.
d) Your language should have equality of a first-hand experience and reflect your awareness of the presence of your audience.
2) Descriptive Essay Writing
A descriptive essay is different from a narrative essay in the sense that a descriptive essay involves describing a scene, person, or an object or a place in order to create a picture of it.
Descriptive essay demands that one should have a clear picture in one’s mind of what one desires to describe. One is expected to visualize the scene, person, object or place one is to describe.
Useful Tips on How to Write a Good Descriptive Essay.
I) Content
a) You are expected to give a detailed description of what you are asked to describe.
b) Give some ideas of the significance of what you are describing, if you are describing a person, describe the qualities you appreciate in the person. Under contents, you will earn a good Mark when you pay attention to details. It is only by describing the details that someone can recognize the thing or person you are describing.
II) Organization
a) You’re expected to start your description with an introductory paragraph in which you should mention the scene, object or person you want to describe, the general features and outward appearance if you’re describing a place.
b) You can be subjective or objective in your description depending on what you are describing.
c) Your introductory paragraph should be followed by a detailed description of what you are describing.
d) You will get credit for well-developed paragraph and a logical sequence of arrangement of the features of what you are describing.
e) Your paragraphs must be effectively linked for unity and coherence.
III) Expression
a) You expected to make use of appropriate words which will best convey your description to the examiner.
b) There must be clarity of expression and your vocabulary must be aptly chosen for effect.
3) Expository Essay Writing
Expository essay aims at explaining a thing or the truth about the topic. What number of topics fall under the category of expository essay.
Students may be asked to write on how a machine or equipment works or how to prepare a meal. It may also be how a certain location in your town or city can be found. The subject of expository essay also includes features articles in newspapers or magazines which made demands that you go beyond stating facts or describing a thing to include making judgments on the thing.
Take for instance you may be asked to discuss deterioration and lack of maintenance of the sanitary facilities in your area and suggest ways of improving them. This type of expository essay demands that you state some facts and then make your opinions and judgments known and the matter.
Useful Tips on How to Write a Good Expository Essay
1) Content
Discuss at length the topic you are asked to discuss. In most cases you are expected to unfold the bad and the good consequences of the topic. For example, to satisfy your examiner on a question that asks you to discuss the deterioration and lack of maintenance on the sanitary facilities in your area, and suggest ways of improving them, you are expected to discuss at length the poor sanitary conditions in your area, give instances of such poor sanitary conditions and go further to proffer solutions to the problem. You will earn a good mark under content if you do all these.
ii) Organization
a) There should be an introduction and conclusion. The introduction must briefly explain the main idea of the essay and it must be followed by the body of the essay. The conclusion which must come after the body of the essay should briefly some of the main ideas and make a conclusive statement on the topic.
b) You are expected to arrange your point to ideas in a logical sequence.
c) Your grammatical structure should be a variety of long and short sentences.
d) Make use of phrases or words linkers to link your paragraphs with one another
III) Expression
a) For expository prose, clarity of expression is important you must make sure that you state your facts instances and point clearly.
b) your vocabulary should be carefully chosen for effectiveness especially when you’re writing on a topic that has a formal register.
c) Your language should be formal; you should avoid slangs, cliches unidiomatic expressions and meaningless phrases.
4) Argumentative Essay Writing
Argumentative essay comes mainly in form of a debate. it requires you to argue any point of view and persuade your examiner to accept your point of view. In argumentative essay there are usually two sides and you are to requested to take one side.
Useful Tips on How to Write a Good Argumentative Essay
I) Content
a) This is usually a debate in which are required to argue for or against a proposition. Before writing a good argumentative essay, look very carefully for the operative term in every proposition and establish your understanding of the term as a basis for your argument. For instance, you’re pretty term in the proposition: ‘Life in the rural area is more rewarding than life in the urban areas’, the keyword here is ‘rewarding’. Such topics like: ‘Female children are beneficial to their parents than male children’ may look deceptively simple. The keywords there are ‘beneficial’ and ‘parents’. you are not expected to argue that female children homemade children are more beneficial to their nations but to their parents so you will have to be very careful and interpret your questions very well.
b) At least three (3) arguments, adequately developed for or against the proposition are enough for a good mark.
c) Maintain the standard you are firm at the beginning of the essay to the end, keep consistently to one side of the argument from the beginning to the end of the essay.
d) Draw out your point carefully and present them convincingly.
e) You are free to imagine and think of the possible argument that your opponent might put up and you can refute such arguments to any good mark.
II) Organization
a) Most argumentative essays require the presence of an audience. Therefore, you should imagine that you have an audience listening to your argument. you are permitted to refer to this audience from time to time in the essay but this should not be done excessively. Having said this, it is compulsory for you to start your debate with the usual vocative: ‘Chairman, Panel of Judges, Ladies and Gentlemen…’ (note the use of capital letters at the beginning of each word of the vocative). Your audience depends on the topic you are asked to write on.
b) There must be an introductory paragraph where you are expected to state your point of view or position on the topic your writing on.
c) In the body of the essay you expected to support your views with arguments, illustrations and good quotations of some relevant statements made by knowledgeable people in the past which of course must be relevant to the topic under discussion.
d) In the concluding paragraph you’re expected to reaffirm your position or point of view and state categorically that your stand is better than that of your opponent.
e) Good paragraphing, coherence through the use of linking phrases and logical sequence of ideas will be highly rewarded.
III) Expression
a) Argumentative essays demand a good command of language. just simple sentences because it is important that you should make your audience follow your line of thought.
b) make use of the various oratorical techniques like referencing to your audience from time to time and rhetorical questions that can be asked in the body of the essay. (Rhetorical questions are the questions asked in order to carry your audience along with you).
c) There’s no room for slangs as a language must carry conviction.
d) You can make use of exaggeration for emphasis but it must not be overdone.
In conclusion, the different types of essay writing are unique in their various forms hence must be approached in a logical manner. They all have different meanings and uses which makes them have their various terminologies that must be applied when writing on a particular type of essay.
Hope this answers all you have been willing to know about the various forms and types of essay writing, the tips on how to go about in answering them. However, you could reach out to us via the comment section below for questions and as well share this blog post among friends via the social media buttons below and we shall respond accordingly.
