Introduction to Essay

Learn the essentials of essay - what you ought to know before you start writing

Put in every effort to polish your essay

Basic Essay Structure

In its simplest form, the essay is merely a short piece of prose writing with a beginning (the introduction), a middle (the body), and an end (the conclusion). All types of essays share these features. However, they may differ widely in tone, length, and topic. The basic essay is typically called the 5 paragraph essay. The first paragraph announces the subject and often makes a claim (called a thesis). The next 3 paragraphs are well organized and elaborate upon the topic introduced in the first paragraph. Finally, in the 5th paragraph, the writer concludes the topic. In general, most essays follow this pattern. Longer, more complicated topics may require multiple introductory paragraphs, pages and pages of body paragraphs, and long conclusions. As the essay becomes more complex, the number of paragraphs increases. In other words, the basic structure of the 5 paragraph essay is expanded into as many paragraphs as the author needs.

Essay Types

Essays are often called upon to do certain "jobs," and so there are common variations or types of essays. We'll cover a few of them here.

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Personal Essay

A popular essay form is the narrative or personal essay. The personal essay tells a story. The narrative essay might describe a personal experience, or an important "first" (first kiss, first home run, first meeting). When well done, personal essays are engaging and fun to read. They appear frequently in magazines and newspapers and reveal a writer's feelings, thoughts, and perspective. The topic, in essence, is the writer, and many famous writers are masters of this form (Amy Tan, Barbara Kingsolver, and Mark Twain, for example).

Process Essay

Another essay form is the process essay, which simply describes how to do a particular task. Some of these are technical in nature (though they don't have to be). A hallmark of this type of essay is clarity and organization. They tend to progress from Step A to Step B to Step C.

Compare and Contrast Essay

Compare and contrast essays do just what the name implies. These essays explore the differences and similarities between two things. It might be two movies, two people, two countries, two products, and so on. It's important to have a point when writing a compare/contrast essay; otherwise, it may end up sounding like a list.

Persuasive and Descriptive Essays

There are many, many different kinds of essays. There are persuasive essays which try to convince the reader of the writer's point-of-view. There are argumentative essays which make a claim that is then supported with evidence. There are analytical essays which break down and analyze data. There are descriptive essays which paint pictures with words. These categories are not necessarily strictly defined, and many successful essays use strategies from all types. For instance, an effective argumentative essay will likely use persuasive rhetoric or compare and contrast techniques. Or, admission essays for colleges and graduate schools might combine elements from personal and persuasive essays.

The beauty of the essay genre is its flexibility. Rather than thinking of the essay as a rigid form, instead think of all of the types of writing the essay can encompass. One of the great essays of all time is Martin Luther King's "Letter from a Birmingham Jail." In this piece, Martin Luther King uses techniques of persuasion, elements of analysis and argumentation, as well as the kind of language reminiscent of personal and descriptive writing. It demonstrates the range and power possible in the genre.

Essays don't need to be dreaded. Essays provide a powerful vehicle for your ideas, and the flexibility to promote those ideas in the most effective way.