Lecture Essay writing & presentation skills - Lecture 7: Types of Essays

The main contents of the chapter consist of the following: What is an outline? sentence outline, topic outline, purpose for using an outline, to help organize key ideas in writing an essay or research paper, to help summarize key ideas in reading, to help you develop subtopics.

Types of Essays

Lecture 7

II Purpose for Using an Outline

A To help organize key ideas in writing an

essay or research paper

B To help summarize key ideas in reading

C To help you develop subtopics

•   An essay is an organized collection of your thoughts on a particular topic.

• An essay consists of three major parts:

1. Introduction

2. Main body

What is an Essay?

•   Essays can be either:

What is an Essay?

Writers use essays to:

• Describe or define a subject (What is an Essay?)

• Compare related items in a subject

(The Difference Between Apples and Oranges)

• Show cause and effect (If You Write It, They Will Read)

• Write a narrative (My Summer Vacation)

• Explain a process (How to Write an Essay)

• Deliver an argument (The Case Against Essay Questions)

• Critique (My Least Favorite Movie)

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What is an Essay?

How to Write an Essay

A successful essay should meet a number

Consider these points to

writing skills:

• Before starting your essay, think of the main objective that you set for yourself and keep it in mind throughout your writing

• Make sure you know what you are writing about

• Try to start each paragraph with a topic sentence, then develop it in the following sentences, and end with a conclusion

• Do not be afraid to go into details

• Be creative in your writing

proofreading after you

essay

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• Compare and Contrast Essay

• Cause and Effect Essay

Descriptive Essay

The 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.

Examples: A descriptive essay could describe

* a tree in my backyard;

* a visit to the children's ward of a hospital;

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to pin down the meaning

specific

word, or define

love;

meaning and importance of

between two

Christianity and Islam;

* two people, like my brother and myself

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Compare/Contrast Essay

The cause/effect essay explains why or how

some event happened, and what resulted from the event

• A cause essay usually discusses the

reasons why something happened

• An effect essay discusses what happens

after a specific event or circumstance.

Examples: A cause/effect essay may explain

* why a volcano erupts, and what

happens afterwards;

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Cause/Effect Essay

The narrative essay tells a story It can

also be called a "short story."

• Conversational in style

• Tells of a personal experience

of

* my brother's and my fishing trips;

* a boring trip to the grocery store;

* my near-death experience at the beach

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Narrative Essay

An argumentative essay is one that 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

reader that

* he or she should use public

transportation instead of driving

* cats are better than dogs

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Argumentative Essay

A  critical  essay  analyzes  the  strengths,  weaknesses and methods of someone else's work. 

A  critical  essay  can  be  written  about  another  essay, story, book, poem, movie, or work of art

 Examples: A critical essay may analyze . . 

• Each day we face various facts and scenes, and to act adequately we need to develop our assessment of them

• Writing an evaluation essay is a good way

to size up a certain item, phenomenon, entity, or any other object.

• In reflective essay, you express your

thoughts and emotions about certain

events or phenomena

• Writing this type of essay is good training

to sharpen your critical thinking skills, as well as your ability to develop and express opinions on a particular topic.

Examples:

– a trip to an exotic place;

– a book that you have recently read;

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Reflective Essay

• An analysis essay assumes that you break

a larger subject into subcategories

– then examine each subcategory to form an opinion about the whole

– explain how each subcategory is interrelated and come up with your own conclusions

Examples:

• Economic crisis and the rate of unemployment;

• Replacing School Textbooks With Laptops

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Analysis Essay

• They are pieces of scholarly writing which

describe or examine a process of some

kind in a comprehensive way:

• The Influences of Culture and Environment

• The Internet and Society

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Expository Essay

Common methods of beginning: Cohesion and

1 The introduction is intended to lead the reader into the

topic and clarify what the essay will specifically deal with;

• usually consists of one paragraph

• the amount of background information the context requires

• Introduction will contain a key sentence (or, if necessary, more than one).

statement;

• Each main idea is presented in a separate paragraph

• developed with supporting ideas in the form of explanations, definitions, or similar, and illustrated with examples where appropriate or necessary.

essay and draws all the points together before making a final comment on the result of the discussion 21

Ultimately an essay will show a progression from a general level (in the introduction) down to the specific (the statement and body) and back up to the general level again(conclusion) The reader will be expecting this so it gives your essay a sense of completion In other words, the essay must have Coherence and Cohesion

ideas together in a logical way, depending on the type of essay you are writing

conjunctions etc to tie the ideas in your essay together

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Coherence and Cohesion

• http://academichelp.net/academic-assignments/essay/

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