The Five Main Essay Types | Quick Guide & Examples
The simple word essay describes quite an extensive range of document types. They vary in length, structure, and purpose, but they all share some commonalities: the language used should be formal academic English, and they should be carefully planned to ensure they are cohesive and purposeful.
Some essays are designed to explore a topic or area of study, while others focus on persuading the reader of the author’s point of view. Essays are usually set by academic institutions to test one or more of a student’s skills. There are four main types of essay commonly required.
| Essay type | Skills tested | Example prompt |
|---|---|---|
| Argumentative | Using research to form an opinion Constructing an argument based on evidence |
Does the prevalence of social media have a positive or negative impact on adolescent mental health? |
| Narrative | Presenting an engaging narrative Creative use of language |
“Character is forged in adversity.” To what extent has this been your experience? |
| Expository | Subject knowledge Clear communication |
Explain the impact of antibiotics on medical procedures in the 20th century. |
| Descriptive | Creative use of language Describing sensations |
Describe your most precious possession. |
High school and university essays might often include textual analysis, especially when studying literature.
Planning an essay
Perhaps the most-underrated skill in writing an essay is the skill of planning. But it is perhaps the most important stage of the process. A well-planned essay moves with purpose and cohesion; each paragraph appears in the right place and adds to the argument or discussion.
There are many ways to plan an essay, but one of the tried and tested methods involves a simple approach that works whatever the essay type, from simple five-paragraph essays to 15,000-word theses.
Outline
The first stage of writing is to decide what each of your paragraphs should address. This will involve a few aspects:
- The required or expected length of the essay
- The nature of the task
- The overarching point (main thesis) of your essay
You will want to limit your main ideas to one per paragraph. So if you are given a typical high school five-paragraph essay, you will only make three main points in that essay. This might seem limiting, but discipline at this stage produces strong, coherent essays. If your essay has a word limit or target, you should count on roughly 200-300 words per paragraph.
Once you have decided what each of your paragraphs will say, you need to decide on the order they will be placed in. Each paragraph needs to build on the previous one as you develop your line of thought. Once you are happy with the order, it’s time to write your topic sentences.
Topic sentences
A topic sentence should express the single thought, idea, or proposition that will be covered in the subsequent paragraph. It is the gateway to the explanation and exploration that will follow.
You should carefully craft one topic sentence for each of your paragraphs, including the introduction and conclusion.
Linking words or phrases
One of the best ways of producing cohesion between your paragraphs is the introduction of linking words in your topic sentences. These can be as simple as “so” or might be a longer phrase (e.g., “What this tells us is…”). Think of them as mental signposts that point us back to the previous paragraph, allowing our brains to sustain a connection between the two ideas.
Conclusion
Conclusions can be very tricky to write. They need to pull together the content of your essay without simply parroting what has gone before. They also shouldn’t contain any new ideas not discussed in the essay. A well-written conclusion will help to clarify the overall thrust of your essay.
Introduction
It’s counterintuitive, but the introduction should be the last paragraph you write (except in examination essays). This is because you will want to clarify your whole train of thought and argument before you write it. Otherwise, it is all too easy for your introduction to propose one thing and your essay to go in a different direction. The safest bet is to write it last.
Argumentative essays
An argumentative essay develops an argument based on evidence. It requires a predetermined stance on the topic being argued because your aim is to persuade your reader on the basis of your argument. To do this, you will need to start with a strong thesis statement and support your points with evidence (i.e., quotations and statistics) and analysis.
An argumentative essay is an opportunity to demonstrate your research skills and your ability to present (and argue) a point of view. The argumentative essay is the most common at college/university level, so it is worth taking time to practice the skills.
There are three main elements to an argumentative essay:
- The introduction, which introduces your topic and thesis
- The body, which is where you develop your argument and present your supporting evidence
- The conclusion, which is a summary of your argument
Below is an example paragraph from the body of an argumentative essay about Jonathan Swift being a misanthrope.
Gulliver’s retreat to his stables when he returns from the land of the Houyhnhnms in Part IV of Gulliver’s Travels and his revulsion at the smell of humans is often cited as evidence of Swift’s misanthropy. It is certainly easy to draw this conclusion when Gulliver describes his wife as “that odious animal” and is struck with “the utmost shame, confusion and horror” at the realization that he had “a near alliance” with his family. However, this conclusion makes a simple, but very common, mistake of confusing the narrator with the author. We are not invited to agree with Gulliver’s actions and opinions. Rather, we are surely expected to look on Gulliver, a man who converses with his own horses “at least four hours every day,” as someone whose perception of reality has become warped beyond the norm. In fact, Swift’s portrayal of Gulliver is a reductio ad absurdum of a misanthropic view. Undoubtedly, Swift is critical of humans, but his criticism comes from a love of humans and a desire to see human behavior improve.
Expository essays
An expository essay (from the Latin “exponere” meaning “set forth”) presents an explanation of a topic that is clear and focused. There doesn’t need to be original thought or idea; just a demonstration of a good grasp of the subject matter.
Expository essays are a way of demonstrating how much you understand the topic and your competence in marshaling and articulating information. They are a common essay type in examinations at both high school and college/university.
There are three elements to an expository essay:
- The introduction, which sets out the topic and general context
- The body, which expands on the details of the topic
- The conclusion, which summarizes your content
Below you will find a typical paragraph from the body of an essay discussing causal attribution in psychology.
A common, and very understandable, response to someone who is blaming themselves for an accident or disaster is to reassure them that it isn’t “their fault,” as we believe that self-blame will cause them long-term psychological harm. Counterintuitively, research indicates that this approach might hinder or prolong their recovery from trauma. Far from allowing the person to “move on,” it opens up instead a world that is potentially profoundly random. In other words, if they are not to blame, then a completely random (or perhaps even malign) universe is behind the tragedy. This can give rise to anxiety and generalized trepidation. Apportioning blame, even to yourself (or “causal attribution”), can be a positive part of the recovery and healing process.
Narrative essays
An essay that tells a story is a narrative essay. It might be based on a personal experience, or it could be an imaginary exploration of an idea through the medium of a story.
A narrative essay needs an engaging, structured story that builds appropriately through the task. The narrative essay is more creative (in the sense of “inventive”) than other types of academic writing. The skills needed are much the same as those used in a personal statement for a US college application.
Unlike more formal types of essay, there isn’t the same need for a three-part structure of introduction, body, and conclusion. There certainly needs to be an introduction, but for dramatic effect, you might choose this to be in media res (i.e., in the middle of the action), for instance. Your conclusion will most likely be focused on clarifying the point of your story.
The example below is a paragraph from a narrative essay responding to the prompt “Write about an experience that helped you to learn an important lesson about life.”
Another life lesson I learned was about observation, cause, and effect. As a small child (probably about five years old) I noticed that whenever the wind was blowing, the large trees in the park behind our house waved backwards and forwards. And I noticed that the opposite was also true: no wind meant no tree movement. This observation led me to the conclusion that the trees caused the wind, much like a hand-held fan moves back and forth to create a cooling breeze. I even imagined fantastical gears and cogs inside the trees, which created this movement. What I had done, of course, was to mistake cause for effect and vice versa. Today, in my more argumentative moments, you might still find me challenging my companions to prove five-year-old me wrong!
Descriptive essays
A descriptive essay is similar to a narrative essay in its use of descriptive and creative language but tends to be more tightly focused. Your subject might be a single episode or place rather than a complete story.
The challenge is to use memorable evocative language to capture and recreate a mood or experience.
The structure can be quite loose, although you will still need to set your scene and conclude your story in a satisfactory way.
The paragraph below is from a descriptive essay responding to the prompt “Describe a scene from a memorable experience.”
At the corner of Malostranské náměstí I stood and waited.
The late president’s widow had invited the people to join her as she followed her husband’s coffin on its journey, but I wondered just how many would bother in these busy pre-Christmas days. As it happens, they came in their thousands. As the single hearse passed by, the mourners close behind, the crowd where I stood burst into spontaneous applause.
There was no hysteria, no demonstrative outpouring of grief. Here there was silence, save for the intrusive chatter of police radios. These wonderful people, so often unfairly accused of dourness, expressed their collective grief through simply being there. In their thousands they had nearly defeated the Russians in ’68 and in their thousands they had brought down the communist government in ’89, their implacable collective spirit proving victorious. And today in their thousands they simply came to follow the earthly remains of the man who had led them 22 years ago as he was taken back to the castle where he had been 10th president of Czechoslovakia. “Havel na Hrad – Havel to the castle” was the cry in ’89. Now he was going “na Hrad” for the last time. They followed in quiet, somber pride. Proud of this man, ‘pan (Mr) President’ who had not sought power, yet had exerted it in the main with integrity. Proud that this man’s funeral in this small historic nation at the very heart of Europe, would draw world leaders, past and present.
It would draw them because of this playwright-president who, with quiet dignity and integrity, had changed the face of his nation and of Europe.
Textual analysis essays
Textual analysis essays test your ability to perform a close reading of a text, analyze its content, and comment on the author’s methods and techniques. It is focused not on what the author writes but on how that writing achieves its effects.
Rhetorical analysis
A rhetorical analysis essay examines a persuasive text to explore how it attempts to persuade the audience and to comment on its effectiveness.
It isn’t about what the author says (you might well disagree with them), but how they say it and how effectively they persuade.
A rhetorical analysis essay will typically have the following structure:
- An introduction setting out the text and some context
- The body of the essay, examining the rhetorical devices used
- The conclusion with a summary of the essay and a final verdict on the text’s effectiveness
The paragraph below is from an analysis of Winston Churchill’s Mansion House speech in November 1942 following the victory in El Alamein.
Churchill’s speech is notable for introducing, perhaps for the first time, some optimism. He goes as far as saying that this is a “new experience.” In building both optimism and caution, Churchill uses a number of rhetorical devices to engage his audience. Repetition, for example, plays a frequent role. We see this in his claim that “We have victory—a remarkable and definite victory,” but perhaps most tellingly we see it in his memorable phrase, “Now, this is not the end. It is not even the beginning to the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” The repetition of “end” works beautifully to anchor the idea he wants to convey to a nation weary of war. The end is what everyone has been longing for, and Churchill plays with the word to both raise hope and dampen euphoria. Its deployment points back to what has happened and forward to what will hopefully happen.
Literary analysis
A literary analysis essay seeks to examine a work of literature (either in its entirety or an extract) to explore how the author has achieved the effects they have. It should not be a retelling but an exploration.
Typically a literary analysis essay will explore character, theme, setting, language, or plot. The prompt might require one of these aspects or offer a wider choice.
The essay usually will have three sections:
- The introduction, which sets out the overarching thesis and gives some context
- The body, where the analysis is developed
- The conclusion, with a summary of the essay’s assertions
The following paragraph is from an essay with the prompt “Examine Fitzgerald’s use of descriptive language to set the scene in the opening of Tender is the Night.”
Tender is the Night opens with a description of the beach in France and introduces us to some of the characters who will play a central role in the novel and some of its themes. Fitzgerald conjures up an image of heat and lassitude, with the “hotel and its bright tan prayer rug of a beach” and the “dozen old villas (rotting) like water lilies among the massed pines.” Both these phrases help us to visualize the scene with admirable economy of words. Fitzgerald does not confine his figurative language to nature and buildings, however. Rosemary’s mother is described as having a face “of a fading prettiness,” while Rosemary herself is “nearly complete, but the dew was still on her.” This latter example gains more poignancy as the novel develops, as it is this freshness that Dick Diver is captured by, and which prompts the reader to look less favorably on Dick’s behavior. All these images acquire deeper significance as we read on; the prayer rug of a beach truly is a place of worship, and the old villas symbolize the rot at the heart of the “notable and fashionable people” who populate the novel.
Frequently asked questions about types of essay
- What is the most common type of essay at university?
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The most common type of essay at university is the argumentative essay, although different courses (and different countries) might have other predominant types.
An argumentative essay takes a position on a topic and seeks to persuade the reader to agree with the author’s standpoint. Some examples of argumentative essays prompts in a range of subject areas include:
- The relationship between money supply and inflation is the most significant problem facing central banks. [Economics]
- Prison works. [Criminology]
- Poetry is untranslatable. [Literature]
An argumentative essay requires careful planning and a clear structure. It should use formal academic English and the correct citation for your institution. It should also meet the word count requirements.
The QuillBot Citation Generator makes the task of citing sources correctly simple, with 21 verified styles catered for. Additionally, QuillBot’s Word Counter tool can help you effectively track your word count and other helpful metrics.
- Is an expository essay the same as an argumentative essay?
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No, an expository essay is different from an argumentative essay. Although both types of essay require careful planning and formal English language, an argumentative essay has a clear point to be made and argued, while an expository essay seeks to explain a position or topic.
Examples of an argumentative essay might include:
- The relationship between money supply and inflation is the most significant problem facing central banks. [Economics]
- Prison works. [Criminology]
- Poetry is untranslatable. [Literature]
Examples of an expository essay include:
- What has been the impact of widespread smartphone use on adolescents? [Education/Sociology]
- To what extent can the oral tradition of poetry be seen as the root of modern rap? [Literature]
- Discuss the impact of drug treatment programs on reoffending rates. [Criminology/Sociology]
Whatever type of essay you are writing, QuillBot’s Notepad is an invaluable resource for keeping notes as you research and write.
- What is the difference between a descriptive essay and a narrative essay?
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A descriptive essay will generally have a tighter focus than a narrative essay. While a narrative essay will tell a story (probably with a beginning, middle, and end) a descriptive essay might simply focus on describing a more limited location or event.
Both essays allow for more creative license than many other types of academic essay, especially in the use of descriptive language.
QuillBot’s Notepad is an invaluable resource for keeping notes as you research and write, whatever type of essay you are writing or researching.
- How do you use quotes in an essay?
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Correct use of quotes in an essay can lift it above the normal and attract higher grades. Quotes are vital in backing up your argument or illustrating your point. You should aim to integrate or embed your quotes in your writing.
Consider this comment on The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T. S. Eliot:
“Prufrock realizes when he sees ‘the eternal Footman hold his coat,’ that he is approaching death, and he is overwhelmed by a sense of failure and fear. Failure because his achievements are no more than a ‘moment of …greatness’ that has flickered out, and fear because he has ‘seen the eternal Footman …snicker,’ suggesting that what he faces in the afterlife is to be feared. This is confirmed in the last half line of the stanza, ‘in short I was afraid.”
Here, the quotations flow naturally as part of the point that is being made. There’s lots more to be said on the subject of paraphrasing and summarizing which is worth researching.
QuillBot’s Notepad is a great place to note your quotations as you research your essay, making them easy to locate and use. Additionally, QuillBot’s Word Counter tool can help you effectively track the word count of your quotes to ensure your writing doesn’t rely on too many quotations.
