Common Types of Essays

descriptive
- provides details of how something looks, feels, tastes, smells, etc. - or what something is - or how something happened - lost of details - Ex: what happened over your summer vacation definition - tries to define a specific term - usually a word or concept that is not concrete - Ex. what is friendship compare/contrast - looks at how two things are the same (compare) - or different (contrast) - or both - lots of details and facts - Ex. school when your were a child and school now cause/effect - why something happened (cause) - or what happened because it did happen (effect) - Ex. why tsunamis occur process - steps in how to do something - needs to follow a very logical order - Ex. how to distill salt from salt water argumentative (persuasive)

- tries to persuade the reader to the writers point of view - Ex. mandatory recycling critical - strengths and weaknesses of someone elses work - Ex. the use of color in Monets paintings Ex 1 Identify the topics below as to what type of essay they could be a. critical b. argumentative c. process d. cause/effect e. compare/contrast f. definition g. descriptive 1. _____ public transportation is better for the environment than driving 2. _____ what happened to a town after a volcano erupted 3. _____ what honesty means 4. _____ what a skier has to do to become a champion skier 5. _____ two ways of celebrating birthdays 6. _____ how to be successful at math 7. _____ every college should offer free basic courses to the public 8. _____ similes in the work of poet Langston Hughes

How to Write a Good Essay So much goes into writing a good paper. You need to know a lot, and that means read a lot; you must sort through plenty of evidence, decide what you make of it, decide what material will help you make your case, and how to organize it. You must decide on your purpose, which means you must decide what youre trying to say, why it is worth saying, and whom youre speaking to. And once youve got the basic shape, you must make decisions about how to introduce your paper, conclude it, polish the sentences, integrate quotes, and so on. You cant do that in one draft. Forget it. But how, then, do you break down the task? It helps to write an intermediate draft: one in which you lay out the goals of the paper, your thesis (or at least, the question you are trying to answer), the audience you imagine yourself addressing, and above all, the evidence youve come up with. We will call this the research draft. Its all tentative! Please note: the research draft doesnt set your paper in stone. Your thesis may well change, and you may have to do more research, or leave out some of the material you planned to include. However, the research draft helps you make these decisions. Content and Format Your research draft should present the following: Thesis and outline. Write the point you plan to make as a single, declarative sentence. Then, in a series of single, declarative sentences, lay out your main supporting points. You can do this in classic outline format, or simply as a list of sentences. Evidence. Lay out the evidence you plan to use in your paper. This should be organized in a bulleted list, or in paragraphs. Distinguish between facts (actual information) and opinions (peoples views on it) and identify the name of the source (writer or publication). Audience and purpose. In a few single, declarative sentences, clarify who you are talking to. This is not the same as asking who will read your paper. I will read your paper, and your classmates; but you are not really writing to us. You are writing to a figure of your imagination, and the more clearly

you can envisage this person, the more easily you can clarify your purpose. Are you trying to persuade someone of your thesis? Are you explaining a complex issue to an outsider? Problems. Here, explore some of the difficulties you might have. (As you work through the composition modules on using introductions, integrating quotes and so on, you can consider those decisions here.) Do you think you might struggle with organization? Are you still not sure of your thesis? Do you need more information? Clarify here. Sources. List your sources, giving full names of writer and publication, date of publication, editor, or any other evidence that you will need to include. What is in Each Part of an Essay?

What are the main parts of an essay? Why is an essay divided into these parts?

Introduction, body, conclusion.

This Arrangement makes the readers job easier. The information is presented in an order that is clear and logical. (1) General topic, (2) narrowing the focus, (3) thesis Organized in this way, an introduction gives background to the topic and then focuses more and more on the specific topic. This enables the reader to understand the thesis more easily and completely. The reader can then read the body of the essay while making predictions about the kinds of information that will be given in the body. The general topic contains background information, locating the topic of the essay in a broader context. The next part narrows the focus by providing more specific information that the reader may need in order to understand the thesis. The thesis then appears, giving the main argument of the essay that follows. (1) Topic sentence and (2) support.

What are the parts of an introduction?

Why does an introduction have these parts?

What kinds of information can be put into each part?

What are the main parts of a body paragraph? Why does a body paragraph have these parts?

Beginning with a topic sentence gives the reader a clear idea of what kind of information is to follow. The support gives detailed information relating to the topic sentence. Essays are open to all kinds of academic information and topics.

What kinds of information can be put into the parts of a body paragraph?

What are the parts of a conclusion?

(1) Commitment to the thesis, (2) followed by expansion. If the writer feels that he/she has proved the thesis, the thesis can simply be restated here, usually in a different way. In the expansion, the writer links the thesis with more general related ideas that are not contained in the thesis. One common expansion is to make predictions about the future. Another is to generalize to a larger domain. Many longer essays (and letters to the editor, business documents, case studies, etc.) use the pattern: situation, problem, solution, evaluation. Other common patterns also occur. Vocabulary is topic related and academic (fairly formal). The main variation in language use in an essay is between general and specific, depending on what part of the essay contains it. The general topic at the beginning of the introduction is very general. So is expansion at the end of the conclusion. The support in the body paragraphs uses different degrees of specific information, however.

What kinds of information can be put into the parts of a conclusion?

What are some common patterns of information in essays?

What kinds of restrictions on vocabulary might occur in an essay? How might these restrictions vary from one part of an essay to another?