An academic essay is a form of writing whose purpose is to express the author’s opinion on a particular subject. Typically, formal, academic essays are characterized by a systematic discourse on a central point of view, supported by specific information.
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Types of Academic Essays
There are many types of academic essays. Most of them are subcategories of others. In academic writing, you will encounter the three most common types of essays:
- Expository Essays
- Compare and contrast Essays
- Persuasive Essays
1. Expository essays
The expository essay covers a broader range than other types of essays. In short, you present a balanced analysis of the topic using facts such as statistics and examples to give an objective overview of the subject you are writing about.
Expository essays branch off into different types of essays.
Cause and effect essays
In a cause and effect essay, you must show how things, events, and objects are related to each other.
Essays with Basic Explanation
A basic explanation essay is also known as a process essay, in which you provide a step-by-step interpretation or guide to a process or topic.
Close reading / essay with definitions
A definition essay requires that you offer a detailed and deeper meaning of a subject by tracing its origins, associations, and perceptions. The idea is to read the text carefully, allowing you to write a well-informed response.
Critical Analysis Essays
In this type of expository essay, you are to critique a subject, such as a topic, a political position, etc.
2. Compare and contrast essays
As the name suggests, these essays involve finding similarities and differences between different issues, subjects, events, and even people. Although this is the basic structure of the essay, the point is to formulate a meaningful argument. The first step is to demonstrate why two subjects are being compared and what can be learned from that comparison.
Writing a great comparison and comparison essay requires an in-depth understanding of both sides. This will allow you to analyze and identify points of similarity and difference that will contribute to your topic.
3. Persuasive Essays
A persuasive essay may be technically simple compared to the others above, but in terms of purpose or goal, it is by far the most difficult.
This is because the writer of a persuasive essay must convince the reader of his or her point of view and get the reader to side with it.
It is sometimes compared to an argumentative essay, but the persuasive essay goes even further, focusing more on the strengths of the author’s argument and refuting any counter arguments that may be made.
Persuasive essays are best realized when you can hook the reader, summarize your point of view, and show that you can raise and refute other points of view. This gives the reader the impression that you are an authority on the topic.
These are the essays that used to give me the most trouble because I pretended to be involved in litigating a case.
While this may seem like a good metaphor for persuasive writing, don’t get carried away with stating your own opinion. No one is asking you to be Shakespeare. You must use hard facts to back up everything you write. That’s what your professor or teacher would want. It’s what we all want in the end.
What you should know before writing an essay?
Although there are several types of essays, the process of writing them is similar. Writing a great essay requires proper preparation. Here is an overview of the techniques you should use when writing an essay.
Do your own research
All essays require careful study. Sometimes research materials are given out in the form of a book. Other times you need to find them online. Either way, knowing what to look for and how to look for it will help you become a better essay writer.
Understand Your Audience
Some students mistakenly assume that the person grading them is their audience, and I made this mistake when I used to get bad grades for an essay.
In most cases, you will be writing for a general audience. You have to pretend that you are a master of your craft.
The key is to use the topic in question to get an idea of the audience you will be writing to. If you’re writing a book report, imagine that you want to convince a book club why Prospero’s magic, for example, is an allegory of slavery. These people want to be able to vet your work to counter the controversy. The book becomes a kind of Bible where interpretation matters. You can’t just make it up and hope the audience will believe it. You have to state where you are getting this information from.
Sometimes it can be difficult to anticipate opposing viewpoints. But if you want to overcome an obstacle, you have to think several steps ahead. The easiest way to do this is to imagine yourself as a potential audience for the topic. Then try to answer the most important questions the listener may have.
If you practice this technique often enough, there will be fewer question marks on the paper.
Use Relevant Vocabulary
Your vocabulary plays an important role that is easy to overlook. It’s not just filling your essay with jargon and buzzwords. The idea is to find words that allow you to avoid writing sentences that can be said in one or two words.
Using a thesaurus is fine, just be careful when using it. Here are some points to keep in mind:
Be careful when using synonyms as interchangeable, because the meaning can change depending on the context.
Each word should advance your cause, not serve as a cover for your lack of skill in the subject.
No filler.
Even the most knowledgeable audience will appreciate an essay that minimizes jargon.
To write an essay, you need solid evidence. That is, quotations from primary sources or experts.
It is important to include sources that contradict your arguments to create a two-way dialogue. Adding opposing views and covering them with supporting evidence is a great way to score points. You should try to stay out of the argument as much as possible. Instead of putting forward your own opinion, you can write, “A qualified expert would probably respond by saying X because Y (Y is a quote or some other evidence that offers an opposing viewpoint).”