ESSAYWRITING

o A short piece of writing on a particular

subject, especially one done by students as
part of the work for a course
o A written composition of moderate length exploring a particular issue or
subject.
o An essay is a piece of writing which is often written
from an author's personal point of view. Essays can
consist of a number of elements, including: literary
criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments,
observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author.
The purpose of an essay is to encourage students to develop ideas and
concepts in their writing with the direction of little more than their own
thoughts. Therefore, essays are (by nature) concise and require clarity in
purpose and direction.

Basic types :
1.
2.
3.
4.

expository essay
descriptive essay
narrative essay
argumentative essay

EXPOSITORY ESSAY
The expository essay is a genre of essay that requires the student to investigate an
idea, evaluate evidence, expound on the idea, and set forth an argument
concerning that idea in a clear and concise manner. This can be accomplished through
comparison and contrast, definition, example, the analysis of cause and effect, etc.
This genre is commonly assigned as a tool for classroom evaluation and is often found in
various exam formats.
The structure of the expository essay is held together by the following.
o A clear, concise, and defined thesis statement that occurs in the first paragraph of the
essay.
o Clear and logical transitions between the introduction, body, and conclusion.
o Body paragraphs that include evidential support.
o Evidential support (whether factual, logical, statistical, or anecdotal).
o A bit of creativity!
o A conclusion that does not simply restate the thesis, but readdresses it in light of the
evidence provided.

DESCRIPTIVE ESSAY
The descriptive essay is a genre of essay that asks the student to describe something
object, person, place, experience, emotion, situation, etc. This genre encourages the
students ability to create a written account of a particular experience. What is more, this
genre allows for a great deal of artistic freedom

NARRATIVE ESSAY
A good example of this is when an instructor asks a student to write a book report.
Obviously, this would not necessarily follow the pattern of a story and would focus on
providing an informative narrative for the reader.
o
o
o
o
o

If written as a story, the essay should include all the parts of a story.
The essay should have a purpose.
The essay should be written from a clear point of view.
Use clear and concise language throughout the essay.
The use of the first person pronoun I is welcomed.

THE FIVE-PARAGRAPH ESSAY

(hamburger essay/one three one/ three tier essay)
A common method for writing an expository essay is the five-paragraph approach. This is,
however, by no means the only formula for writing such essays.
01.
02.
03.

an introductory paragraph
three evidentiary body paragraphs
a conclusion

ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY
The argumentative essay is a genre of writing that requires the student to investigate a
topic; collect, generate, and evaluate evidence; and establish a position on the topic in a
concise manner. Argumentative essay assignments generally call for extensive research of
literature or previously published material. Expository essays involve less research and are
shorter in length.
FIVE-PART ESSAY
The five-part essay is a step up from the five-paragraph essay.

LINKINGWORDS
It is a good idea to occasionally use linking words and phrases at the start of a
new paragraph. They can help to link what you have said in the previous
paragraph to what you are about to say in your new paragraph.

Personal opinion:

In my opinion/view, To my mind, To my way of thinking,

I am convinced that, It strikes me that, It is my firm belief
that, I am inclined to believe that, It seems to me that. As
far as I am concerned, I think that the economic
recession of the previous decade was foreseeable.

To list advantages
and
disadvantages:

One advantage of, Another advantage of, One other

advantage of, A further advantage of, The main advantage
of, The greatest advantage of. The first advantage of
riding a motorbike in a large metropolis is that of not
getting caught in major congestion.

To list points:

Firstly, First of all, In the first place, Secondly, Thirdly,

Finally. To start/begin with, we have to address the
inadequacies within the education system before we
can tackle unemployment fully.

To add more
points to the
same topic:

What is more, Furthermore, Apart from this/that, In

addition (to this), Moreover, Besides (this), not to
mention the fact that your choice of career is a
fundamental decision which will influence the rest of
your life. Not only is your choice of career a fundamental
decision, but it is also one that will influence the rest of
your life.Your choice of career is both a fundamental
decision and something that will influence the rest of
your life.

To refer to other
sources:

With reference to, According to the latest scientific

research, the use of mobile phones can be damaging to
one's health in the long run.

To emphasise a
point:

Indeed, Naturally, Clearly, Obviously, Of course, Needless

to say, the scheme was hound to fail due to insufficient
funds.

To give examples:

For instance, For example, by establishing day-care

centres across the country, working mothers can he
encouraged to resume their careers. By providing
incentives such as, like day-care centres working mothers
are encouraged to resume their careers. If working
mothers are to resume their careers then the provision of
incentives particularly, in particular, especially day-care
centres is essential.

To state other
people's opinion:

It is popularly believed that, People often claim that, It is

often alleged that, Some people argue that, Many argue
that, Most people feel that, Some people point out that
wealth will bring happiness. Contrary to popular belief,
wealth does not necessarily bring happiness.

To conclude:

Finally, Lastly, All in all, Taking everything into

account/consideration, On the whole, All things
considered, In conclusion, On balance, For the above
mentioned reasons, Therefore I feel that, To sum up, it is

unlikely that there will be peace in all the countries of the

world concurrently.
Summarising:

In short, Briefly. To put it briefly, his performance on

stage was fantastic!