Essays are important to academic success. In fact, they are given out as school assignments, tests or even as a college entry requirement. Getting g the question right on an essay is important to the success of the essay. Getting confused about the type of essay is not an option.

The types of essays depend on what the writer intends on achieving. Do you want to tell a personal story, convince or change the reader’s point of view, or do you want to explain or describe an issue? The following are the four major types of essays.

1.    The Narrative Essay
This type of essay serves to tell a story. It could be a personal experience or someone else’s experience. This may sound like an easy task, but one of the greatest challenges any writer can experience is to write about themselves.

Students face this challenge in such essays since it demands a lot in terms of creativity. You have to make the story as interesting and captivating as possible in order to lure the reader. Narrative essays are often written in the first person that is “I” to engage the reader making them feel part of the story.



The best narrative essay is the one which builds up momentum and sustains it towards the conclusion where they make a personal statement that summarizes their ideas.

2.    The Descriptive Essay
This essay is a relative of the narrative essay and it explains in detail a place, person, an object or a memory which evokes a lot of raw emotions. Nevertheless, you should keep in mind that the descriptions made in the essay shouldn’t be done in vain or play around with words for the sake for it.
The essay should resonate with the reader through a combination of sensory details and powerful words. The essay should focus on arousing the reader’s emotions.

3.    The Expository Essay
This essay focuses on information regarding a specific topic through analysis. The writer here strives to explain the topic through the use of examples, statistics and proven facts. This writer will employ a range of writing tactics such as cause and effect, how to or a guide like essay and comparison and contrast essay.
Since this type of essay focuses on the facts and not the writer’s personal feelings or opinions, the writer doesn’t portray their emotions and neither do they write in the first person.

4.    The Persuasive Essay
As the title suggests, this essay focuses on convincing the reader to accept the writer’s point of view. The writer must build their case using logic and facts as well as reasoning, expert opinion and examples. The essay is more like an argument and the writer is tasked with bringing out the points on both sides.
The writer should also be able to communicate the points clearly so that one side doesn’t seem correct.

Writing an essay can be quite difficult not forgetting the nerve-racking process of trying to come up with a suitable topic. If you are in this category you can find essays online free on a number of sites to save you the hassle.
With these tips, you’ll be in a better position to craft a fascinating essay.