Different Types of Essays

Labeling an Essay

Research: Essay Types

An essay is defined as a short piece of writing on a particular subject. There are a variety of types of essays for different purposes, starting with Expository Essay which gives directions or instructions about how to complete a task or how something is done. The Cause and Effect Essay focuses on a condition or situation and ask either why (the cause) or what the result will be (the effect). When showing the differences or similarities between two individuals, things, places and ideas then are known as a Comparison and Contrast Essay. An Argumentative Essay details your opinion on a subject being argued based on proper reasoning and understanding. There are two ways to provide an opinion which is through; presenting an objection and refute them or presenting points that support an opinion. When focusing an observation on a book, poem, and play it is best to seek out an Literary Analysis Essay to provide one's opinion on their perspective on a written piece of work, which is very much similar towards an Character Analysis Essay however with a change of topic, instead of discussing a Literary piece within the essay the main observation would be on a character and how he/she interacts within the literary piece. The most popular type of essays that are used in Canadian Schools are; Comparison and Contrast, Cause and Effect and Argumentative .These essays differentiate from each other to stating one's opinion, describing the differences and similarities between two things or arguing about a topic nonetheless, they all use the same essay format. An essay is a set of words to provide the reader insight on the chosen topic but one should use the correct type of essay to enable the reader to gain perception on a desirable topic of their choice.

The three types of essays can differentiate from each other by their unique topics they further explain. Starting with a Comparison and Contrast Essay a topic for this would be American Car vs. Foreign Car as it will be a notable topic due to comparing both types of vehicle. The title for type of essay would be a question because the reader is trying to figure what car is better to have an example of this would be; 'what car would be better suited for you: American vs. Foreign Car?' A topic like Teen Suicide would best fit an essay like Cause and Effect because of the reason why they commit suicide (the cause) and how after it affects other individuals. The title for this would most likely be a statement since the nature of committing suicide would not involve a question of whether doing it or not but rather stating how immoral it is, an example of this would be The Effects of Teen Suicide. Lastly a topic for Argumentative could be 'Should everyone go to university?' For the reason that it involves gaining one's opinion on a topic for in this case it would be to see how everyone feels of if they should go to university or not. The title for this would most effectively be a question since it's on a topic that could change through everyone's perspective therefore showing it as a question; an example of this could be Is University suitable for you?

A thesis statement is to describe the chosen topic of the essay in several words though a thesis could be either strong or weak depending on how much information can be summarized in those few sentences. For a thesis statement for Comparison and Contrast essay it cannot be vague or general such as "The media depict people in different roles compared to the realities of the general population". Whereas the thesis can be more precise and more direct for individuals