ESSAY - "a fairly brief piece of nonfiction that tries to make a point in an interesting

way" by Frederick Crews.

An essay is fairly brief. While writers will sometimes refer to book-length texts as
"essays," the term usually refers to short pieces that might be published in a
magazine or newspaper.
An essay is nonfiction. That means that the writer of an essay is trying to tell the
truth, not merely entertain. A short story isn't an essay because it's fiction. To
say that an essay is nonfiction doesn't mean that every word of an essay must be
literally true. Hypothetical examples can be an effective way of illustrating a
point, as can quotations from fictional works. But such imaginative illustrations
should always serve the purpose of clarifying or illustrating a claim that the writer
believes to be actually true, in the real world.
An essay tries to make a point. This is perhaps the most important and most
challenging aspect of the essay. An essay is not just a bunch of words, or even a
bunch of paragraphs. An essay all fits together; it all points in one direction. An
essay leads to one conclusion. This is what makes an essay different from, say,
an article in an encyclopedia, which may be a relatively brief and interesting
piece of nonfiction. An essay tries to make a point. It aims to support a single
claim. Another way of putting it would be to say that an essay doesn't just have a
topic; it also has a thesis. An essay doesn't just give information about a subject;
it supports a statement, a claim.
An essay tries to make a point in an interesting way. An essay is real writing; it is
written to someone. And so its goal is to interest its readers, to change their
thinking, to get them involved in the ideas it presents and ultimately get them to
adopt those ideas. An essay might seek to inform or to persuade or both. But to
make a point with real readers, it must try to get and keep the attention of those
readers. That means catching and keeping their interest.

TYPES OF ESSAY
1. Expository Essays
An expository essay is a specific kind of essay that involves investigating an
idea, evaluating the evidence, presenting the idea, and supporting the presentation
with an argument. Expository essays are usually written through comparison and
contrast, definition, example, and the analysis of cause and effect. There is a specific
structure that expository essays follow.
First, there should be a clear and expansive thesis statement somewhere within
the first paragraph of the essay. This statement should be narrowed down to
follow the guidelines of the assignment. It should include something involving
the topic of the essay as that is usually included in the guidelines.
The transitions between the introduction paragraph, body paragraphs, and
conclusion paragraph should make sense and be clear. Without these
transitions, there is no logical path to follow throughout the essay, and the
reader could end up lost in your essay. Your argument would then be lost.

Each paragraph of the body should include evidence that supports the thesis
statement. You should only discuss one sub idea of the thesis statement in
each paragraph. Discussing a number of ideas in each paragraph can lead to
confusion.
Dont forget the evidence! While this was just stated earlier, its important
enough to be said again. Your essay will not be an expository essay if you dont
have some kind of proof to back up your thesis statement.
When writing your conclusion, dont just repeat the thesis. Expand on it by
discussing the evidence you revealed. Dont present any new information or
ideas into the conclusion.

This is the most common essay written while in elementary school. It is usually
considered the five-paragraph essay one introductory paragraph, three body
paragraphs, and a single conclusion paragraph. However, as you enter later grades
and college, you will come to realize that expository essays sometimes run a little
longer than that. This format is usually just a way to begin introducing the idea of
expository essays to students.
Expository essays are best thought of as conversations or debates with
classmates. Just as your conversation will have a beginning, middle, and end, your
essay should also. If it is not complete, you will likely leave behind questions in your
readers. The most important thing to remember is to state the intent of your essay in
the introduction, back it up in the body, and summarize everything in the conclusion.
2. Descriptive Essays
A descriptive essay is exactly what it sounds like. In this type of essay, you will
be asked to describe something. Unlike the expository essay, this type of essay allows
for much more artistic freedom as the main idea is to create an image in the readers
mind.
While there is no exact format for this essay, there are some guidelines you
should consider following as they will help you write a better descriptive essay.
Brainstorm before you put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard. If your topic
involves describing your dream last night, youll want to start jotting down
specific details about it. For example, if you dreamed about your family youll
want to write down who in your family.
Write down descriptive words in relation to the details that you will likely use in
your essay. Again, youre going to want to paint a picture in your readers mind
so writing a sentence that says, My cousin was in my dream is not going to
give your reader any kind of image. However, if you describe your cousin in
more detail using hair color, eye color, or even skin tone will give your
reader a better image.
Dont forget that you have more than just the sense of sight. If you were
describing a day at the beach, you would want to include more than what you
saw. Include things you smelled, what you touched, sounds you heard, and
things you tasted.
Emotions and feelings play a key role in description too. However, its important
that you dont write a sentence that says, I was sad. Again, this kind of

language does not paint pictures in readers minds. Rather, describe it for them
My shoulders drooped, and my chin trembled. Tears flooded my eyes. A
sentence like that will show your reader that you were sad and paint the picture
in their mind. In fact, they will likely connect with you on an emotional level as
they read.
Keep your essay organized. No matter how descriptive you are, no one is going
to know what youre describing if everything is out of order. If you just stuff your
essay full of descriptive words, emotions, and senses, you might leave your
reader thinking that you were describing one thing when in fact you were
describing something completely different.

Descriptive essays are common in elementary school and are usually used as
warm-up journal prompts at the beginning of a language arts lesson. These kinds of
essays are also very common in creative writing classes as they are used to build your
descriptive skills.
3. Narrative Essays
A narrative essay usually involves the telling of some kind of story. There are
two common types of narrative essays short stories and book reports. There are
some guidelines that should be followed no matter what type of narrative essay youre
writing.
If it will be in story format, include all the parts of story. This includes characters,
plot, setting, etc.
If youre going to be writing a book report, it should be an informative narrative
about the book and not a retelling of the entire book.
Even narrative essays should have a point, just like the thesis statement of
expository essays.
Choose a point of view for your essay and stick with it. The common point of
view is first person, from the standpoint of the writer.
4. Persuasive Essays
A persuasive essay is also known as an argumentative essay. This type of
essay will be similar to an expository essay in that you will be exploring a topic and
collecting and evaluating evidence. However, unlike an expository essay, you will be
taking a stand for or against this topic.
The format of the persuasive essay is similar to the expository essay from the thesis
statement to the layout to the concluding paragraph. However, its important to state
that your persuasive essay will also include your opinion regarding the evidence and
the topic itself. Like the expository essay, the persuasive essay can also use the five
paragraph format, but there are also longer persuasive essays.
Source: http://daphne.palomar.edu/handbook/whatisanessay.htm
PREPARED BY: Jallilah D. Barambangan
BSED III- English
Creative Writing