Essay Writing Purpose & Types

Introduction

The term essay is difficult to define, however it is derived from a Latin word 'exagium' which means to present the viewpoint about the concerned topic. It is a written composition about any topic. The essay can be from two pages to 50 pages long. Generally, the short and academic essay contains 3-5 paragraphs. Some people believe that essay is a group of paragraphs about a specific topic. Essays can be formal as well as informal. Formal essays are generally academic in nature and tackle serious topics. The definition and introduction to an essay depends on its type as well as the purpose and audience. Essay writing technique is also influenced from those very aspects. It is better to talk in brief about the different types of essay before entering the techniques.

Discussion

An essay can be descriptive, narrative, reflective or analytical based on the audience profile and the purpose of the writer. Audience profile refers to the features and characteristics of the readers of your essay.

Audience Profile simply includes the following features of the readers.

a. age,

b. educational level,

c. gender,

d. socio economic status,

e. tradition and cultural aspects of the readers.

And obviously the purpose of the writing is as follows

a. to inform/describe about the subject matter/event

b. to narrate about the event, mainly the historical events and programs

c. to reflect your view/opinion/experience as well as feelings

d. to analyze the subject matter or event

e. last but not the least the purpose of essay writing is to judge event or subject matter critically

On the basis of above mentioned features of your readers and the purpose of your writing give you the idea on how to write an essay or in an another words it releases you the essay writing techniques.

The major types of Essay

Scholars and professional writers categorize the essay types into various categories. But in a simple and more professional way, the essay can be categorized into four types.

a. Descriptive Essay

The descriptive essay is also called school essay. It is the basic/elementary type and also simply known as scientific essay. It is called scientific because the information used in this type of essay is simply gained from the writer's sense organs. The knowledge received by looking, hearing, touching, smelling, testing etc is employed in the essay. The essay of school children resembled the descriptive essay.

b. Narrative Essay

The writer writes narrative essay when s/he has to narrate about the past events. Narration means to tell something about the concerned topic. There is either first person or third person who simply tells about any historical events. The characters, date and series of events as well as theirs consequences are presented in a logical order.

c. Reflective Essay

As per the name suggests, reflective essays is the reflection of writer's experiences, feelings and opinions on that topic. Human mind is more occupied with the various types of information that is to say whatever we say is the product of our perception which always is not the reality. If the essay entitled "Christmas Eve 2020" is more favorable for Christian but not for a Muslim. It is because we have different ideas, understanding and experiences about Christmas Eve which will be dominant in our writing. Even the very professional writer cannot stop all those things in his writing. But the important thing to understand is the writer should not be controlled from all those perception but should be able to control all those things in his writing.

d. Argumentative Essay

It is more professional and advanced type of essay. The word 'Argumentative' is made from argument. Argument refers to the idea, opinion, assumption. In this type of essay, the writer gives space not only to what he thinks but also to the opponents. For example, The argumentative essay includes both the merits and demerits, positive and negative sides of the subject matter. Suppose the title "TV for Kids" is discussed based on the viewpoints that why and how TV is good for Kids as well as TV is bad for kids. The writer might take 60/40 in case of justification.

Conclusion

Essay writing is guided by the purpose of the writer in one hand on the other it is also influenced by the profile of the audience. A writer should clearly understand that why s/he is writing that on one side and on the other to whom s/he is writing. And If you have the clear idea about the major types of essay on what to write and how to write then more than fifty percent job is done.