Essay writing

By Nabiha Qasim
What is an Essay?
An essay is a piece of writing which expresses information or
outlines the writer’s opinion or story. Essays can be both formal
as well as informal. Formal essays are generally academic in
nature and tackle serious topics. Informal essays are more
personal and tackles one’s perspective or experiences.
Types of Essays
The type of an essay will depend on what the writer wants to
convey to his reader. There are broadly four types of essays.
Narrative Essays:
This is when the writer is narrating an incident or story through the
essay. So these are in the first person. The aim of writing narrative
essay is to sequence all the events and actions took place in the
story. It relates series of events in a logical manner to make the
storyline/plot as vivid and real as possible.
Descriptive Essays: Here the writer will describe a place, an object,
an event or maybe even a memory. But it is not just plainly
describing things. The writer must focus on the littlest details and
paint a picture through his words. One clever way to do that is to
evoke the senses of the reader. It not only evokes your sight but
also involves other sensory details like smell, touch, sound etc. A
descriptive essay will tend to make the reader feel the emotions the
writer was feeling at the moment.
For example, if you want to write a descriptive essay about your trip
to the park, you would give great detail about what you
experienced: how the grass felt beneath your feet, what the park
benches looked like, and anything else the reader would need to
feel as if he were there.
Expository Essays: In such an essay a writer presents a balanced
study of a topic. To write such an essay, the writer must have real
and extensive knowledge about the subject. There is no scope for
the writer’s feelings or emotions in an expository essay. It is
completely based on facts, statistics, examples etc. There are sub-
types here like contrast essays, cause and effect essays etc.
For example, it may include describing how to do a certain process
or writing an expository essay with step-by-step instructions on how
to conduct a certain experiment.
Persuasive Essays: Here the purpose of the essay is to convince the
reader of what you believe in. A persuasive essay is not just a
presentation of facts but an attempt to convince the reader of the
writer’s point of view. Both sides of the argument have to be
presented in this essay. But the ultimate aim is to persuade the
readers that the writer’s argument carries more weight.
Components of essay
The general structure of essay is divided into three elementary
parts.
Introduction
This is the first paragraph of your essay. This is where the writer
casts his first impression by introducing his topic for the very first
time. You can set the background of your topic. You can give a very
brief summary of your essay in the introductory paragraph. You can
start by defining the major terms of your topic or even by raising a
question. You can enclose the main idea and purpose/need of your
writing in your introductory paragraph. Generally, it is not very
long, about 6-8 lines.
Your introductory paragraph determines readers interest that if he
wants to read the whole essay further. It is the writer’s chance to
get the reader hooked to his essay.
Main body
This is the core of your essay which can be loaded with information or
arguments or events following your topic. The main body of your
essay is sandwiched between the introduction and the conclusion. So
the most vital and important content of the essay will be covered here.

Since, we have a lot of information to provide in the main body, it is

not confined to one paragraph only. It can be extend to two or more
paragraphs according to the content. The important task for a writer is
to manage, sort, categorize and arrange the information in a series of
paragraphs. All the paragraphs and ideas/events in them must be
linked and coherent.
The mistakes that writers generally make is to go about it in a
haphazard manner which leaves the reader confused. So it is
important to organize your thoughts and content. Write the
information in a systematic flow so that the reader can comprehend.
For example, if you are narrating an incident, the best manner to do
Conclusion
This is the last paragraph of the essay. In informational essays,
conclusion needs to be linked with the introductory paragraph to
make sure you have met the purpose of your essay, but make
sure the words and syntax are different. It also holds room for
your personal opinions to conclude the arguments you put in
your essay.
Whereas in narrative essays, a conclusion is a place to sum up a
story or an argument. You can round up your essay by providing
some moral lesson while wrapping up a story. Make sure you
complete your essays with the conclusion, leaving no hanging
threads.
A conclusion is the final impression of the writer; his last chance
to connect with the reader where he leaves him with some new
perceptions, findings or answers.
Characteristics of writing a good essay
An essay must be,
1- Focus ed
Select a suitable title and then stick to the topic. The material of your
essay must revolve around the topic you have chosen. Don’t lose
track while writing.
2- Well- Developed
Proceed with your ideas paragraph by paragraph. Each paragraph
should support or expand the main topic of the essay. The idea of
each paragraph should be explained and illustrated through
examples, details, and descriptions if needed.
3- Unified
Every paragraph in an essay should elaborate on single idea related
to the main topic. Each paragraph should stick to its main point.
4- Coherent
An essay or paper should be organized logically, flow smoothly, and
linked together. In other words, everything in the writing should
make sense to a reader.
5- Clear
An essay must be complete in sentences, correct in grammar,
punctuation and spellings to achieve clarity.