Making sense of the types of essay there are

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Writing as therapy

If you are pursuing quality education, you probably hear the word “essay” a lot. No wonder, as it is a great way for the tutor to check your knowledge in the discipline and challenge your reasoning and writing skills. It takes facts, rhetorics, and creativity to write a thoughtful and compelling essay. Usually, this type of assignment consists of three major parts: introduction, body, and conclusion. It is necessary to add an argumentative thesis statement at the end of the introduction and start each body paragraph with a topic sentence. However, you can be assigned different types of essays. They vary in the content expected, structure, and purpose. So, now we will clarify what to write for each type and when a professional paper writing service might be useful.

Argumentative essay

This is probably the most popular type of essay you can get assigned. In general, any essay task aims at improving your reasoning skills, but an argumentative essay type focuses on it even more closely. For this reason, while writing an argumentative essay, you need to make sure you have included all the necessary elements and found credible sources. In the thesis statement, you should articulate your position on the topic and explain in a few words why you believe it to be so. Then there must be at least three body paragraphs, each starting with a topic sentence that serves as an argument supporting your thesis statement. The rest of each paragraph goes into an explanation of this argument and quotes from the sources you trust.

A good argumentative essay will have an additional body paragraph with a counterargument. The topic sentence here will contest your thesis statement. Then you will explain how it does so, and finally, why this argument is not enough to negate the legitimacy of the whole position. Finally, the last paragraph is a conclusion, in which you re-state the thesis and summarize all the arguments that support it. If you find it difficult to understand the requirements of your teacher, you can request professional writers’ help at the RapidEssay website, and get an exemplary work that will answer all your questions.

Reflective essay

While most types of essays are written in the third person, a reflective essay may be written in the first one, as it requires you to talk about yourself. Usually, such assignments aim at assessing your performance in a discipline, course, or some specific learning activity. You are supposed to draw and reflect on your experience and the way you have profited from it. The assignment requires you to mention both the positive and the negative aspects of your experience, as well as the ways in which you see them as such. If the reflection is personal, you don’t need to find any sources, unless it is specifically mentioned in your assignment.

Descriptive essay

As the name of the assignment would indicate, you need to describe an event, a person, a phenomenon or an element of it. The subject matter depends heavily on the discipline in which you have to write it. Although the characteristics of a descriptive essay may oppose an argumentative one, you can still introduce the matter you are describing as a statement, then elaborate on the qualities of the subject in question in the body paragraphs. Ideally, a good descriptive essay explains all the details about the subject in a way that is understandable even to a person unfamiliar with it.

Response essay

This is another type of essay you will usually write after reading a book or an article, watching a movie, or attending an event. However, in this type of essay, it is important to point out not only whether you like the subject matter or not, but to interpret it in your own way. For that reason, even though it is your own reflection, you can include sources in this paper. For example, the very piece you are reviewing is the primary source. Then, you need to figure out the ideas that it conveys and develop them, citing the works that explain them more thoroughly. Thus, you still need an argument in a response essay.

Every type of essay you are assigned has the purpose of developing your critical thinking skills in one way or another. Different types of essays have different structural peculiarities. If you aren’t familiar with the essay you’re assigned, ask your teacher for details. This won’t be a problem especially if you’re an international student who has never written these kinds of essays before.

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