An essay is an academic assignment that students must encounter during their course. Therefore, every student should learn and get comfortable with writing essays as early as possible. With a lot of practice and proper planning, any student can craft an essay confidently. There are a few things you should consider before you write an essay. They include the type of essay and steps to follow when writing an essay:

Types of Essays

There are many types of essays, but each falls into one of the four main categories of academic essays. They are argumentative, narrative, descriptive, expository, and narrative essays. The expository and argumentative essays convey information with clear points and descriptive and narrative essays show the creativity and exciting side of the writer.

Argumentative Essays

An argumentative essay either defends or asserts a position. It is a common essay for high school and college students. This essay must have a thesis statement to state your topic’s stance clearly. The aim is to convince readers to agree or disagree with your topic through one or sentences that make a thesis.

A student must prove their ability to research, present and support their position on a particular topic. The essay has three parts, including:

• Introduction, which includes the topic and the thesis statement
• he body presents arguments and evidence
• The conclusion summarizes your arguments while emphasizing their importance without introducing new points.

Expository Essays

Expository essays have a clear and focused topic. The topic is self-explanatory and balanced, and it’s not argumentative. Teachers use these essays to test the familiarity and ability to convey well-organized information of a student.
The introduction part gives the reader a general background of the topic. The body contains organized points and supporting evidence, and then finally, the conclusion section summarizes the essay.

Narrative Essays

Narrative essays tell personal stories. A student narrates their story based on their experiences or creativity. These essays test the ability of the writer to craft a well-structured and engaging essay. They are more personal and allow students to apply creativity more than other types of essays that can only be based on facts.

Besides that, this type of essay is not necessarily divided into introduction, body, and conclusion sections. However, it should start with a clear point and end with what the writer learned from the experience.

Descriptive Essays

Descriptive essays give a detailed description of a particular thing. It could be a piece of art, a movie, or a friend; the list is endless. This essay tests the ability to make striking word choices and language creativity. It should clearly depict what the student is describing in the essay.

This essay type is sometimes loosely structured but should begin with an introduction to the object. By the end of the essay, you should draw a picture of the item. This means a student must use the correct words and figurative language to paint an excellent object description.

How to write an essay – Here is the process

While writing an essay is not a complicated process, there are a few steps you should follow. This is an academic paper, and therefore, you cannot just write anything. Here are four recommended steps that you should consider before you get started.

• Brainstorming

  Brainstorming helps you to generate various ideas, including a thesis and an ideal topic. Just state down the points as they flow in your mind to ensure you do not forget some crucial points as you write.

• Preparing

  The preparation stage includes your essay outline and collection of evidence. Check the brainstorming notes and choose the best ideas that support your thesis properly. Organize the points in a progressive order and start with the strongest ones. Also, if your essay requires complementary citations or empirical evidence, track them at this point and write them down.

• Drafting

  At this point, write the essay. Everything may not be perfect, but this stage defines how your paper eventually turns out. It is the first draft, so you will revise it, create another draft, and make as many as you may have until you have a perfect final draft.

• Proofreading

  After drafting and revising your essay, polish the final copy, go through it, and correct spelling, grammar, and formatting issues. You can use some writing tools and focus on word choice and clarity. Remove any passive voice in your papers. And once you are convinced that the paper is perfect, it’s ready for submission.