5 Types of Essays with Examples

There are many types of essays, but the five main essays that a college student need to know and write are narrative, argumentative, descriptive, expository, and compare and contrast essays.

1. Narrative essays tell a story. It can be a story about one’s experiences or may be an imagination story about a character or an event. Narrative essays are more creative than the other essays and they test one’s ability to build up information in a well-structured and engaging manner. An example of a narrative writing is ‘disobedience’ by Noah Milligan. A narrative story could be a memoir, a short story, or a novel.

2. The second type of essay is descriptive. In descriptive essays, a writer appeals to details of the five sense to write a story. As a result, a reader can visualize the situation or scene in the story and feel as though they were experiencing it first-hand. An example of descriptive essay is the ‘sea urchin’ by Allegra Hyde. One can use descriptive essays when writing a poem, song, or novel.

3. The third type of essay is expository. In expository essays, a writer simply teaches the readers about a specific topic. A reader endeavors to answer questions that a reader might have regarding a particular issue or topic. For example, writing about “how to learn English” is an expository writing.

4. The fourth type of essay is argumentative. Argumentative writers focus on a specific stance of debatable issues and utilize evidence, statistics, and examples to support their claim. A writer needs to research thoroughly on their topic to make unbiased opinion to persuade the readers. An example of argumentative essay is “should school going children possess cellphones?”

5. The next is comparison/ contrast essay. In this essay type, a writer focuses on giving similarities and differences between two people, things, events, ideas, or experiences. For instance, comparing the personality types of President Trump and President Biden, is an example of a comparison essay.