Lesson 1.4-5: Essay and Types of Essay Flashcards
essay is a
short written discourse about writer’s opinion, feelings, or analysis of a particular subject
personal essay
written in a casual and conversational style
formal essay
carefully organized and more serious than a personal essay
critical essay
aims to explain to the reader what the author has done, how
he did it, and why the work produces the effect that it does. To accomplish this task, the essayist makes an explication and interpretation of the elements of literature.
explication of meaning
Criticism calls for an explanation of the meaning of
the passage and a close analysis of the denotation and connotations of words
and phrases, of imagery or symbols, and of allusions. The essayist may
paraphrase what the author has said.
analysis of structure
Structure is concerned with both the organization of the
work and the effect of that organization on the reader’s understanding or
emotion. The essayist must have a good understanding of what the author was
trying to do. Then, he must discover the parts into which the work falls. Finally,
he must explain what each part contributes to the unity of the whole and how
each part has affected the reader.
analysis of character
The essayist has three questions to answer: 1) What
kind of person is this? 2) What effect does he have on the action or on other
characters? 3) What is his function in the story, novel, or play?
analysis of incident or of details
any piece of writing must have a purpose
and must achieve unity of effect. To accomplish this, everything that the writer
includes should be relevant to the design of his work.
types of essay
descriptive
narrative
argumentative
persuasive
expository
descriptive essay
This type of essay often provides information about a
person, a place, an object etc. In this type of an essay, the writer can
capture the attention of the readers by using a lot of sensory details
(sight, sound, smell, touch, taste)
narrative essay
As the name suggests, it is an essay that narrates a
story. A good writer of a narrative essay can make the readers feel that
whatever he is writing is genuine and interesting. First person point of
view. A conversational tone.
argumentative essay
attempts to convince the readers that the author’s idea is true. This is a genre of writing that is used to defend or prove a point. A writer should do a thorough research; gather accurate facts and figures before writing an argumentative essay. This is more like a debate written on paper.
persuasive essay
attempts to convince the readers to agree with writer’s opinions. In this genre of writing, the writer can use his own views, opinions and stir up the
emotions in the reader in order to convince them to agree to his opinion.
expository essay
This is a simple, informative type of writing that
provides a step by step analysis of an issue. In this type of essay, an
explanation for a major concern is provided with the help of evidence,
facts, and statistics. The purpose of expository writing differs. The
purpose could be identifying cause and effect relationships, comparing
and contrasting pieces of work, or providing step-by-step instructions.
