Essay

An essay is an-fictional literary work that is written in fulfillment of academic curricula. If we see the history of an essay the first author who described his work as essays was the Frenchman Michel de Montaigne who lived between the years 1533 to 1592. The first work in English essay writing was done by Englishman Francis Bacon. These were in the period of 1597 to 1625. Notable essayists who need a mention include Virginia Woolf, Adrienne Rich, Thomas Babington Macaulay, George Orwell and Charles Lamb. There are many different genres of essays but it is difficult to describe a particular genre of an essay. An essay is generally a short piece of writing and the scope of an essay is limited. One essay cannot cover all the dimensions of a topic on which it is written. Hence if the essayist wants to cover all the details of a subject that is being written he writes may short essays. These essaysare equivalent to a short novel and have all the details that one wants to know about the subject.

In modern day education essays have become a formal mechanism to fulfill the requirements of an educational course. Essays help in developing the writing skills of the students and in many universities essay writing has become a tool for selecting students. Essays can be categorized into different types such as a five paragraph essay, descriptive essays, Narrative essays, Compare and Contrast essays, Persuasive essays and Argumentative essays. An academic essay can have a word limit of anything between 2000-2500 words. A five paragraph essay is a highly structured form of essay writing which has a thesis statement, three body paragraphs which support the subject with research data and quotations and a formal conclusion. There are many people who favor this form of essay writing as it helps to structure a student’s thought process. There are others who are against this form of essay writing as they feel that the structure is too inflexible. Among the other different kinds of essays a narrative essay covers the series of experience of a person. The essay is written is either first person present tense or first person past tense. Narrative essays are based on the narrator’s point of view and explain his ideas on the topic. An argumentative essay is supported by facts and figures and has a logical conclusion to it. This kind of essay tries to convince the reader of the author’s point of view.

Essays can also be of non-literary types. Non-Literary essays cover Visual arts, Music, Film and Photography. In visual arts an essay is an initial sketch of the final sculpture or drawing and tests the artist’s creativity. A photographic essay attempts to cover a scope of a topic with a series of photographs. Essay writing is a skill which is developed over a period of time and with experience. If you are interested in this form of literary work you can surely make a prosperous career out of this noble profession.


Sharon White is a senior writer and writers consultant at Essay writing. Get some useful tips for
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