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Elements of an Essay

Whatever the purpose of an essay, one thing that stands out is that its construction must be tailored in line with the utmost goal of precision to the subject matter. While becoming an expert in essay writing, it is important to know the nature of the essay being written.

This action allows any potential reader to prepare the mind for what to expect from your piece. It would be inimical to your craft if you pull the features of a narrative essay into the frame of a persuasive essay.

Circling the waves of essay writing is a compulsion to be plain in the material and dive directly into the meat of the discourse immediately.

Types of Essays

An essay has been defined as a long piece of writing bordering on a person's point of view as regards a certain subject with arguments, description, wits, quotes, statistics and narrations, research and so on. There are four major forms of essay writing. Although more has evolved over the years in the English language, at a closer look, it would be noticed that they stem from these four;

Expository essay

This kind is defined by the capacity to share information about a proposed theme through the use of facts. The writer defines certain terms by way of statistics, which would most times draw from exercising the use of compare and contrast alongside analyzing cause and effect.

Descriptive essay

This form shows the reader the specifications of a person, place, weather, an object or animal. It communicates emotions with the use of elevated language and applies the senses to the craft.

Persuasive essay

When reading this style of writing, the reader is mostly required to access the facts and logic dispensed by the writer and draws a conclusion or a consensus, while evaluating the piece from the writer’s point of view.

Narrative essay

Telling a story with real-life experiences, this type of essay commonly projects the feeling of the essayist, through a vivid description of events. Usually, this form of essay requires the writer to talk about themselves and their experiences.

One thing every essay writer should note is that the structure of an essay is key in the delivery of that piece. When explored the structure would determine the way the writer is going to deliver the message and the way it would be received.

In the event of poor delivery of the content, it could affect the manner of receipt and may lead to misunderstanding of the message. Hence, when writing an essay, one should align oneself with the flow of the elements of an essay to serve as a guide.

Although, the strict adherence to this structure is not absolute, however, when applied they create a safe space for the essay to thrive adequately.

Elements of an Essay

The Hook

As the name suggests, the hook is what captures the reader and spurs him/her to pay attention to the piece at all. Sometimes, a good hook is what is needed to complete or participate in a seemingly long write-up. One can say it should have the capacity to knock out the reader.

The hook can come in the form or an outrageous but true fact or statistics. This is used effectively when delivering materials that address societal issues like global warming, child mortality, etc. In addition, it can be utilized when writing about a vague topic.

When applying this process, a writer can use witty expressions or a good quote to invite the reader into the essay. Notwithstanding, when utilizing a quote, be careful not to plagiarize the quote by not giving reference to its author. An example could be “Sun Tzu once said...”

Introductory paragraph

When the hook successfully enchants the reader, the next step would be to introduce the topic. It is common when writing essays to give the background of the subject matter in the introductory paragraph.

Such a background gives the reader an understanding of the history of the subject matter and why they should care to read further. This is the point where you lay your cards down.

In addition, doing this often involves the revelation of the thesis statement of the essay. A thesis statement is the facts and arguments to be made. It gives an outline of the essay and creates a picture of what to expect.

Body of the essay

If the thesis statement is like bullet points, this is the marksman. The body, as the name implies, is a catalyst for the parts that make up what the writer wants to say. It is the explanation of the arguments, the engineering of facts and the dispensation of logic to support the previous two. At the beginning of every paragraph, there should be a topic sentence, which introduces the line of thought of the point and subtly describes how it would be argued. It is vital to know that when applying this, one should pay cognizance to the train of thought, and prevent the risk of losing it. This is done in line with the framework of the topic sentence, argument, supporting argument, logic, and conclusion.

Final paragraph

The final note should end with an encompassing but detailed summary of all that has been noted on the material. The concluding paragraph acts as a closing page, therefore, there should not be any new point raised neither should there be a continuation of an old one. This segment could further serve as a place for personal recommendations and views.

It should be repeated at this point that the elements of an essay are not absolute and need not be religiously adhered to. This informs the need for flexibility in writing in order not to sound monotonous in the case of consistent writing. Therefore, an essayist could provide innovative ways or constructing their piece and choose to deviate from the rules. NeverthelessElements of an Essay, knowledge of these properties could inform whether the writing is welcomed or not.

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