I. What Is Essay?

An essay is a short piece of academic writing related to a specific topic. An essay

is used by an author to present a position, opinion, or view on a particular topic and
provide evidence in order to persuade the reader.

Essays allow the writer to demonstrate critical thinking and understanding of the topic
by expressing their ideas in written form.

Depending on the academic course you are taking, you will be asked to write different
types of academic essays. Let's take a look at the different types of essays:
II. Essay Types

1. Expository Essay

Expository essays are essays that help a reader understand a topic in more detail
and allow you to share your own ideas about a topic. In an expository essay, the
focus is on informing, describing, or explaining the topic.

Expository essays require you to research and use information such as definitions,
facts, explanations, and details gathered from credible sources. In order to help
explain, you may compare and contrast, provide examples, or explain cause and
effect.

Examples of expository essay topics:

 An essay that discusses the life of a famous person
 An essay that discusses the advancement of technology in a particular field
 An essay that discusses the approach a large company takes to marketing

2. Argumentative or Persuasive Essay

The purpose of a persuasive or argumentative essay make arguments that persuade

the reader to believe their point of view, opinion, or position on a topic.

In an argumentative essay, you need to identify key issues, research to find supporting
evidence from literature or published work, and analyse, evaluate and use the
evidence to create a convincing argument. In some cases, you may need to interview
or survey people to gather supporting evidence.

In an argumentative or persuasive essay, your topic should be one that has more
than one side, in other words, it must be debatable.

Example of persuasive or argumentative essay topics:

 Should students wear school uniforms?
 Should the government mandate mask wearing?
 Is social media helpful or harmful?
 Everybody should get free health care.
 Studying English should be mandatory for every high school student around the
world.

*When writing an argumentative essay, you must clearly state your position and
defend it. If you want to present both sides of an argument, it would be an expository
essay.

3. Narrative Essay

A narrative essay is an essay that tells a story. They are often written using the
pronoun "I" as they tend to tell personal stories or describe personal experiences.
Unlike most academic writing, the narrative essay allows you to be creative in telling
your story.

Examples of narrative essays topics:

 A book report on a novel you have read.
 Write a story about your first day of school.
 Write a story about your dream vacation.

4. Reflective Essay

The purpose of a reflective essay is to help you better understand yourself and how
different experiences might impact those around you. It is often a personal essay that
asks you to reflect upon your experiences and/or your own perspectives on a
topic.

In a reflective essay, you make connections between your personal experiences or

views and something you have learned about or experienced. Often, you will be asked
to reflect on the different factors that have shaped your current personal views and
perspectives.

Examples of reflective essay topics:

 How have your experiences as a child impacted your self-esteem?
 How has learning English has impacted your career path?
 Reflect on the challenges you faced in achieving your academic goals.
 Explain how understanding the chemistry might impact your everyday life.

5. Descriptive Essay

A descriptive essay is an essay in which you describe a person, place, emotion, object,
situation, or experience. The purpose of this type of essay is to form an image of the
topic in the reader’s mind.

This type of essay tends to be shorter than an expository essay and may only be made
up of a few paragraphs. Also, it uses very descriptive language, including detailed
adjectives and adverbs to provide the reader with a vivid image in their mind.
Example of descriptive essay topics:
 Describe a visit to your favourite place.
 Describe a book that has inspired you.
 Describe an event that changed your life.
 Describe your favourite character in the novel.

III. Essay structure

Essays allow the writer to demonstrate critical thinking and understanding of the
topic by expressing their ideas in written form.

All essays will have an introduction, a body, and a conclusion.

1. Introduction

The introduction introduces the reader to the topic that will be discussed. It also
provides the argument that will be presented in the form of a thesis statement.

2. Body

The body of an essay is usually composed of 3 or more paragraphs that present the
supporting evidence for the thesis. Each paragraph provides a piece of evidence that
helps persuade the reader that the author’s point of view or argument is correct.

3. Conclusion

The conclusion of an essay is used to summarize the essay and provide a final
statement about the author’s position.

4. References

If you do any research for your essay, you must acknowledge the sources you used
through the inclusion of appropriate in-text citations and a Works Cited or References
page. This includes any quotes, paraphrases, statistics, facts or other information that
you draw from an external source.

Make sure you follow the proper formatting (e.g. APA or MLA) required for your
course.

IV. Writing Essays

Writing an essay is a multistage process that involves planning, research, writing, and
revision. It is important to give yourself enough time to write your essay so that you
can carry out each stage of the process properly.

1. Planning Your Essay

Before you write your essay, you must plan it. This means that you must determine
what your thesis will be and what evidence you will use to support your arguments.
You will also need to do research, analyse it, and include it in your essay.

An essay organizer or outline can help you organize your information, arguments, and
supporting evidence prior to writing your actual essay. Here is an essay organizer that
might be helpful to get you started: Essay Organizer (PEEL) (All 4U courses).doc.

2. Writing Your Introduction

The introduction is the first paragraph of an essay. It serves to introduce your topic
and provide some relevant context for your reader. It begins with a broad introduction
to the topic you are writing about and becomes more specific, ending with a thesis
statement, which specifically tells the reader what position you will be taking and
what arguments you will use to support your position.

A good introduction will 'hook' your readers into wanting to read more. This is where
you help your readers understand the relevance of your writing and why they should
read on.

2.1 The Importance of the Thesis Statement

Every essay’s introduction should have a thesis statement. A thesis statement:

 is usually a single sentence near the beginning of your paper (usually at the end
of the introductory paragraph) that presents your argument to the reader
 directly answers the question asked of you. A thesis is an interpretation of a
question or subject, not the subject itself.
 tells the reader the position you are taking on the question and why it is
 significant
 tells the reader what to expect from the rest of the essay by providing a brief
overview of the key arguments
 makes a claim that could be debated
 is supported by one or more arguments (depending on the complexity of the
topic)

For example:
 If you were looking at the impact of war on international relations, you might
answer the question "What impact did World War II have on Canadian
International Relations?"
 If you were looking at the role of governments during a pandemic, you might
answer the question “Should governments be able to mandate health restrictions
during a pandemic?”

2.2 How to Write a Thesis Statement

A strong thesis will make your essay writing much easier as it clearly outlines the
arguments you are going to make. Let's look at the characteristics of a strong thesis
statement.

A strong thesis statement:

(i) Answer the questions asked:
Always reread your question prompt after writing your thesis statement to make sure
that it actually does answer the question. If your thesis does not answer the question
asked, your essay will not be as strong as it should.

(ii) Takes a position that others might challenge or oppose:

A good thesis should be debatable. If your thesis simply states facts that no one
would, or even could, disagree with, it’s possible that you are simply providing a
summary, rather than making an argument.

(iii) Is specific:
Thesis statements that are too vague often do not have a strong argument. If your
thesis contains words like “good” or “successful,” see if you could be more specific:
why is something “good”; what specifically makes something “successful”?

(iv) Passes the “So what?” test:

You want your thesis to mean something to the reader. If your thesis doesn’t seem to
make a connection to anything larger or to the reader, you should rewrite it.

(v) Is aligned with the supporting evidence:

If your thesis and the body of your essay do not seem to go together, one of them has
to change. If you find that your thesis does not match your supporting arguments well,
it is okay to change your thesis to reflect your actual arguments. Remember, as you
write, you should always be reassessing and revising your writing as necessary.

(vi) Answers how and why:

If a reader’s first response is “how?” or “why?”, your thesis is probably too open-
ended and lacks guidance. When you write your thesis, try to make it clear why what
you are writing about matters to the reader.
Let's say you've been asked to write an essay in an English class on how the life of the
author influenced the writing of a particular novel, such as Mary Poppins.

QUESTION:
How does P. L. Travers’ life influence her writing of Mary Poppins?

STEP 1:
Define your position. Make sure you clearly indicate what your position is. This is the
position you should be prepared to support with evidence in the body of your essay.

P. L. Travers’ turbulent upbringing influenced her to emphasize familial bonds in

Mary Poppins.

STEP 2:
Identify your arguments and add them to your position. Your thesis should include
your position and a list of the arguments you will make. Typically, you will be asked
for 3 supporting arguments. This will be your working thesis that you will finalize
once you have written the rest of your essay and have settled on your evidence.

P. L. Travers’ turbulent upbringing influenced her to emphasize familial bonds in

Mary Poppins as demonstrated by her development of character, use of plot, and
demonstration of theme.

STEP 3:
Revise and refine your thesis statement to make it well aligned with the arguments in
your essay. If your thesis does not perfectly align with your arguments after you write
them, revise your thesis until it does. Some other examples of thesis statements for the
above topic:

J. R. R. Tolkien’s traumatic experiences with WWI and WWII influenced him to

showcase the damaging power of war in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. This is shown
through the displacement of people, the death of characters, and the destruction of
home in the series.

Alice Walker features the struggles and perseverance of black women in the American
South in The Colour Purple, which can be connected to her childhood in segregated
Georgia, her experiences of familial abuse, and her participation in the Civil Rights
Movement.

3. Writing Your Body Paragraphs

The body paragraphs are where you are going to provide your evidence and
explanation to support the arguments you are using to support your thesis. These
paragraphs are extremely important in convincing your reader of your position.

In general, you will want to state your point, state your evidence, explain your
evidence, and link your evidence to the rest of your essay. This structure is called the
PEEL (Point - Evidence - Explanation - Link) structure. To learn more about how to
use this structure, please visit the Using Evidence module.

Your body paragraph will be written using the information you have identified using
PEEL. It begins with a topic sentence, describes and explains the evidence, and ends
with a concluding sentence.

Let's look at the steps to write a body paragraph:

(i) Write a topic sentence

A topic sentence introduces the paragraph. It tells the reader what the main point of
the paragraph is. Your topic sentence should be related to your thesis.

Things to consider when writing a topic sentence:

 What’s going on in your paragraph.
 Why have you chosen to include the information you have?
 Why is the paragraph important in the context of your argument or thesis
statement?
 What point are you trying to make?

Your topic sentence should add something new to your essay and move your
arguments forward. If the topic sentence merely restates your thesis with nothing new,
or you have multiple topic sentences that say the same thing, your essay is probably
repetitive.

(ii) Explain your topic sentence

Sometimes the topic sentence might need a little more explanation for the reader to
understand it properly. If it does, you can add 1-2 sentences explaining your topic
sentence after the topic sentence.

(iii) Introduce your evidence

After your topic sentence, you must introduce the evidence you will be using to
support your claim in the topic sentence. This could be a quote, statistics, figures,
common sense examples, etc. When introducing quotes, always identify the source
and summarize to provide context.

There are many different ways to introduce a quote into your writing:
<The author/source> asserts, believes, claims, comments, confirms, declares, defines,
describes, explains, indicates, makes clear, proposes, etc.

*These terms are not interchangeable as they do have different meanings. Always
make your choice based on the appropriate meaning.

(iv) Insert your evidence

Once you have introduced your evidence, you must actually include it in the essay.
Add in your evidence, with enough detail that it is meaningful to the reader.

(v) Unpack and explain your evidence

Evidence without explanation is not very useful. You must explain to the reader how
the evidence is related to your claim and your thesis.
 If you use a quote, explain what the quote means and why it is important to your
argument. This can usually be done in 1-2 sentences.
 If you use facts, statistics, or other information, make sure the connection
between the facts and your claim is very clear.

When explaining your evidence, ask yourself:

 How does this evidence prove the point I am trying to make in this paragraph
and/or my paper as a whole?

Your explanation can be opinion based and should be at least a few sentences. Your
reader should never have to guess or think about why your evidence is connected to
your claim.

(vi) Write a concluding sentence

Your paragraph should end with a sentence that summarizes the argument and links to
the thesis and the rest of your essay. If you are linking to another paragraph, use
appropriate transition words or phrases to help keep the flow.

4. Writing Your Conclusion

Your conclusion paragraph should restate the thesis or main argument and remind
readers of the most important evidence that supports your arguments. It should
not introduce new evidence or ideas. It may however suggest next steps in research
based on the conclusions you have made in your essay.

When writing your conclusion, you should make sure that it:
 is written in clear simple language that is consistent with the rest of your essay
 restates your thesis
 includes the key evidence used to support your thesis and how it relates
 explains why your ideas are of relevance
 synthesizes your arguments
 if appropriate, identifies future possible research or questions to investigate based
on your position and findings
 shifts from detail to a broad conclusion about the impact/implications of your
thesis/findings/conclusions