The document discusses what makes an essay and the key elements and types of essays. It defines an essay as a short composition written from the writer's point of view, derived from the French word "essayer" meaning "to try." Aldous Huxley identified three worlds essays can take - personal, objective, and abstract-universal. A good essay provides an introduction, body, and conclusion. There are four major types of essays - narrative, descriptive, expository, and argumentative.

1. What Makes an Essay an Essay

2. Essay is defined as a short piece of
composition written from a writer’s point of
view that is most commonly linked to an
article or a short story. It is derived from
the French word essayer meaning “to try”
and was first characterized as an attempt
to point out something through writing.

3. Aldous Huxley, one of the
leading essayists of the century,
described an essay as a literary
device that is used for saying
almost everything about anything.
Huxley further explained the three worlds in
which an essay lives namely
personal, objective and abstract-universal.

4. Personal field sets an effort to write based
on the author’s experience and accounts.
Objective essay put the definition on one
subject other than the author’s self but give
essays that are in the themes of science
and politics.
Hiding what the content of the essay is all
about highly illustrates the abstractuniversal to which most essayists attain to
master.

5. A set of guidelines should be followed in
order to write a good essay recommended
for the requirements of the curriculum that
will help ensure the coherency and
consistency of the manuscript. Depending
on the type of the essay one is required to
write about, one should maintain a good
sentence constructing, correct tense of the
verb and accurate use of grammar and
punctuations on every page.


6. A good essay should provide the following:
 An
introduction that sets the mood or the
aura of the essay and provide the main points
of the paper;
A
body of the essay that delivers all the
supporting details of the essay and bind the
series of information clearly; and
conclusion that summarizes the essay’s
main point and the consequences or the
impact of the essay to the current situation.
A

7. Essay writing is the most common coursework that
professors in the academy will require to submit. It can
be short or long depending on the topic you are writing
about. Short essays are most commonly introduced with
300-500 words that should be composed of three
paragraphs; one for introduction, the second paragraph
is for the middle part and the third paragraph for the
concluding section of the paper. Longer essays are
written for technical subjects such as history, science and
other educational fields. A word count of 1000 words and
above are the minimum requirement for long essays.

8.  Choose
the topic of the essay to be written.
 Gather
enough facts and sources of
information for the content of the essay.
 Create
 Read
an essay outline.
related resources such as other essays
and short stories that help unify the given
task.

9.  Follow
the essay outline and improve through
sentence construction.
 Write
the thesis statement on the introduction
and set the mood of the readers.
 Write
clear, direct and simple sentences and
glue together to form a strong supporting
paragraph.
 Focus
on the essay’s main idea.

10.  Recheck
if the essay has an introduction, a
body and a conclusion.
 Check
the grammar, punctuations, format and
over-all sentence construction.
 Check
the verb tenses and make sure the all
subjects and verbs agree with each other.
 Ensure
that each sentence of the essay
makes sense.

11.  Ask
about general formats on the proper
indention, paragraph lay-out and over-all
presentation of the paper.
 Seek
for someone to comment on the
essay to help on improving the work.

12. Generally there are four major types of
essays that depend on the writer’s purpose
of writing. The four major types include a
narrative essay, a descriptive essay, an
expository essay and an argumentative
essay.

13. All narrative essays follow the author’s main
purpose of telling a personal experience or
anecdote that constitutes the topic of the
essay. Narrative essay, though written in the
author’s point of view, should be engaging to
the readers. It should have a clear and
focused intent that is written in the essay’s
introduction.
Examples of Narrative Essays
An anecdote essay

14. Descriptive essays’ purpose is to show through
words and sentence construction the deeper
meaning of an essay topic. Significant
place, person or idea should be described
throughout the content of the essay and should be
contribute to the meaning behind the choice of
subject. Colorful words and vivid descriptions are
present in descriptive essays and make it as the
easiest type of essay among the four.
Examples of Descriptive Essays
• A travel essay
• A personality essay

15. Facts is what best describes expository essays. It is
informative and is keen to details that show
explanations about the chosen essay topic. The writer
should give figures and statistics as well as examples
to give a strong expository essay. Writer’s feelings and
emotions should not be revealed on the entity of the
paper. The use of first person’s point of view should
also be avoided.
Examples of Descriptive Essays
• A cause and effect essay
• A comparison essay
• A process or how to essay

16. Argumentative essay’s purpose is to convince the
readers to believe in what the author’s believes
with. Facts and logics should be given and should
form the entire side of the argument but the main
voice should have a certain position. Expert
opinion and great reasoning are two of the skills
that this type of essay will show.
Examples of Argumentative Essays
• A review on a policy, an order or a law
• A call to action about a certain scenario that occurred

17. 
Essay is a short piece of composition written in a writer’s point
of view.

Essay is derived from the French word essayer meaning “to
try”.
Aldous Huxley, a lead essayist define essay as a literary
device that is used to say almost everything about anything.


THREE WORLDS IN WHICH ESSAY LIVES ACCORDING TO
ALDOUS HUXLEY
• Personal- based on the essayist’s own experience.
• Objective- based on the essayist’s definition on a subject.
• Abstract-universal- neither personal nor objective. Hiding what
the essay is about.

18. 
A good essay should provide an introduction, a body of
the essay and a conclusion.

STAGES OF ESSAY WRITING
•
•
•
•

Prewriting
Writing
Editing
Publishing
FOUR MAJOR TYPES OF ESSAYS
•
•
•
•
Narrative essay
Descriptive essay
Expository essay
Argumentative essay