7 Essay Types and Their Purposes

Have you ever struggled with the purpose of an essay?

For some, it may be a question of “what’s the point of all this essay writing?”

For others, the word purpose is synonymous with type, and they simply need to determine what kind of essay to write in order to achieve their goal (or ace an assignment).

In either case, we hope to help you today.

What Is the Purpose of an Essay in Education?

Does it seem like every time you turn around, someone’s asking (okay, telling) you to write an essay?

That’s because there is a very good reason. Essay writing is an integral part of education that serves several purposes that may surprise you.

First, essay writing helps improve your spelling, grammar, and punctuation. However, those benefits are more on the superficial side. Necessary, yes, but writing an essay provides far more value than that. 

Look at the many benefits you stand to gain:

• Writing in essay format teaches you how to communicate more effectively. 
• You’ll learn to organize your thoughts and fine-tune your reasoning. 
• Essay writing teaches you valuable research skills as you find and filter facts to support your viewpoint. 
• As you learn to express yourself better, you’ll become more concise and precise in your language. 

You are essentially practicing the ability to explain yourself clearly and articulate your thoughts. This will serve you well as you interact with future partners, bosses, and others.

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Points to Consider as You Craft Your Purpose Statement

Now that we’ve discussed the purpose of essay writing, let’s transition into learning more about the purpose of each individual essay. 

It’s important to know your essay’s purpose before ever putting pen to paper. 

Once you’ve decided on an objective for each essay, you’ll want to let your reader know your intent right away.  

To do that, you need to learn how to state the purpose of an essay effectively. This is called, appropriately enough, a “purpose statement.”

Unlike a thesis statement, which lays out your topic and arguments in your introduction, a purpose statement is more about how you intend to do that. 

Are you defending a stance in hopes of convincing someone to take action? Tell your reader that’s what you plan to do. 

Are you hoping to teach people how to implement an idea or produce something? State upfront that the purpose of this essay is instructional. 

A purpose statement includes defining the scope of the paper, along with sharing the focus of the essay and the direction in which you plan to take it.

Let me pause here and say something that may sound odd:

Your purpose statement doesn’t necessarily have to be used in your essay. It may, especially if it doubles as your thesis statement, but defining your essay’s purpose is more for your own direction. 

Clearly defining what you are doing and why will help you craft a coherent essay that achieves its goal. 

7 Types of Essays: Their Purposes and Examples

After clarifying the purpose of your essay, you’ll want to choose an essay genre to achieve your intention effectively—if it hasn’t be chosen for you, that is. 

(If you aren’t sure what to write about, get help with choosing a topic here.)

There are several essay types that help communicate different ideas, so it’s helpful to know which type lends itself to the best outcome.  

To help you decide, we’ve laid out seven common essay types and their purposes:

1. Inform

One reason to write an essay is to teach your reader new or changing information on a topic. 

The purpose of an informative essay could be to provide a deeper understanding of a well-known subject, but it can also introduce the reader to an unfamiliar topic. 

This would be a type of educational essay—one meant to use facts and data to inform your audience. This is not an essay designed to persuade the reader or evoke emotion.

2. Explain

Another form of an educational essay is one designed to teach a process or simplify a difficult subject. 

One function of an expository essay, as it’s also known, is to explain a topic, so it’s important for you to be familiarize yourself with the topic first before digging into the writing. 

You can’t clarify what you don’t know.

3. Respond

Sometimes an essay is written in response to someone else’s ideas. Depending on the topic, this can be an academic essay or less formal analysis of some sort (like a personal reaction).

In either case, the purpose of a response essay is to share your own perspective with the reader.

The ideas you’re responding to can come from a body of work, a literary analysis, a news story, or a statement from a public figure. It can even be in response to a commonly held opinion or belief.

In a response essay, you’ll begin by providing an overview of the subject to which you’re replying. You would then continue this type of essay by providing your opinion backed by research and facts. 

4. Persuade

The purpose of persuasive writing is to use logic to convince someone to react one way or another. 

You may include a specific call to action, such as exhorting the reader to petition their local government for positive change. 

Crafting a persuasive essay is similar to preparing for a debate but without the opposing party. It typically involves a strong opinion that is so well researched and backed by facts that it influences the reader to change their own opinion. 

5. Entertain

While most people think of formal, academic papers when they hear the word “essay,” you can also write an essay solely to entertain your reader.

Essays designed to entertain, such as narratives, aim to elicit some sort of emotional response from the reader. The purpose of descriptive text in this type of essay is to bring forth a clear picture in the reader’s mind. 

Careful choice of words is critical in this type of essay. You will use them to trigger some form of emotion in the heart of your reader.

6. Contrast

I’m sure you’ve seen or heard of an essay type called “Compare and Contrast.” 

This is a common type of essay in which the writer discusses the differences or similarities between separate ideas or topics. 

For example, you may be asked to compare two works of literature. On the other hand, the purpose of your essay may be to shed light on the pros and cons of two choices, such as attending college vs. heading straight into a career. 

If it’s a contrast piece, you will want to note less obvious differences between your two topics. For example, everyone knows that college costs money while working pays money. 

But what are the more subtle differences that the reader may not have considered? It’s your job to clearly identify those distinctions.

7. Review

In a review essay, the writer summarizes and critically evaluates a body of work, usually a novel, poem, or film. 

The review essay uses the writer’s own perspective of the work to talk at length about its strengths and weaknesses.

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Once you solidify the purpose of an essay, your first two steps are clear:

First, you will craft either a purpose statement for your own clarification or a thesis statement to use in the introduction, which should present your essay’s topic in an intriguing way.

Then, you’ll choose an appropriate vehicle to convey that message effectively by choosing an essay type that serves your purpose well. 

(Once you know what type of essay you’ll be writing, discover how to start an essay effectively.)

If you need help polishing your essay writing, don’t miss the incredible tales and tips found in Philosophy Adventure:

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