“Write when you write; revise when you revise; never mix the two.” -Anonymous
In this section you will find
In your English 1101 class, you will probably be asked to write essays on topics that you choose. Make sure you understand the writing assignment and know the type of essay you have been assigned to write before you select your topic.
Do you need to write about a personal experience? A narrative essay gives an account of an action or a series of events. The essay makes a point through stories that are usually taken from personal experience. An essay recalling a childhood experience such as your first day at school is a narrative essay. Your point will be, perhaps, that adults tend to respond to experiences throughout their lives in ways quite similar to their earliest childhood reactions.
Do you need to describe a person or place from your childhood? A descriptive essay requires you to use your five senses to describe your environment. A descriptive essay can be about a person, place, thing or any combination of these. An essay describing the sights, smells, and sounds experienced during a walk in the park is a descriptive essay. Your point may be that eastern North Carolina parks smell, look, and sound significantly different from New York’s Central Park.
Do you need to explain a process, compare and contrast two schools, classify the kinds of friends you have or give examples of something? An expository essay calls for you to explain, examine, or clarify a subject. The primary purpose of an expository essay is to enlighten your readers about something. Depending on your subject, your essay might take the form of a comparison/contrast, definition, or classification essay. An essay defining the term “honesty” and an essay comparing and contrasting private and public education are both examples of expository essays. In the essay on education, your point may be that, despite their differences, both public and private educational systems tend to train students’ behavior more than their minds.
Do you need to take a position on the death penalty, cloning, affirmative action, ebonics, or some other contentious subject? An argumentative or persuasive essay presents a logical line of reasoning to convince your readers of the validity of your own or another person’s opinion. An essay in favor of or banning smoking on high school campuses is an argumentative/persuasive essay.
Some topics are particularly well-suited for one type of essay. For example,
These four types of essays may also be found in different combinations in any one essay. The combination you use will depend largely upon the nature of your subject and your assignment. Before you can convince your readers that steroids should be banned, you might first capture their attention with a brief narrative about a friend who suffered from steroid abuse or with a detailed description of some of the effects of prolonged steroid use.
After you determine which type of essay you should write, you should think about who your readers will be so that your writing will interest and inform or persuade them.
You should also remember that each type of essay must make a point. A narrative essay about your first day of school, for example, might make a point about the experience itself, the kind of child you were, your resulting attitude toward school or toward education, or the kind of adult you’ve become because of that experience. Make sure you keep in mind any length requirements or subject guidelines your instructor has given you to follow.
Now you are ready to choose your general subject area. If you are having problems, remember that it is important to write about topics and experiences that are familiar to you. If you do, your essay will be clearer and more interesting for you and your readers. Choose a subject that you care about.
Assuming you understand the assignment and have chosen a general subject, you can now pick a topic. Remember, a subject is a wide field of knowledge or experience, and a topic is the specific focus or limitation that you will give that subject. Here is an example of narrowing a subject into a topic.
Any subject you pick can lead to several essay topics. For example, the following topics can be used top write an essay dealing with the general subject “stereos:”
how to select a new stereo
home stereo repair
performance of compact disk players versus stereos
versus stereo turntables
how to install a car stereo
stereos as status symbols
how to choose the right receivers for your stereo
why a particular brand of stereo is best (or better than, say, two other brands)
how an equalizer works