High School Writing—Eight Essays to Consider
Mary L. Sellers
August 14, 2004
Before we begin, does everyone have a handout? One thing I want to let you know about the handout is that it doesn’t go exactly in order of my talk. It wasn’t so much that I wanted to see if you were paying attention as it was that the section on Definition was too long, so I moved it to the next page.
Hello, my name is Mary Sellers. I am a homeschooling mother of five, none of whom are yet in high school. I teach AP Language and Composition online for PA Homeschoolers. I also taught occasional freshman composition classes at Cedarville University in Ohio, and I teach a writing class here and there to our local homeschool co-op.
When students apply for my online class, they are required to submit several writing samples, one of which is an essay they have written in the past year. Many times the writing sample I receive is some sort of research paper. Usually, the research paper is a narration of the life of a person or the narration of some historical event. While these papers are often well-written, the frequency of the style struck me. I wondered if parents just didn’t know that there was more in the big world of writing than a narration.
So, today, I want to introduce you to eight different types of essays, all of which would be appropriate for a short essay of three to five pages or for a longer research paper. These essays are the ones I teach or have taught in my classes. This list of essays is not exhaustive, but understanding these writing genres can give your child a way to expand his writing horizons. There are about eight main approaches to non-fiction writing: the Narrative/Descriptive, Comparison/Contrast, Process Analysis, Causal Analysis, Rhetorical Analysis, Definition, Division/Classification, and Argument. Many essays that you read in the newspaper or in a magazine employ one or more of these writing strategies.
Before we talk about the different types of essays, there are some general principles to consider when writing essays. One part of essay writing that seems to strike dread into the hearts of many is the idea of choosing a topic. Now, some types of essays generally lead to certain types of topics, and we will discuss those when we discuss the individual essays. However, there are some general guidelines which help in topic selection.
I encourage students to do a little brainstorming before they begin writing their essays. Having a list of five possible topics is a good idea. Make sure that the topics they list are either things that they know a lot about or are things they wouldn’t mind learning more about through research. Sometimes we as parents will “encourage” our child to pursue a certain topic, but their hearts really aren’t in to it, and the paper doesn’t turn out to be well written. Now, I’m not saying that your child should never have a topic assigned to him, but consider your child’s interests when helping him to choose a topic.
When your child is brainstorming, the topic doesn’t need to be focused at first, but eventually, it will need to be narrowed into a manageable topic. What I mean by this is let’s say your child is a big fan of the Lord of the Rings and decides he wants to write an essay about it. Well, what exactly would this broad topic cover? The plot, the characters, the author, the allusions to the Bible, and so on could all be choices for essays under the general topic of The Lord of the Rings. It is a common mistake to choose a topic which is too broad for an essay, and then the student is left floundering, not knowing which direction to take the essay.
Sometimes a student will choose a topic which is too narrow. Usually, with a lot of research on the topic or with a lot of personal analysis, a student can overcome this narrow topic idea. Going back to our Lord of the Rings example, focusing on a minor character who infrequently appears or explaining how Tolkien’s love of a nearby pub influenced his writing of the books might make for an essay which is difficult to write.
Another consideration in the narrowing or expanding of the topic is the type of essay your child is writing. A friend called me one day to ask for advice. Her 4-H daughter wanted to write an essay on chickens, but my friend didn’t know exactly how to advise her. I explained several of the essays which we will discuss today, and how each essay could fit the topic of chickens. If she wanted to write a narrative, she could discuss famous chickens in history. An argument essay topic might be a protest against non-free range farms for chickens. A process analysis about chickens might be how to prepare a chicken for showing at the fair. The list went on and on. Now, my friend had a way to explain things to her daughter, and the daughter had a lot of options for writing her essay, which was, of course, about chickens.
One overriding principle of all essays, which I will repeat more times than you probably care to hear, is that the essay must have a point or a purpose. If your daughter writes a lovely narrative about her time at camp, and when you finish reading it you think to yourself, “And?” then you know the essay doesn’t really have a point. The way you get your child to consider a purpose for his essay (beyond just wanting to complete an assignment) is to have him consider the message he wants the readers to be left with. For example, if your son were writing an essay about the causes of the Civil War, he might first want to think about what impression and conclusion he wants his audience to have at the end of their reading of his essay. Perhaps he wants them to understand that the Civil War was not all about slavery. This idea would shape his essay. Perhaps he wants his readers to feel the emotions of hopelessness that the South felt at the end of the war. Then, this idea would shape his essay.
I’ve mentioned jotting things down or doing prewriting. Some of you have trained your children well in writing outlines. I feel outlines are great, but I don’t always use them as I was initially taught to use them. I tend to write a sketchy outline of what I want to say. I usually list my main topic or over-riding purpose at the top of my paper. I then list the main points I want to hit. I don’t use proper outline form with Roman numerals and the like. However, I do have some sort of plan for where I want start, where I want to end, and how I want to get there. Many students balk at the idea of writing an outline. You are the main teacher, and I am only here to offer advice. My advice is to have your child write out some sort of sketch of what he plans to do with his essay. That way, he can see if he is getting off-track or is accomplishing the purpose he set out to accomplish. Even when I wrote this talk, I followed the plan I mentioned to you, except I had the description of the talk that I gave to Carol as my purpose and the list of eight essays as my general points.
A final, overall consideration is that of audience. When you give a speech, the audience is the people who are sitting in front of you listening. When you write a letter, the name which follows “Dear” in the greeting is the audience. When you write an essay, the people you expect to read the essay are the audience. Sometimes, in a school environment, we can have a little fun with audience. Your child could write an essay with some group as the audience, even though you and the evaluator might be the only folks who read the essay. It doesn’t hurt to have your child jot down who she has in mind for the audience as she is doing that general outline and thesis statement prewriting. Then, your child will know which examples and evidence would be most appropriate for his essay.
The first essay that I teach in my AP class is the narrative/descriptive essay. The reason I present this essay first is that it is normally an essay style the students have seen before. Some people teach these two things separately, but it is difficult to truly divide these two. A narrative, or retelling of something that happened, isn’t as appealing without some vivid description. A description gets very dull after a while unless there is a story to keep it interesting. The ND is useful, as we love to hear stories of what happened or descriptions of things and places we have not seen.
The purpose of a narrative/descriptive essay is to make the reader appreciate the experience and feel as if he is there with the writer.
For some writers, understanding this concept of purpose in a ND essay is difficult. They feel that if they have told the story or described the place or thing, they have a successful essay. Unfortunately, successful essays need more. Successful essays need to have a moral behind the story, as it were. Think of Aseop’s fables or Kipling’s Just So stories. Sure, they were entertaining tales, but it wasn’t until the end when you said, “Ah!” that the whole meaning came through. This is not to say that the purpose for an ND has to be an “Aha!” at the end. It just means that the essay should go deeper than just a story or description.
When your child is considering a topic for a narrative/descriptive essay, ask her to think about some things, people, or experiences that were meaningful to her. Have her begin to list these ideas. Many times the use of the word “meaningful” will get students to think about a purpose. Have your child list some of these meaningful things. Sometimes students think that nothing interesting or meaningful has ever happened to them in their lives. At this point, I would encourage you to pull out a list of topic starters.
In the past, some of my students wrote about vacations, summer camps, grandparents, funny experiences, and favorite places. The best essays had a purpose. The writer not only described her grandmother, she also left an impression of a bygone generation and its values and actions that our world today no longer understands. The writer not only narrated his experience of his first time rock climbing, but he also explained how this experience changed him as a person. The writer took us to the starting line of the race, and we ran the race with him, feeling our lungs gasp for air and our legs strain to reach the finish line. And, in the end, we didn’t come in first. However, the writer made sure that we knew we won. We had beaten our previous best time in the 500 meter dash.
Each one of those essays told a story and described something, but there was a purpose behind each narrative. Simply telling the story or describing the person was not enough. If the audience, the readers of the essay, didn’t come away from their reading with a deeper understanding of how the experience or person or thing was important to the writer, then the essay would have failed.
This type of essay is most-often used for research papers. Information of people and events are easy to research and are easy to compile into a narrative. However, any one of the eight essays presented here today could be turned into a research paper, because all a research paper is is a paper with research! It doesn’t matter what type of essay it is; as long as there is research done, it is a research paper.
A Comparison/Contrast essay is fairly self-explanatory essay. In a CC, you compare and/or contrast two things for a purpose. It is not much good if you point out the differences between a roll of paper towels and a sewing needle, but there may be very compelling reasons to write an essay about two unlike things. Comparing means pointing out the similarities, and contrasting is pointing out the differences. Most times, an essay will combine the two techniques. If the things you chose are similar, let’s say Ohio and Pennsylvania, you would contrast them by pointing out the differences. If the two things are different, like a spoon and a rest stop on the highway, you would need to point out the similarities by comparing them.
Once again, the purpose for the essay must be clearly established before your child begins to write. Otherwise, he might have the tendency to ramble and not make clear comparisons or the comparisons and contrasts made in the essay won’t really fit.
One of my favorite CC essays compared horses and ATVs. The student had a clear purpose: in the middle-of-nowhere country where he lived, a debate raged as to whether horses or ATVs were the superior form of transportation. The essay cleverly compared many aspects of the care and maintenance of the two “vehicles” and even came to a conclusion at the end of the essay as to which one was better. (He chose ATVs, as when you are broke and can’t afford gas, the ATV doesn’t care. However, when a horse doesn’t get fed, it does care!)
Other students have compared literary characters, books, family pets, houses, restaurants, and vacation destinations. Once again, what separated the excellent essays from the mediocre ones was the purpose. Did the writer have a reason for comparing the two items? What conclusions did she want the reader to draw from her comparison or contrast?
When helping your child to pick a topic for a CC essay, you might want to have him think of unlike things between which he has noticed a connection. For example, one student wrote an essay comparing the novel Ethan Frome to Romeo and Juliet. Although they are both literary works, the two are not seemingly connected. She pointed out the similar themes of failed love and other parallels. Your child could also list things which most people consider to be similar, which to his eyes are very different. One student wrote of the difference between boy bands and rock bands. Before I read her essay, I didn’t know there was a difference!
The problem your student might run into with this type of essay is in choosing a topic which is too narrow. If your child can’t come up with at least 5 or 6 comparison/contrasts, then the topic probably isn’t a good one. He might get half-way into the writing and run out of things to say or might find he is repeating himself.
The third essay is the Process Analysis essay. Process Analysis is a fancy name for a how-to essay. This is the essay that explains the steps in a process. The paper can be very specific—if someone were to pick up the finished essay, he or she could complete the process by only following the instructions given in the essay. This would be appropriate for topics with which the writer has much familiarity, like cooking a can of soup or making a pot holder. Sometimes PA essays are more general. They go over all the steps in a process, but they are not specific due to the technical nature or the time constraints. Topics such as open heart surgery and building a space shuttle would be good, general PA topics. The reader would understand the process, but would be unable to perform the process by simply following the steps in the essay.
I have found that craft projects do not make the best topics for PA essays. If your child chooses such a topic, drawing diagrams is often needed for the reader to be able to visualize how to wrap the first rope around the second rope at the halfway point.
Good PA topics are ones in which your child has a lot of knowledge about how something is done and can fully explain it. Sometimes research is needed for a PA topic to be successful. http://www.howstuffworks.com is a great site for explaining how many things work. This site explains almost everything, from organ donations to Etch-a-sketches.
The purpose for the PA essay is the easiest one to achieve. Your child should make sure that when the readers finish reading the essay, they understand the process of how something works.
A Causal Analysis is a cause and effect paper. The essay examines the relationship between a result and what caused it. Or, the essay examines the results of an event. This could be a big issue like examining the causes for the War in Iraq, or it could be a funny essay explaining the effects that spending all of your month’s earnings on CDs and video games had on your life.
Sometimes choosing a topic for this essay leaves students cold. What sort of cause and effect should I choose? Some past successful essay topics have been the reasons for a family to move to the country, what happened during a snowy day in Philadelphia, the rise of Starbuck’s Coffee, and what happened when a teenager was in the process of learning to drive.
After a topic has been chosen, your child needs to determine if she is going to explain how a result came about or what happened because of that result. Let’s say your child’s topic is the war in Iraq. If she decided she wanted to talk about how the war came about, then the war would be the result, and the paper would focus on the causes. If she wanted to talk about what happened because of the war, then the war would be the beginning of the essay, and the results of the war would be the bulk of the essay.
A Definition essay defines the subject of the essay. There are a number of ways to go about defining something, including Analysis, Classification, Comparison, giving Details, Examples, explaining what the term is not (Negation), giving the origins or causes, or giving the uses, results, or effects of the topic. Not all of these approaches to definition can be used or should be used for a single topic in a single essay.
Your child will want to choose a broad category to define. Biblical words like sanctification and justification are good choices as these terms aren’t simple to define. Students have successfully written essays on the terms Christian music, American, antique, danger, athlete, love, and vegetarian. When choosing a topic for this essay, the main thing to keep in mind is to choose a phrase or term which is either not clear or which your child wants to define in a more precise way.
I had a student who wrote a great definition essay using the term “Science Fiction.” Her premise was that much of what is called “Science Fiction” is really Fantasy literature, and she wanted to clearly define her term. To show you how some of the terms on your handout work for a real example, I’ll use her term and show how she defined (or might have defined) the word.
As with all other essays, the purpose for writing the essay is vital. What point is your child making with his definition of this term? Is it to clarify a confusing term? Is it to make a point that a word or idea doesn’t really mean what many people believe it means? For example, in defining the adjective “American,” your child may want to prove that the word means more than simply someone who lives in America.
A Division/Classification essay is somewhat like a definition essay in that it seeks to define something. However, it differs in its technique. The DC essay takes the subject and breaks it down into categories, or it takes categories and uses them to classify the subject. For example, if you wished to classify dogs, as one of my students did for an essay, you would list the different types: sporting, toy, terrier, hound, and so on.
Another attack for the DC essay is to take categories and describe how they make a whole. For example, your child might list several political leaders to explain the idea of leadership or corruption or some other word. So, a DC essay is either a category broken into parts or parts coming together to define a category or term.
When your child looks for a DC essay topic, she should think about categories of things. Then, she should think about how to divide those categories or examples in those categories. Some past topics of DC essays have been Myers-Briggs temperament types, classification of types of skiers, babysitters, instruments in an orchestra, types of personal web pages, guitars, and types of packers for vacation.
The purpose for a DC essay can vary. Sometimes it is to show humor in poking fun of different groups, as with the classification of skiers and the vacation packers. Sometimes it is to help someone better understand things to make a decision, as in the breeds of dogs essay. Your child will want to make sure that he classifies with a purpose in mind, and not just classify for the purpose of listing things.
For many, the rhetorical analysis is the hardest of all the essays as the student doesn’t just write what he wants. Instead, he must comment on someone else’s writing, make judgments, give textual evidence for his judgments, and have the whole essay make sense.
A Rhetorical Analysis essay does just as its name implies. The writer takes something—a speech, essay, or book—and analyzes the rhetorical approaches. The student does this by using three main rhetorical appeals: ethos, pathos, and logos. However, there are subcategories to notice in each of the appeals. Rhetorical devices such as simile, metaphor, rhetorical questions, repetition of phrases, and even word choice and sentence length and structure contribute to the rhetorical style of a piece. The RA essay discusses all of these things.
The first step in writing an RA essay is to choose a piece of rhetoric to analyze. I suggest to my students that they choose a speech, as speeches are usually shorter and contain generous helpings of all three rhetorical appeals. Also, famous speeches are abundant on the internet, so there is no lack of material. The student needs to read the speech and decide two things: what did the author want to accomplish with his speech and did he accomplish that goal? These decisions form the thesis of an RA essay. The student will state what she feels the speaker or author had in mind, and then she will state if she felt the author accomplished the task. The rest of the essay defends the thesis by using textual examples to show how what your child said is true.
I think we are all familiar, at least somewhat, with Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. A student might have a thesis something like this: “On August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered one of the most well- remembered speeches in American history while dappled in the ‘symbolic shadow’ of the Abraham Lincoln memorial. His speech, rich with pathos, ethos, and logos, is a historical masterpiece. Dr. King’s powerful deliverance is not only bursting with emotional appeal, it is an educated and structured argument, which does not once waver from impeccable moral standards, delivering to all its listeners the strenuous need in 1963’s society for racial equality between blacks and whites.” I can’t take credit for that introductory paragraph. One of my AP students this past year wrote it. She has a clear thesis. She clearly shows that she thinks King did a great job as she uses phrases like “historical masterpiece” and “powerful deliverance.” She also explains King’s goal for giving the speech: “delivering to all its listeners the strenuous need in 1963’s society for racial equality between blacks and whites.” What I just did there in explaining her thesis to you was rhetorical analysis. I took someone else’s writing, read it, made my opinion about it, and backed up my opinion with support from the text.
Now, one thing that may have popped into your mind when I read that introduction was “What are ethos, pathos, and logos?” There is a great website which explains these three terms in detail with pictures, and it is listed on your handout. However, since you can’t run to your computer right now, I’ll give you an overview of these terms and how they would function in a rhetorical analysis essay.
Ethos is the ethics of the author, his credibility. He might try to establish credibility by showing that he is just like his audience by using words like “we” or “us.” Or, he might try to show credibility through religious statements in quoting the Bible or the Koran. He might list his military achievements, work experience, or other things to get his audience to feel that he, as a speaker or writer, is a believable, credible source. Your child would want to find examples of ethos in the text and explain how they were or were not successful.
Pathos is the pathetic, the emotional appeal. When you see the pictures of starving children in Africa, you are experiencing an appeal of pathos. Writers and speakers use pathos in abundance. They want to emotionally connect with their audience, so they will use graphic images, recall stirring events (Remember the Alamo!), and otherwise appeal to the emotions of their audience. Sometimes the pathos is done well. Sometimes it is overdone. Your child would find examples of pathos in the text and show how these succeed in making an emotional connection with the audience or how they would not.
Logos is the logic, the structure of the argument. What does the speaker or writer mention first? Was mentioning that thing first a wise plan? How does the speaker develop his points? Does the structure of the piece help to support the point the author was trying to make, or does it detract from it?
In many ways, a Rhetorical Analysis essay is a specialized type of argument essay. However, we haven’t discussed the argument essay yet! I’ve saved the most important for last!
The first question that may come to your mind is “What is an argument essay?” That’s a valid question and a good place to begin. An argument essay is a paper with an arguable thesis which defends that thesis. Sometimes you will hear this essay called a persuasive essay. They are basically the same thing.
What is it about the argument essay that makes it so important? In an argument essay, the writer must take a specific stand on an issue or topic, clearly state her position, and then logically and methodically defend her stance. This skill is invaluable throughout life. If a Christian wants to defend creation or the validity of the Bible, if he can do it in a clear, logical fashion, his argument will be better received. If your child wants to petition his future boss for a raise or promotion, the skill of concisely stating what she wants and then being able to back up her desires with convincing proof will pay off. There are many, many more examples of the usefulness of the argument essay—debates, letters to the editor, and just plain wheedling Mom and Dad—but I think you get the point.
Now that you’re all excited about the argument essay, let’s get down to brass tacks. How do you help your child to write such an essay? For some kids, this essay is a piece of cake. They love to argue, and they have had a lot of practice in persuading others to their point of view. However, many students need some help. Some students can take a firm stand on an issue, but they have problems in clearly presenting their arguments and in defending their views. Some students have a hard time taking a clear position. I had one student, who was a sweet fellow, but who just didn’t seem to be able to take a firm stand on an issue. He kept choosing non-arguable topics like “Lightning storms are powerful.” He did eventually write a fine argument essay, but my experience with him opened my eyes to the fact that it is a struggle for some teens to take a firm stand.
How should your child choose a topic? I suggest that you have your child pick something in which he is interested, be it guitars, Nintendo, horses, rabbits, or Civil War re-enacting. If he cannot think of a topic, have him write down 5 things that make him mad and 5 things that he would like to see changed. These could be as simple as removing a stop sign on a seldom-used back road or the color of the box of his favorite cereal to more serious issues such as deployment of the military as peacekeepers or the AIDS epidemic in Africa. Once he has a general idea of what interests him, the next step is writing an arguable thesis.
The first thing you need to make sure is that your child has an arguable thesis. The thesis should not be fact, like the lightning storm one. It should also not be an opinion such as “Hershey’s makes the best Moose Tracks ice cream.” A simple way to write an argument thesis statement is to think of the topic and then write “I believe X because Y.” . “I believe that the stop sign at the end of our street is unnecessary because it is a one-way road, and there is no traffic coming from the other direction.” This formula is not a magic key, but instead, it is a place to start. As a matter of fact, the phrase “I believe” should not be in the final draft. If your child wrote the essay, we know it is what she believes. She doesn’t need to have that phrase. However, an “I believe” statement can help to jump-start an essay. Removing the “I believe” is pretty simple. Just start with the X word: The stop sign at the end of our street is unnecessary because it is a one-way road, and there is no traffic coming from the other direction.
The goal or purpose of an argument essay is to convince the audience of the truth and reasonableness of the position presented. In order to do that, the first thing that must be established is who is the audience?
Now, every one of these essays that we’ve mentioned has an audience, and that audience must be kept in mind as I have already mentioned. However, in an argument essay, knowing the audience is vital. If you don’t know the audience, then you don’t know what would convince them of your position. Sometimes, writers will give religious and Biblical support into an essay designed for a general-public audience. This is not a good idea. If your audience doesn’t believe that your support is valid, then they will not believe your overall argument. For example, if you wanted to write an essay explaining your belief that God created the world in seven literal days and your audience is a group of atheists, quoting Genesis as support in the essay would be a bad idea. However, if the audience were a group of people who said they believed the Bible, but believed in the Gap Theory or the Day-Age theory of creation, using the Bible as support would be acceptable, as your audience believes that the Bible, the source you were quoting, is a valid authority. By the same token, if you wanted to write to convince a group of people that animals were being abused, giving support or statistics from some unknown internet site or from a radical animal-rights group might not convince a skeptical, general audience.
Once your audience has been established, you should have your child think about the common ground that his audience and he share about the subject. Once this common ground is established, a sense of credibility and community is also established between the writer and his audience. It is then easier for the writer to introduce his ideas and convince his audience of them than if the writer had begun in a hostile or challenging way.
As the writer progresses through writing the essay, she needs to think about her views on the subject and why others might not believe them. This is called refuting the opposition. As she thinks through this, she may come to find out that there isn’t much logical support for her position or that she isn’t able to overcome some serious counterarguments. Sometimes the opposing argument turns out to make much better sense than the argument being proposed in the essay. That might be a call to abandon the effort or to change the thesis. Sometimes there are just irreconcilable differences in the argument presented and its refutation. Don’t ignore the rhinoceros in the living room! Acknowledge the opposing argument, even if it can’t be refuted.
Sometimes the writer, in his attempt to refute all arguments contrary to his point will slip into Logical Fallacy Land without even realizing it. What is Logical Fallacy Land? It is the place where you will hear arguments such as, “Those who send their children to public school don’t’ care about their children’s education.” and, “As more and more modern conveniences like microwaves and vacuum cleaners have been invented, the rate of crime has also increased. Therefore, household appliances can be linked to the crime rate.”
Logical fallacies are often subtle and hard to spot, so it is wonderful idea to actually look into studying some basic logic. You classical homeschoolers in the room could run rings around me in logic instruction and logic resources, but I’ve come across one book and a few websites that might be helpful. The Fallacy Detective by Nathaniel and Hans Bluedorn is a great introduction to fallacies. It is appropriate for ages 13 and up, and it provides a thorough explanation and examples of different types of fallacious arguments. I’ve listed two websites on your handout of some sites which teach you more about fallacies.
Of course, using the three appeals of logos, ethos, and pathos are a fine idea in an argument essay to help prove your points. Why should all those famous writers get all the fun?
I hope that these essays will inspire you and your child in your writing this year. I also encourage you to think beyond the portfolio for your writing. One of my students from this past year just had the comparison/contrast essay he wrote for my class accepted to Homeschooling Today. Several other students’ essays have shown up in various places, including Excelsior! PA Homeschooler’s student magazine.
Does anyone have any questions about any of the essay types or about high school writing in general?