Different Types of Essay Questions

Below, we’ll take a look at different types of essay questions!

An essay is a focused piece of writing designed to inform or persuade. There are many different types of essays, but they are often defined in four categories: argumentative, discursive, comparative, and close reading.

Thanks for reading! You can improve your writing skills by taking one of our courses on the links below:

For a limited time, our Basic Essay Writing course is FREE! Click this link and subscribe today to get into the basics of essay writing!

Basic Descriptive Writing + Advanced Descriptive Writing

AQA English Language Paper 2

DISCURSIVE ESSAYS

Discuss an idea
Take one big idea and split it up into smaller aspects
Each aspect creates a different paragraph in the main body
Still need a thesis
‘Explore how…’ / ‘Examine’ / ‘Discuss how’ / ‘How does..’ / ‘In what ways…’

ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAYS

Pick a side, or the middle, and argue your viewpoint
Better to pick a clear side
Develop your points in terms of for and against
Create counter arguments
‘How far do you agree?’ / ‘How far does…’ / ‘To what extent..’

An argumentative essay presents an extended, evidence-based argument. It requires a strong thesis statement—a clearly defined stance on your topic. Your aim is to convince the reader of your thesis using evidence (such as quotations) and analysis.

Argumentative essays test your ability to research and present your own position on a topic. This is the most common type of essay at the college level—most papers you write will involve some kind of argumentation.

The essay is divided into an introduction, body, and conclusion:

The introduction provides your topic and thesis statement
The body presents your evidence and arguments
The conclusion summarizes your argument and emphasizes its importance

What to focus on when writing an Essay

CLOSE READINGS

Given a small section of a text
Zoom in and focus on language as much as possible
Go into detailed analysis
Sometimes you use the close reading as a starting point but have to link to wider reading
Always show an awareness of the whole text, and sequence of events
‘In the extract’ / ‘Starting with the passage’

A literary analysis essay presents a close reading of a work of literature—e.g. a poem or novel—to explore the choices made by the author and how they help to convey the text’s theme. It is not simply a book report or a review, but an in-depth interpretation of the text.

Literary analysis looks at things like setting, characters, themes, and figurative language. The goal is to closely analyze what the author conveys and how.

The introduction of a literary analysis essay presents the text and background, and provides your thesis statement; the body consists of close readings of the text with quotations and analysis in support of your argument, and the conclusion emphasizes what your approach tells us about the text.