Essays

Historical, legal, expository, descriptive, narrative, argumentative: essays may be specifically any one of these or a may reflect a custom request from a professor or essays may represent a variety of research project or case study. Whichever you have been asked to produce there are some rules of thumb for writing essays which will help you produce interesting content regardless of the style required. Defining what an essay is proves useful when trying to work through what specific essays need to include.

Defining Essays

• Descriptive essays ask a student to describe an object, person, place, experience, emotion or situation based upon a specific experience.
• Narrative essays follow style of a story and may be anecdotal, experiential or personal. It is appropriate to write these essays in an emotive way.
• Argumentative essays are a style of writing requiring students to undertake an investigation (it is also often called a research essay) of a specific question in order to present an argument or thesis using evidence and counter argument.
• Expository essays are similar to argumentative essays but generally ask that extensive comparison, contrast, definition and analysis are presented in the essay to explain the problem and the conclusions the student has drawn.

A teacher grading essays is looking to see a number of skills and procedures which reflect both the students learned knowledge and his or her increasing aptitude for articulating data. Skills that should be reflected in typical essays are reading comprehension and analysis, comparison, clarity and exposition. Essays which convincingly develop a concept and then follow a logical path of persuasion and purpose, reflect maturation of an idea and the essential student skill of being deliberate and compelling in his or her theory, argument or concept.

In addition to getting you good grades and developing your learning skills, essays are a great opportunity to gain recognition and win prizes. Essay competitions in the United States cover every field of interest and offer students a great opportunity to compete or find acceptance into competitive programs and schemes. Essay competitions occur throughout the year and will have exact specifications with regard to content which will vary depending on who is running the competition and why. Some well known, prestigious and/or lucrative essay competitions:

Berkeley Prize Essay Competition

The Berkeley Undergraduate Prize for Design Excellence endowment was established in the Department of Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley to promote architecture as a social art through research, writing, and criticism: traditionally under-represented aspects of the architecture curriculum. Each year, the Prize Committee selects a topic important to the understanding of the interaction of people and the built world that becomes the focus of the Essay Competition (http://www.berkeleyprize.org).

National Defence Essay Competition

For students of military schools the National Defence Essay competition is a great opportunity to be published in the Joint Force Quarterly. In addition it’s a chance to catch the ear of the Secretary of Defense (SECDEF) or the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS) on an important national security issue, recognition by peers, and monetary prizes are awarded to the writers of the winning essays (http://www.ndu.edu).

Go Green Essays competition

Lafango has announced the "Beyond Oil" College Essay Contest. The challenge is to contribute to the betterment of the world in which we live and be a part of a bigger solution for all its problems. Any student enrolled at an accredited undergraduate institution may enter the contest for a chance to win (http://lafango.com).

That is a small sampling of competitions in which your essays could gain money and glory. For those who are just looking to write decent essays to meet course criteria the definitions above should provide sufficient focus to get you started on the right track. For those who love writing essays and want to go further, the range of topics of essay competitions is sure to provide something for everyone.