There are several types of essay which you may need to be able to write at college. The four main genres of essays are Expository, Descriptive, Narrative and Argumentative.
Strategies for Essay Writing (Harvard College Writing Center)
Essay Writing (Purdue OWL)
Traditional Essay Structure (Excelsior OWL)
Rhetorical Styles (Excelsior OWL)
The different rhetorical styles are strategies for developing essays. Some essays use one style more than others, while some use more than one rhetorical style:
Argumentative Narrative Process Compare and Contrast
Descriptive Illustration Definition Classification and division
See also Introduction to Rhetoric and Rhetorical Situations (Purdue OWL)
A research paper is a formal and well-documented essay in which you investigate a topic by finding information from experts and present your understanding and evaluation of the subject matter. Writing a research paper involves a number of complex tasks such as Locating Sources, Note-taking, Drafting, and Revising and Editing a Research Paper (Excelsior OWL).
Overview of the Research Paper (St. Louis Community College)
Writing a Research Paper (Purdue OWL)
A Process Approach to Writing Research Papers (UC Berkeley)
The Ultimate Guide to Writing A Research Paper (Grammarly)
How to integrate information into your Research Paper
Outlining, Drafting & Integrating Source Information (Excelsior OWL)
Reporting Verbs for In-Text Citations (EAP)
Introducing Sources - Signal Phrases (St. Louis Community College)
See also UCNJ Subject LibGuide: English Composition: The Research Paper
Descriptive Essays (Purdue Owl)
Writing a Descriptive Essay (Butte College)
Narrative Essays (Purdue Owl)
Narrative Argument (Excelsior OWL)
Expository essays requires students to investigate, evaluate evidence, expound on ideas, and develop their topic. The purpose is to inform, describe, or explain. This can be take various forms:
Expository Essays: A Complete guide (Grammarly)
Expository essays (Purdue OWL)
Different Types of Expository Essays (EAP Foundation):
Persuasion Essays are also called Argument Essays, but there are slight differences between the two. Persuasion seek to convince the reader by focusing on one side of an argument, while argumentative essays presents reasons for or against a topic. Both argument and persuasion rely on three basic ways to convince the reader called:
Modes of Persuasion - Ethos, Pathos and Logos (Excelsior OWL)
Persuasion Essays (EAP Foundation)
It is important to know how to develop an argumentative essay using strong critical thinking skills. To accomplish this you need to understand your audience, evaluate source material (which is your evidence), approach arguments rhetorically, and avoid logical fallacies.
Argumentative Essays (Purdue OWL)
Argument (UNC at Chapel Hill)
Argument & Critical Thinking (Excelsior OWL)
Developing Argumentative Essays (UC Berkeley)
Using Evidence in an Argument (UNC at Chapel Hill)
Sandwiching: Three Steps to an Argument (UC Berkeley)
Counter - Arguments (Harvard College)
Fallacies (UNC at Chapel Hill)