A classification essay.

Classification (sometimes called classification and division) is the process of establishing categories, of grouping items that share certain characteristics.

Sometimes one can wish to break categories down into smaller units (division).

Writers use classification essays to group items according to their similarities and differences. Items are combined into a number of discrete groupings and then each group is labeled. In many instances classifying is a matter of dividing something into its constituent parts in order to consider the elements of each part separately.

A Process Essay.

The authors use process essays to explain the steps or stages in processes or procedures. A process essay is organized chronologically, that is in order of time. Process essays describe steps or stages that follow each other in time. This time can be relatively short (the steps involved in winking your eye) or relatively long (the stages involved in the formation of river canyons).

Process essays can be of two types: instructional and analytical.

Instructional process essays are “how-to” essays. They instruct the reader about how to do something, for example, how to ride a bike, how to plan a vacation, or how to pass a difficult test. The reader is being taught how to recreate a process.

Analytical process essays tell the steps involved in how something works or how something happens or happened. This type of process essays doesn’t give directions for readers to follow. Analytical process essays are often used in academic writing.

For example, to explain the steps in an experiment. Anthropologists use this type of writing to explain, for example, the marriage customs of different cultures. Specialists in literature use analytical process essays to explain the steps they follow when analyzing poetry and prose. The reader is learning about a process but is not necessarily expected to recreate that process.

A Comparison/Contrast Essay.

When you analyze and evaluate two or more things, you compare those things. As soon as comparison begins, contrast edges its way in, for rarely are two things totally alike. Comparison brings similar things together for examination, to see how they are alike. Contrast is a form of comparison that emphasizes their differences.

Writers use a comparison/contrast essays when they want to either compare or contrast two or more things.

A Cause/Effect Essay.

Academic writing often involves cause-and-effect reasoning. Sometimes you will reason forward: cause to effect. You will focus on what causes something (why it happens) and what the effects are (the consequences or results). For example, you might write an essay about what causes unemployment and its consequences, or about the causes of hurricanes and their consequences. Sometimes you will reason backwards from effect to cause.