College Essay Vs Persuasive Essay

An essay is a short piece of writing often meant to convey one point. Essays can be found in news sources, books, magazines and journals, and as a frequent school assignment. Even when restricted to just academic essays, essays come in a variety of forms, such as a personal essay, a research paper, or a persuasive essay. Despite their differences, there are some things that all essays have in common. Every type of essay has a thesis, a sentence usually found at the end of the first paragraph that defines the main purpose of the essay. As an extension of this idea, every essay has one main subject or focus, no matter how broad or limited that subject is. Though word and page counts can vary greatly between essays, each essay contains an introduction, to present the topic of the work, body paragraphs to elaborate on the points found in the introduction, and a conclusion, which wraps up the essay and often provides a final summary of the body paragraphs. Though there are some similarities between all types of essays, each one is different enough that they …show more content…
Similar to a research paper, a persuasive essay is focused on one point that should be backed up by thorough research. One way a persuasive essay differs, however, is that it is always based on an argument. As the name implies, the main object of a persuasive essay is for the author to sway their audience to their point of view. These are often written in the perspective of third person, but first person essays can also be effective, as they are likely to focus more on the personal experiences of the author. This approach relies more on emotional arguments, while those based on evidence are more likely to take a logical approach to their argument. Many of these essays find some balance between ethos, pathos, and logos, or the three appeals. A persuasive essay is a specific type of academic essay that focuses on an