12 Writing Across the Curriculum

In university you will be writing something in nearly every course that you take. This page will help you differentiate the types of essays and papers that may be required by university assignments.

Your assignment will generally be a piece of writing on a selected topic and is traditionally broken down into formal and informal. Each discipline has their own requirements for structuring academic essay formats that will be specific to the discipline. This page looks at some of the types and categories that you may encounter, but encourages you to clarify with your instructor what is needed for specific assignments.

Major Writing Categories Include:

Narrative

In this form the writer is telling a story about a real-life experience and the particular event(s) that took place. Narration writings include personal essays, short stories, novels, poetry, and reflections.

Descriptive

You will paint a picture through your use of vivid language to describe a person, place, or event so that the reader can picture the topic clearly in his/her mind. Fiction and poetry often use large amounts of descriptive writing.

Expository

This type of essay presents an overview or a selection of different views but does not strongly argue for one particular position. Here the writer uses proven facts to inform or explain to the reader about a process, a set of rules, the benefits of an activity, etc. This type is often used in business or technical writing, process writing, compare and/or contrast essays, reaction essays, response essays, and often research-based essays.

Argumentative / Persuasive

This type of essay or paper attempt to persuade by providing information from research on a topic, and a reasoned argument to convince the reader of the validity of this point of view. Writing an argument essay involves incorporating critical thinking and extending the research information with the writer’s interpretation as supported by the research.

Other Forms

There are other forms of essays that are specific to various disciplines such as: cause and effect, classification and division, compare and contrast, dialectic, journalistic, case studies, economic essays, and other logical structures.

In all cases for university papers, the writing to be done will be guided by the course assignment given to the writer. When you are unsure, it is time to review the syllabus, the assignment, and then talk to the instructor for clarity on the type of writing and research that you need to do.

Starting early in the semester for major papers will make this process both efficient and productive.