Introduction

Types
This section deals with the different types of essay that teachers can assign to students, and with some of the strategies students can adopt in planning and organising their answers to those essay questions or titles. Throughout Academic Grammar, we try to distinguish broadly between issues of "content" - the subject matter of your essay, and the intellectual aspects of grappling with the essay question - and issues of organisation.  The sub-sections we offer are:

Content:
• Exposition and Argumentation
• Essay-writing "styles"
• Discussion questions
Organization:
• Planning and Outlining an Essay

Functions
Unlike research reports and literature reviews, which are part of normal academic research practice, essays are set by teachers for their students, as both learning tasks for students, and as evidence - tests, if you like - of that learning. Most essay assignments test more than your knowledge about a subject - they are testing a combination of different intellectual and communicative abilities - e.g.: analytical,   interpretive, argumentative, organisational, communicative
See Essay writing "styles" for a fuller range of these different essay functions