Patterns of Essay Writing

In our Academic life or Professional life, or even in our life in general, we often need to write some essays as in writing reports, proposals, or general essays on general topics. While we have so many ways of writing essays, it is very important for us to know some of the basic ways of writing essays, especially in Academic Life and Professional.

Keeping that in mind, let us look at the very important 'FOUR PATTERNS OF ESSAY WRITING.'

1. Classification Pattern

2. Compare and Contrast Pattern

3. Cause and Effect Pattern

4. Problem - Solution Pattern

Let us look each of these.....

1. Classification Pattern:

    

    - In this pattern of writing we classify or categorise or organise or arrange or divide things/ subject matters into classes, groups or categories based on various aspects. 

    

    - For example; We can classify Films/ Movies into different genres like: Action Movies, Comedy Movies, Horror Movies, Thrillers, Historicals, Mythological, Romantic, Musicals, Rom-coms, Adventures, Scientific Fiction, Historical Fiction etc.

Find more about this CLASSIFICATION PATTERN here in this link: Classification Patter of Writing Essays

2. Compare and Contrast Pattern:

    

    - In this pattern of writing we do two important things: 

        a. Compare - Find similarities

        b. Contrast - Find differences

    

    - For example; We can compare and contrast between Traditional Education/ Offline Education and Online Education. 

    - Compare:     Both of these methods can be used by students                                 or learners to learn and get educated.

                            Both have syllabus and curriculum

                            

                            Both have teachers

                            Both have tests/ exams to analyse the learning                                by the students/ learners

    -  Contrast:    For Traditional Education/ Offline Education we need to travel to a particular place like school, college, university etc., whereas for Online Education, you don't need to travel anywhere, you can learn online from digital devices like mobile phones, laptops from the comfort of the home.

For online education, we need to have digital devices like mobile phones, laptops and also an internet connection but for traditional offline education, we don't need them.

This Compare and Contrast Method is useful for us to:

- Analyse and evaluate two subjects/ concepts/ things

- To help us decide which is better and which is not

- To help us persuade others by showing them the realities of two different concepts/ subjects/ things etc.

Some Transitional words/ phrases/ expressions used for comparison (Similarities):

  - in the same way, and, also, in addition, like; similarly; as well as, both, neither each of, just as...so, too, the same as...

Some Transitional words/ phrases/ expressions used for contrast (Differences):

        -  Although; whereas, But, however, Conversely, on the other hand, in contrast; while, yet; unlike  

    

Find more about this COMPARE and CONTRAST PATTERN here in this link: Compare and Contrast Patter of Writing Essays 

3. Cause and Effect Pattern

     In this world, there is a reason (cause) for everything that happens (effect). Some people call this as ‘Butterfly Effect.’ The butterfly flickers its wings, and something happens elsewhere in the world. Believe it or not, it is a fact.

Cause and Effect Pattern of Essay Writing is the one where we explain in detail about why (Cause=Reason) something has happened (Effect=Result) in a particular way.

This pattern basically talks about why something happens, what causes it, what are the actual or possible reasons, and what are the effects, or the results, and how it is related to something else.

We can follow these steps while writing a cause and effect essay:

1. Differentiate between cause and effect.

2. To determine the cause, ask - "Why did this happen?"

3. To identify the effect, ask - "What happened because of this?"

The following is an example of one cause producing one effect:

    Many children are obese nowadays and the prime reasons for this obesity amongst them are fast-food culture, videogames, and no or minimal physical activity, and improper sleep cycles.

(In this example the CAUSES are many, so sometimes a single effect can be a result of multiple causes too)

Ø  CAUSE: Fast-food culture, videogames, and no or minimal physical activity, improper sleep cycles

Ø  EFFECT: Obesity amongst children

    Use appropriate transitional words/ phrases.

To blend details smoothly in the cause and effect essays, use the transitional words and phrases such as:

For causes:

because, due to, one cause is, another is, since, on account of, for that reason, etc.

For Effects:

consequently, as a result, thus, resulted in, one result is, another is, therefore, hence, thus, etc.

Find more on ‘Cause and Effect Pattern of Writing’ here: 

Cause and Effect Pattern of Writing Explained

 

4. Problem Solution Pattern of Writing

 

As the title clearly states, this pattern of writing is one in which we first find a problem and come up with solutions or possible solutions.

This pattern is used as a PERSUASIVE WRITING where the writer is trying to explain his/ her reader to influence and to convince to the idea/ concept for a problem and for the possible solution to it.

This pattern can have a compelling effect on the reader to change, act, or alter behaviours, opinions by clearly stating that there is a definite problem exists in the current behaviour or opinion and so it has to be changed as explained in the solution.

This pattern has two sections. One is the Problem and the second is the Solution for the problem.

For example:

Obesity amongst college students in India is a very serious problem these days. (Problem)

There are many reasons for obesity among college students like unhealthy eating, fast-food culture, minimal physical activity, videogames and not playing outside, using vehicles for even short distances, no diet and no exercise etc. (Trying find the reasons for the problem)

The possible solutions for this problem are – changing food habits to healthy homemade food, avoiding fast-food, maintaining diet, working out at home or gym and playing games or sports outside rather than videogames, walking for shorter distances rather than going on vehicles etc.

 

Transitional words/ phrases to be used in this pattern:

Problem:      a problem is, one problem is, the causes for this problem to occur are, one reason is, the reasons for the problem to arise are, the main problem is, the next problem/ reason is etc.

Solution:      a possible solution is, the solutions for this problem can be/ would be/ the one answer for this problem is, if this is implemented, if these measures are taken, if these are followed, a problem can be solved by these steps etc.

 

Find more on ‘Problem Solution Pattern of Writing’ here: 

Problem Solution Pattern of Writing Explained