What is an essay?
An essay is a piece of writing that methodically analyses and evaluates a topic or issue. Fundamentally, an essay is designed to get your academic opinion on a particular matter.
Many students get confused about the word 'opinion' in academic writing, and think that academic writing should just stick to reporting the facts and forget about opinion altogether. However, there are important differences between an academic opinion and a personal opinion, and it's important to grasp these when you're putting together an essay: