When people begin to write an article, whether it is a college assignment or simply personal writing, there always seems to be some type of stylistic choice or way of writing that they I prefer to do. Each different essay has its own merits depending on what you intend to write about, and each essay has several differences encountered when writing. This essay aims to define the narrative and descriptive essay. It will also compare and contrast each, as well as describe, compare, and contrast a narrative essay and a descriptive essay from our previous reading, addressing the structural components present in each, and finally indicating which type of essay I personally find superior. The essays I have chosen to compare are “How to Say Nothing in 500 Words” (Roberts, PM) and “Fish Cheeks” (Tan, A.), as well as serving to demonstrate why the descriptive style of writing is in my opinion superior to the narrative style. Personally, I think the descriptive essay is superior to the narrative essay because description seems to come more naturally to people than narrative writing and is a more effective way to persuade someone of your point of view. The first step in comparing and contrasting descriptive and narrative writing styles define each of these terms. Description (found in the descriptive writing style) is a writing pattern that can be defined as “painting pictures with words.” (Connell CM and Sole, K. Essentials of College Writing.) Essentially this means better mentally showing the reader what exactly you are describing to them as you write your essay. You want the reader to start thinking about exactly what you're telling them and form their mind... middle of the paper... Christmas dinner. “How to Say Nothing in 500 Words” (Roberts, PM) It is more of a narrative because its main purpose is to teach a lesson rather than tell a story. Just like the basic narrative essay and the descriptive essay, just because the two essays I chose to compare are written differently when it comes to choice of style, doesn't mean there aren't similarities. Both essays are written with a story to capture the reader's attention and make you feel a part of it. Both Robert's and Tan's stories tell of a struggle in the life of a teenager or college student. Robert's writes about a college student tasked with writing an assignment on a weekend when he would much rather go out and socialize, Tan writes about a teenager desperately trying to be accepted and liked by her crush. And finally, both are written with some sort of moral or lesson in mind