Difference Between Essay and Composition

Essay vs Composition

Essay and Composition are two words that seem to be confused due to the closeness in their meanings. Strictly speaking there is a lot of difference between an essay and a composition.

An essay is a literary form based on the character of a person or a thing. It can be a descriptive narration of an event, preferably a historical event too. You can write essays on the imagery in Shakespeare’s works, spring season, on becoming a doctor and the like. On the other hand a composition is any literary piece including an essay. This is the main difference between essay and composition.

Composition is the way in which any given language is used and applied in the formation of a literary piece such as poetry, prose, drama, short story, novel and free verse to mention a few. Each one of the forms mentioned above is a kind of composition. Essay too is a composition. In other words it can be said that essay too can be considered a form of literature or literary form although many critics may not agree with the idea.

A composition is formed by the implementation of rules and regulations needed for the creation of the particular literary form. For example the composition of poetry needs the knowledge of prosody and imagery. Prosody is the knowledge about metrical composition. It deals with the study of various meters employed in poetry. Imagery is rhetorical in nature.

In the same way composition of prose like a novel or a short story needs the knowledge about writing in prose style. The knowledge of prosody is not necessary in the composition of prose. At the same time you need to be good in narration when you compose prose. Essay is mostly descriptive in nature. It describes any given topic or event in a very descriptive manner.