Style in an essay is nothing more than the way the writer puts sentences together. Essays, in general, aim at offering useful information on certain topics, therefore the writing style attempts at being objective and well-structured. When the writer, however, is not confident about the subject or how to phrase his argument, uncertainty, most of the times, will leak into the essay in the form of wordiness. Wordiness – when the writer uses more words than necessary to explain one point or when the writing is dotted by an excessive number of rambling sentences – often leaves the reader confused, which is an issue particularly detrimental in case the essay is a school assignment and an instructor will grade it.
The writing style of an essay often is conservative, although this is a matter of adapting the writing to its proper readership. Conservative, in this case, means that the writer avoids writing in a conversational tone and is aware that people from different academic backgrounds, cultures and of different opinions could read the essay. A conservative writing style, therefore, avoids contractions. Contractions convey informal speech, which to some extent, takes away the credibility of the essay. Essays present well-researched opinions; consequently, writing it in a conversational style minimizes its intellectual importance.
Essays always aim toward a community of readers. When writers start writing the essay, they shape their arguments in the tone that best fits the readers they are aiming toward. The way to best understand this sense of tone in writing, which can be formal, informal and many others, is to pay attention to the way people speak under different circumstances. Talking with an academic instructor, for instance, is distinct compared to talking with friends at the beach. The tone of essays, then, adjusts to the readership the writer is aiming toward to effectively reach these readers. Despite differences in readership, the tone in essays is always helpful.
The tone in essays is as straightforward as possible. Although essays are intellectual literary works, "intellectual" does not mean that the writing tone should be obscure. If the reader is not able to understand the phrasing and word choice of the author, the essay will lose its communicative goal. Keeping a straightforward tone not only benefits the readers, but it also helps the writer during the writing process. When writers are trying to sound intelligent, they often get lost within sophisticated wording and erudite phrasing, which affects the organization of the essay. Essays, then, focus on providing intelligent arguments in a simple manner, rather than on embellishing sentences.