Essay Styles
Testing and Learning Centre- Fanshawe College of Applied Arts & Technology
AN ESSAY OF EXTENDED DEFINITION
What is Love?
Everybody has felt it at one time or another, be it for a
person, pet, or even a non-living object. That feeling is love.
Love is felt in different intensities; it may consume your whole
being, or perhaps it’s just a little crush. Some people search
for what seem their whole lifetimes for love, whereas others
may seem to fall in and out of love on a regular basis. Of
course, here we are talking about people. We can love many
things, but the love between two people is unique and special.
Love is rarely defined because everyone experiences it
differently. What one person thinks is love, another may think
is infatuation or vice versa. How does one know he or she is
in love? How is it possible to distinguish between the love of
romance and the love shared between friends? In order to
understand love, we need to first understand the two major
types of love: romantic love and friendship love.
People often define romantic love based on its
difference from friendship love. Would you kiss your friend?
Perhaps, but it is not necessarily the things you do with your
romantic partner that makes your love romantic. Romantic
love is often confused with infatuation because it is so all-
consuming. Romantic lovers are usually on each other’s
minds. A person may make decisions based on his or her
romantic partner, such as whether or not to move to a different
province for a job and leave his or her partner behind. People
make large life decisions based on their romantic partners
because they can’t imagine life without those people.
Romantic love guides a person’s mind and can sometimes
cloud it as to what the right decision may be. After all,
romantic love can be extremely selfless.
The famous playwright, William Shakespeare, one of the
greatest advocates for romantic love, alludes to romantic love
as being like drunkenness in his play The Tempest. Like too
much alcohol or happy drugs, romantic love takes over all
senses in a person, and somewhat changes his or her outlook.
A person in love romantically is often said to have a “perma-
smile” and is difficult to make unhappy. It is no wonder that
most people seek out romantic love, rather than be content
with the simple love shared between friends.
Introduction (Leads
reader into the essay by
example. Note that it is
divided into two
paragraphs because of the
natural shift)
Thesis statement
(Uses
classification to define
the subject)
Paragraph One (Outlines
the first category using
example to define)
Paragraph Two
(Continues with category
one)
