This article will not only explain what a satire essay is, but provide you a tutorial or guide on how to write this type of essay as well as examples.
As the name suggests, this essay uses satire to bring attention to an issue or subject. In our opinion, satirical essays are the most difficult type of essays that students will be asked to tackle in their academic careers. In them, students are not only expected to demonstrate a high level of subject-area and content knowledge, but also be able to employ humor to highlight the absurdities of a real life event or situation. While satirical essays use humor, not all types of humor are appropriate for them. Moreover, they are written in a serious tone, suggesting that the author actually intends the reader to take the suggestions or information contained within the essay seriously.
Fortunately, while initially mastering the writing style needed for a successful satirical essay is difficult, once you have learned how to successfully incorporate humor, hyperbole, and irony into your essays, writing satirically can not only be easy, but also fun.
Generally, before you begin any writing assignment, it is important to understand the assignment. Have you been asked to satirize a particular topic or a particular area of culture? How long should your essay be? Are there any technical requirement that you need to know in order to complete your paper? What style should govern your format choices? Do you need to write things in the third person?
You also need to understand satire writing. If you have never read a satirical essay, a great place to start is with Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal, which is widely recognized as one of the best satirical essays. The Onion is probably the best well-known modern satire site, where you can find satirical essays on modern political topics.
With satire, you may be able to write the essay from the perspective of a first-narrator other than yourself. This opens up entire avenues of possibilities and lets you bring cultural and social elements into essays about other topics. For example, we are writing this article in the wake of Trump’s leaked Access Hollywood tapes, which contained Trump saying things broadly considered demeaning to women. A response to that response is a meme suggesting that women should not be able to say they are offended by his words because of the success of author E.L. James’ Fifty Shades of Gray trilogy, which depicts a romantic (or at least sexual) relationship between a very controlling male and a female who willingly submits to him. A timely satirical essay would address the issue from the perspective of James’ main male character in that series, Christian Grey. The Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte was recently in trouble for saying he had been robbed, when the evidence seems to support that he was the actual wrong-doer. Writing your essay from the perspective of Ryan Lochte giving advice to Kim Kardashian-West after her recent robbery in Paris would be another way to effectively use a third-person narrator to increase the amount of satire in your work.
“The Onion” satire news website
While you can write a satirical essay on almost any topic, they are best-suited to major political or cultural events. Therefore, appropriate topics for satirical essays can change frequently, to reflect political, social, and cultural concerns. Some ideas for satirical topics would be:
Still unsure of a topic? See our complete list of satirical essay topics.
Brainstorming can be an effective tool in any type of essay writing situation, but it can play a special role in helping plan a satirical essay. While some essay formats lend themselves to outlines in the initial stages of planning, other methods work well in satire. One tool that we like is the use of the bubble map. A simple tool that can be used at or above the elementary school level, the bubble map basically encourages word association with your topic or topics. They do not necessarily have to be elements you consider satirical, but may just be things that you associate with a particular topic. For example, if you write a bubble map about Donald Trump, you may branch out from it with words like: businessman, married, father, divorced, adulterer, The Apprentice, billionaire, bombastic, orange, Miss USA/ Miss Universe, real estate, Home Alone, and New York City. See how that map simply brings up elements that are associated with Trump. A descriptive essay about a dog might contain a word in the middle, like the dog’s name. The words in the bubbles do not have to be the words you choose to use in your essay, but they should help you flesh out an issue and decide how to approach it satirically.
Once you have decided on the topic of your descriptive essay, then you need to write your thesis statement. A thesis statement is a short one or two-sentence statement that gives the reader the goal of your paper and tells them how you are going to achieve that goal. The structure of your thesis statement does not change. However, the plausibility of your thesis statement can be very different in a satirical essay than it would if you were actually proposing a genuine idea.
Some example thesis statements for satirical essays could be:
–The United States should ban the burka because permitting women to wear it threatens the religious freedom of Christians, does not respect women’s rights to bodily autonomy, and sexualizes the female body.
-In order to ensure that your jewelry is safe, you should be inconspicuous about it, store valuable jewelry in a vault or safety deposit box, and never travel with more jewelry than you can wear at one time. (Author: Kim Kardashian-West).
-Building a quality marriage is simple: select your second wife while married to your first, have a number of children together before you get married, and smoke a lot of marijuana. (Author: Brad Pitt).
As the above examples highlight, who is writing the essay can, and often is, one of the most satirical elements of the essay. The intended audience can be part of the satire, as well. Jimmy Carter writing Donald Trump a letter that says he needs to loosen up and not worry so much about offending women would increase the satire because of the reputations both men have. Bill Clinton sending Barack Obama a letter on how to be a better spouse while in office would also have that double-irony factor, since Obama is widely regarded as an excellent husband, while Bill Clinton had an affair in office. Miley Cyrus telling one of the Duggar girls that she was dressed provocatively, Madonna criticizing Lady Gaga for publicity stunts, or Pete Rose criticizing Tom Brady would all utilize this type of double-satire approach.
The vast majority of satirical essays draw directly from current events. You may not actually need to cite from these sources when writing your essay, but you will want to be aware of the actual events and issues surrounding a situation. Ironically, you will need to be very aware of which news sites are, themselves, satire. It can be difficult to tell in the modern political context. Therefore, you want to choose an unbiased, academically reliable sources for your information.
The general rule is to use sources that are less than three years old and that come from reputable sources such as academic publications, newspapers, magazines, and .org or .com websites. Sources older than three years are acceptable, but if there have been changes to the information in the intervening period, you want to make the reader aware of those changes.
Furthermore, you may have heard not to use some sources like Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Britannica in your writing. This is good advice; they are not considered to be reputable, scholarly sources. However, do not let that ban keep you from using them when first researching your topic. Both of those resources can provide a great overview of a topic, and h; these resources can actually provide you with excellent information and a list of references you can explore for additional research. Google Scholar’s search engine, which you can limit to specific types of academic or scholarly articles, can also help you find high-quality scholarly or academic writing.
Generic news websites are an additional resource for satirical essays. CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, the major networks and local news stations are all good sources for news. However, the news-dedicated channels also have shows that are not news shows, but political and social commentary. Those shows may present information in a biased manner or present information that is simply not true. You need to be aware of this potential bias when choosing sources.
If you do choose to incorporate sources into your satirical essay, you will want to cite academic sources to back up any assertions you make about a particular leadership style. If you are writing an essay that contains actual figures, dates, or lesser-known facts, you are going to want to cite your sources. You may be instructed which style or format to use, or you may be permitted to choose which format. The three most frequently used academic writing styles for undergraduate level writing are Modern Language Association (MLA), Chicago Manual of Style (also known as Turabian) and American Psychological Association (APA). Unless your instructions specify which format to use, choose the one you find easiest to use or the one that is most appropriate for your subject area. You can use our citation generator and citation guideline article to help ensure your work conforms to your selected style.
APA Style:
In-text Citation:
“Every 2 minutes an American is sexually assaulted” (RAINN, 2016).
Source Format for References:
RAINN. (2016). Victims of sexual violence: statistics. Retrieved September 30, 2016 from
RAINN website: https://www.rainn.org/statistics/victims-sexual-violence
MLA Style:
In-text Citation:
Estimates of the number of women raped each year vary from 300,000 to 1.3 million (Chemaly).
Source Format for Works Cites/Bibliography:
Chemaly, S. “50 Actual Facts About Rape.” The Huffington Post. October 26, 2012. Web, 30
September 2015. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/soraya-chemaly/50-facts-rape_b_2019338.html>.
Chicago Style:
“Every 2 minutes an American is sexually assaulted” (RAINN 2016, n.p.).
Source Format for References:
RAINN. “Victims of Sexual Violence: Statistics. Accessed September 30, 2016.
https://www.rainn.org/statistics/victims-sexual-violence
Many people learn by example. Reading one of our sample essays not only introduces you to satirical writing, but can also show you how to correctly format an essay in a particular style. Two of our most popular satirical essays are available in the links below:
Satire in Huckleberry Finn Essay
Satire on Terrorism and the TSA
Hopefully, after reading this article and the example essays, you are feeling more confident about understanding and writing a satire essay. However, we know that it can still be very challenging to write one. From picking a topic, to choosing things that seem outrageous, to actually writing the essay; all of it can be overwhelming. We are here to help. Our tutors can help students at any stage in the writing process, whether it is brainstorming ideas or writing a custom example of a satirical essay on your chosen topic. If you want to learn more about this very popular student assistance program, click here.
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