Sec 4 EL Essay Choices:

Ok then, here's my response to the question on the tag - what essay should the sec 4 student attempt for EL essay? I will not be able to advise you as to what you should do personally, unless I see your writing, and find out from you what your reading and writing habits are thus far. You must come to me or your EL teacher (if it's not me) for personal consultation as to this. That is the only meaningful way for good advice. However, there are some thoughts you should consider:

First and of utmost importance, I firmly believe that you should write in the style that you feel most comfortable in - that is, if you have always felt comfortable READING AND WRITING expositions/arguments, then you should do that; conversely, if you have always preferred to read and write descriptive/personal-reflective-descriptive, then do that. The basic premise is that you will be effective at a style and genre that you are CONSTANTLY exposed to and using.

Second, in order to do well in exposition/argument, you must be highly competent in 1) Logic, 2) Organisation, 3) Contents - having read widely 4) Language and relevant terminology/vocabulary. The Argument is the highest form of intellectual discourse, and attempted by the best brains in the nation. So, you must be in constant reading, thinking and writing in that area if you want to do well in it.
[For the Exposition, the simplest is the One-word Discussion. Then, the average difficulty form is the statement Discursive, and the most difficult is the Argumentative essay.]

Third, it would be a misconception to imply that the descriptive would be easier. To be competent and ENGAGING in your descriptive writing, you should have 1) an eye for details for things around you, 2)personal perceptions and comments in response to your observations, 3) good synthesis skill of the 5 senses, 4) be witty or emotive in your expressions and comments and 5) good command of vocabulary and original expressions. This would also apply to the Personal-reflective too.

Finally, the narrative, which is essentially the telling of a story, might still seem the most palatable for most students, simply because most of them are reading stories and novels regularly. Furthermore, the narrative is simple enough for an O level student who is not too creative in story-telling to still be able to include interesing vocabulary and expressions into a stylistic telling of a simple tale with a twist. Note the key ideas here: vocab/expression - style - simple tale - twist. You just need to be effective (through practice) in the painting of moods and atmosphere, in the characterisation and dialogue, and in the development of the cllimax and resolution. Chances are that you will not easily run astray in the telling of a story as compared to becoming irrelevant or illogical, or even becoming overly simplistic and immature, in writing an argumentative.

That's bout my many cents worth on the merits/demerits/points-to-note regarding the different essay styles. You should ask yourself first as to what you prefer to read and write all the time. Then, you should keep practising on that genre/style. Practice in reading and writing. That will help perfect it. Read other authors' articles in the commentary and analysis pages of different newspapers online (new york times, bbc, washington post, straits times etc), and be atuned to the expository style of discussion and argument if you need to. Otherwise, learn from the reflective or narrative styles of the articles in the Life and lifestyle pages, and from novels. Finally. Always show your writing to your teacher for a quick brief comment. This is the most important aspect, getting that quick comment from your teacher. Not necessary that it's fully marked, but just a few comments on the most pertinent aspects for you to improve on will do wonders.

So, do that. See me or your teacher if you need more help.