Speculative essay definition

Speculative essays are nonfiction works aimed at hypothesizing on the future circumstances surrounding a given subject. These works are considered nonfiction due their speculations being based on scientific data or other hard evidence rather than notions that may have little to no basis in reality.

As one might expect from the nature of this sort of writing, speculative essayists frequently employ the future tense of verbs in an effort to display their claims as vivid realities rather than vague possibilities.

In order to keep audiences more engaged and focused, speculative essays are often broken into subdivisions and typically feature prominent use of figurative language, which identifies the use of words in figures of speech to convey meanings different from their usual definitions. To unlock this lesson you must be a Study.com Member.