From the introduction to this learning resource on writing for EAP students:
"If you are studying in a British university you will be required to do a large amount of writing, whatever your subject. Some people distinguish between "essays" and "reports", and you may also know some other names for written assignments. However, sometimes the same name is used for very different types of assignment, and different names are used for very similar types of assignment.
Some of these assignments are more common in some disciplines than in others. For example, in business Case Studies are very common, in law Problem Questions are very common, while in history and philosophy Essays are very common.
Three thousand examples of proficient British university assignments from more than 30 disciplines, such as business, engineering, law, biology, sociology and history have been collected. These form the BAWE corpus. By analysing these assignments 13 basic Genre Families of student writing can be identified and each one has been given a specific name.
The 13 Genre Families are:
Explanations
Exercises
Literature Surveys
Methodology
Recounts
Research Reports
Essays
Critiques
Event Recounts
Public Engagement
Case Studies
Design Specifications
Problem Questions
Proposals
Via
Steve Kirk,
Shona Whyte