Essay writing is a skill vital to academic success at all levels. It is one of the ways in which the intelligentsia express their thoughts and ideas and communicate with the academic community.
Most professors and instructors write publication-worthy essays at a professional level and therefore have high standards for their students’ writing. Also, essay writing is a useful practice that allows students to hone their writing skills and serves as a foundation for longer, more complex forms of writing.
Very often, students fail to understand the expectations of college-level essay writing and settle for less-than-stellar grades. One of these expectations is an effective and appropriate essay structure that presents ideas in a clear, concise, and logical manner.
A well-structured essay consists of a coherent set of ideas successfully molded into an articulate, formal argument supported by logic and evidence. And since essays are linear – they present only one idea at a time – by default, each idea must be expressed in a lucid and organized manner.
Your essay writing skills can be dramatically improved simply by learning how to structure academic essays correctly. The following is a definitive guide to writing a well-structured essay.
Understanding Essay Structure
A good essay has three basic components: an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. The opening paragraph consists of a detailed thesis statement. It is followed by a body of paragraphs, each paragraph presenting a single idea through a clear topic sentence along with 2 or more supporting sentences. The conclusion summarizes the major ideas presented in the essay. This format is critical for an essay’s success – imagine an essay that begins with the body paragraphs, followed by the introduction and a conclusion. The flawed logic of such an essay would make it impossible to read or understand.
1. How to Write an Introduction
While every sentence and every paragraph of an essay is important, the introductory paragraph is crucial. Many professors start evaluating your work as soon as they begin reading it. The introduction is enough to create an impression about whether your essay is interesting or dull, strong or weak, effective or ineffective. Obviously, you want it to be just right and as close to perfection as possible.
The introduction begins with a “hook” that will catch your reader’s attention and draw them in, hopefully motivating them to keep reading. The next few sentences build up to the topic of your essay and lead to the thesis statement, which announces the purpose of your writing. This can be followed by a few more sentences that explain or expand upon the thesis statement. Make sure you clearly mention the aims or goals you hope to accomplish through the essay and briefly mention some of the main points you will be setting forth in the body of the essay. This offers an overview of the entire argument and proves that you have carefully thought it through.
It is unnecessary to explore your key points in detail in the introduction, since you will be doing so later on. The reader should be able to get a thumbnail picture of the essay – the subject and how you intend to support or explain your main argument – just by reading the introduction.
2. How to Write Body Paragraphs
The paragraphs that follow the introduction and form the main bulk of the essay are referred to as the “body” of the essay.
Depending on the essay’s style and purpose, each paragraph is generally expected to be between 2-8 sentences in length. The size of the average paragraph in academic writing tends to be about 8-10 sentences. This is so because the author must back up their points with evidence before reaching a conclusion, thus requiring a greater amount of writing. Business writing, on the other hand, tends to have shorter paragraphs – usually 4-5 sentences in length – because it is expected to be as concise as possible.
The body paragraphs present the key points of the paper along with the relevant information and research data that supports the thesis. Each paragraph should contain one idea that is introduced by a topic sentence and supported by subsequent sentences. And each sentence in a body paragraph must link back to the topic sentence and add more information to it. A common mistake made by many novice writers is presenting multiple ideas in a single paragraph. This undermines the structure of the argument and confuses readers to the detriment of the essay as a whole.
3. How to Write a Conclusion
The conclusion is the final part of the essay structure. It is essentially a summary of the ideas presented in the introduction and the body paragraphs. Another important function of the conclusion is to demonstrate how the ideas stated in the introduction and the body paragraphs relate to the general thesis of the essay. The conclusion usually begins with a brief and is then followed by a one-sentence summary of the thesis and the supporting evidence. The ensuing sentences gradually expand the scope of the argument, within the context of the discussion, taking into account the evidence presented in the body of the essay. The last sentence associates the essay topic with the broader interests of readers or areas of further study.
A well-written conclusion often starts with connecting phrases such as “as we/you can see,” “in conclusion,” “summing up,” “therefore,” etc. Connecting phrases are used to link the conclusive paragraph with the ideas put forth in the essay. Depending on the subject and the overall length of the essay as well as the professor’s instructions, the length of a conclusion can vary from one paragraph to one page.
4. How to Address Counter Arguments
A well-structured essay is expected to strictly abide by the “introduction – body paragraphs – conclusion” format. However, the author does have the flexibility to include exceptions, limitations, or counter arguments to the main argument or ideas in the essay. These can be summed up in one or two paragraphs before the conclusion but should find no place in the introduction, as they would make the thesis statement far too convoluted. Counter arguments are nonetheless important because they balance the main argument and demonstrate that the author has examined the topic thoroughly.
Beginning Your Essay
Quite often, students have a solid grasp of essay structure but find it difficult to actually begin structuring their essay.
If you don’t feel confident enough to go through the writing process in a linear fashion, it is recommended that you do the body paragraphs first. Since each body paragraph contains one idea, starting here will give you a better understanding of what your key ideas are. This will make it fairly easy to form a thesis statement followed by the introduction and conclusion.
The Post-Writing Phase
Reviewing your well-structured essay is an important part of the writing process. It takes place in the post-writing phase and involves putting your essay aside for a couple of hours or a day and coming back to review it. Read through each paragraph to see if your points make sense and if you have articulated them clearly. Each paragraph must be relevant to the thesis and should relate to the main argument; if it has strayed, a rewrite or omission might be in order.
To sum up, a well-structured essay begins with a clear thesis, is followed by logical body paragraphs, and ends with a meaningful conclusion that summarizes the whole. Planning your essay with the above structure in mind will enhance your critical thinking and communication skills and help you achieve better grades.
