The Structure of an Essay Explained in Plain English
To pursue the goal of delivering the most engaging and persuasive paper, students come up with essay structures of unimaginable appearance and content. But such approach – no matter how creative – is entirely wrong.
You see, the academic world is steady in terms of written assignments no matter what happens. The truth is, you might be a successful blogger with gazillions follows digging your posts and fresh structure or contents of your messages, but that isn’t what happens in school or college.
Teachers, professors and all kinds of instructors like their students following the writing rules established many years ago. That’s why, the work consisting of Introduction, Main Body and Conclusion is the formula for the win no matter how dull, old-fashioned and boring it seems.
How to structure an essay
All in all, writing 5 paragraphs is the keystone to any short composition you’re about to deliver. Expository, argumentative, persuasive and analytical – all essays in the framework of the educational system are written in one long-ago-established key. Three parts (Introduction, Body, Conclusion) and five paragraphs. Like Bonnie and Clyde, like Tyrion Lannister and trouble, essay writing structure is always accompanied by all the same heroes we’ve learnt about in junior school.
In case it stands a major issue for you, don’t bother and flow by the stream. After all, it’s just another assignment you have to complete to finish off the course and graduate. Leave all the creative efforts and leaps of imagination for blogging, artistic writing and other areas there your aspirations will be duly rewarded.
Essay paragraph structure
Let’s start with your Introduction. It’s a relatively short one-paragraph part of your paper which consists of three major items:
- As a rule, you have 10 seconds to captivate your readers and show them your essay is worth spending time on. These first 10 seconds are also the time determining whether audience treats your paper in a positive key or as ‘yet another paper’ needed to be checked;
- THESIS STATEMENT. Any essay must feature a strong, commanding argument containing your claim regarding essay’s topic and subject under analysis. A good thesis statement takes as much time to elaborate on thinking of an engaging title as looking up proper pieces of evidence to be used in Main Body later on;
- One sentence which connects your introduction to the main body, erecting a small bridge between the two most influential parts of a paper.
As far as 5 paragraph essay structure goes, the main body is the focal point of your essay. All in all, the main body takes 3 paragraphs out of 5 allowed to use, which makes it the lengthiest part of your work. However, all three paragraphs have equal structure:
- TOPIC SENTENCE. The center of a body paragraph, a topic sentence makes a claim proving your point of view, which is then supported by available pieces of evidence and quotes;
- Each claim must be backed up by relevant proof showing your speculations about a certain aspect are right; when using quotes for evidence, proper referencing (see APA or MLA styles) must be applied correctly;
- To move on from body paragraph one to paragraph two and then to body paragraph three, a bridge in a form of a short sentence or two is used.
An excellent project divides information and presents it in a form accessible for readers. In its turn, conclusion adds a certain feeling of closure to your paper, ends up a story with a twist, suggests food for thoughts, offers additional sources for readers to consult if they’re interested in a topic more than a format of an essay can provide, etc. As you see, conclusion isn’t just ‘restating a thesis statement with some other words’.
Consulting a structure of essay online (and for free)
Essay structure, outline hints, formatting guidelines and citing tips might be all found in reference samples available for free at our site. Simply download a sample paper of your type and check out how proper essays, courseworks or compositions have to be written right. Since you will be using the papers for reference needs, it’s absolutely safe and legit to consult already written papers to make your own academia masterpieces live up to the title. Don’t hesitate to get a free sample paper or call our 7/24 Support hotline!
