Importance of Essay Structure
You have heaps of compliments on your unique style of writing. For sure, you are born with it, but writing is a skill that is developed with practice. Recently, you have set an ambitious plan to be a pro at essays. Now, you need lots of patience and practice to get to professional heights and give final touches to your style. You want to speculate, interpret, analyze, and examine facts and ideas at the highest level of proficiency. It is outstanding that you have multiple thoughts and you know for sure what to say to impress your readers. Now, you have brainstormed bright ideas and the only thing you have to do is to present them so that the readers were not confused. How do you know that your essay is well organized? Let us provide you with valuable insights on how to strive perfection and what to focus on when it goes about the right essay format.
Tips on Basic Essay Structure
Typically, essay writing does not require any section headings, and it is enough to ensure good flow of ideas and availability of several paragraphs to let a good essay look structured carefully. Mostly, you decide how to organize the content in your academic text, but there is a basic pattern of essay writing structure which can help you get started on your way to flawless writing.
There are three main parts in every essay:
- Introduction
- Body
- Conclusion
Although an essay requires no headings, generally accepted requirements touch upon the title page and the reference list usually written as essay headings. We recommend checking the task instructions every time you need any further details of a particular assignment.
Part 1. Introduction
There is no universal set of demands to the content in the essay introductions. In some essays, you will have to provide sufficient details to present the context and background, while others need none of that.
The key purpose of an introduction covers the following three aspects:
- setting the scene
- informing the audience about the essential details and reasons why they need to know that
- letting the readers know what to expect
An introduction in a standard essay structure is supposed to comprise five elements:
- a hook to get the readers engaged
- a statement of the context and background for the chosen topic
- explanation of relevant terms
- review of the topic, main points, ideas, models, arguments, and theoretical statements which require further evidence
- a thesis statement with the key aims and points to prove
NB: Do not give obvious facts that the readers know about in an introductory part.
Which of the sentences would be more interesting for you to read?
Shakespeare’s Hamlet raises a lot of important issues.
There is probably no one in the world literature who managed to describe feigned madness and suffering of a person who seeks revenge and reflects over life and death issues better than Shakespeare in his Hamlet.
The answer is evident.
Part 2. Paragraphs of the Main Body
No matter whether you are working on an mla format essay or an apa format essay, you need to organize the body of your writing into paragraphs. It is important to make sure that each paragraph touches only upon one of the chosen aspects. After that, it is crucial to link the paragraphs so that they looked like a coherent whole. There is no universal template for a college essay format, but you should keep to the following order of ideas in every paragraph:
- Topic statement
The topic statement or the theme of the essay informs the readers about the main points of the following paragraph. It either starts a new topic or gives a different perspective on the same one following on from the previous part with additional details.
- Final sentence
The readers should understand whether this paragraph has analyzed the point in full or it will be further interpreted in the next one.
Part 3. Conclusion
The students often forget about one of the main rules of writing in argumentative essay format, persuasive essay format, or any type of assignments. The final paragraph cannot cover any new details.
The key functions of the conclusion are the following:
- To let the readers remember about the main purpose of the essay
- To give evident reference to the topic and the title of the essay
- To highlight how the answer was found
Typically, there is no need to write more than a single paragraph in a short essay format. If the last paragraph draws together all the main essay elements and highlights the most important ones, it can be stated that the conclusion is effective.
the number and name of your course, and a date on a different line each. Do not forget about double spacing and starting this header on page one with a flush in the left margin. Center the title without any underlining, italicizing, or making the letters bold. It is always valuable to find a perfect mla format example and try to follow it, using your original ideas and individual approaches to covering the topic. Your mla format essay will be flawless if you make use of our suggested tools and guides to help you out.
NB: Help your essay flow with a carefully planned outline. Put down all the ideas you have decided to use in your writing. Put them in order and identify which of the ideas you will use in every body paragraph. That will help you get a great topic sentence for the parts of the essay body and restrict the number of covered aspects not to go over the top.
Essays mostly follow a similar structure, and your primary task is to use it with the maximum benefit for yourself. Your professor grades the writing assignments to evaluate the scope of your critical thinking and ability to demonstrate it in the form of academic writing.
Ask yourself these questions:
- Does your introduction state a clear argument?
- Have you managed to analyze all the aspects you have mentioned in the first paragraph?
- Can the readers see that your argument is supported with the evidence?
- Are the paragraphs of your essay linked together? Are transitions smooth? Will the readers feel at ease, reading the text?
Be honest, answering the questions and you will be able to assess the overall structure of your essay before your professor actually grades it.
