Basic Essay Structure

Basic Essay Structure

Title: gives the reader a first glimpse at your topic and point of view. Should be a clear and complete statement of what you are about to discuss. Advanced writers can make the title interesting or even clever.

Grabber (optional): gets the reader’s attention and creates a favorable impression. Some grabbers include (1) generally accepted fact or opinion, (2) shocking fact or statistic, and (3 very brief anecdote.

Thesis sentence: defines the limits of your discussion and clearly states the argument you are going to support. May be a single statement or “three-part.” Location varies: may serve as a grabber, may follow the grabber, may be the last or next to last sentence in the intro paragraph.

Intro paragraph: has three or four sentences in addition to those discussed above. Its purpose is to introduce the topic, not to develop it. Because of its generic nature, the intro paragraph usually is not the place for documented material. One strategy is to include a sentence corresponding to each paragraph in the body of the paper.

Transition: creates a bridge between two ideas or sets of ideas. Comes between any two paragraphs, either at the end of one or at the beginning of the other. May be a word, a phrase, or a complete sentence.

Body paragraphs: usually 5-10 sentences, depending on the length and complexity of your sentences. Must include a topic sentence, which serves as a thesis statement for the paragraph. The topic sentence should refer back to the thesis. The ‘body’ of the body paragraph should provide specific examples to support the topic sentence. You need at least two examples to support a thesis.

            The number of your body paragraphs varies according to your topic and organization; however, English teachers originally envisioned the traditional 500-word essay as consisting of five paragraphs: an introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion. The order of your body paragraphs is extremely important. There should be a compelling principle for your body paragraphs to be arranged as they are, e.g. general-to-specific (or vice versa), high-to-low (or vice versa), cause-to-effect (or vice versa), etc.

            In a timed essay, it is usually advantageous to put your strongest points at the beginning because graders of these essays often form their opinions of the essay before they are finished reading it.

Concluding paragraph: an opportunity to go over your argument again. It is not a place to introduce new information or present a new thesis. The topic sentence of the concluding paragraph restates the thesis in different words.