In order to continue enjoying our site, we ask that you confirm your identity as a human. Thank you very much for your cooperation. Organizing ideas and information clearly and logically in an essay, so that readers will understand and be able to follow the writer's thinking, is an essential stage of the writing process, but one that often proves to be more difficult than it sounds. When people write, ideas tend to come out in whatever order they occur to the writer, and it's not always easy to turn a first effort into a cohesive, coherent order. Deciding what information belongs together, what should come first, second, etc., creating a logical flow from one idea or topic to another, all are part of organization. And these judgments can be hard to make. The organization of material will vary somewhat depending on the type of essay—its subject, whether it's a research or personal essay, how long it will be, etc. However, there are certain features which appear consistently in most types of expository writing and which can be followed as general guides for organizing essays. PARTS OF AN ESSAYMost essays, and many other kinds of writing, are divided into three basic sections: the introduction, the body, and the conclusion. Although the length and number of paragraphs for each section may vary widely from essay to essay, these three sections are relatively consistent in terms of purpose and the kinds of information they include. The Introduction The introduction has three main purposes:
An introductory paragraph may be shaped in a number of different ways, but one common shape is frequently used. Called the "funnel shape" because it goes from wide to narrow, this type of introduction looks like this: The thesis statement is always a statement of the most important point—the idea that the essay seeks to demonstrate or argue. It is a commitment that everything to follow will support that point of view. Some writers include in the thesis a preview of the main supporting points their essay will develop; others don't. Example of a Thesis with Preview: Until society recognizes the necessity of supporting working parents, and unless the attitudes of employers change, women will always face an uphill battle in successfully combining family and career responsibilities. Example of a Thesis without Preview: Women in the workplace face unfair pressures and attitudes that create difficult, perhaps even insurmountable, challenges. Beginning writers often find that including a preview in their thesis helps them stay on track as they develop each support paragraph. Use whichever version works best for you—as long as your thesis announces exactly where you stand. Whether you preview your supporting points in your thesis or not, be sure to express the supporting points clearly in subsequent paragraphs. The Body The body section expands, develops, and supports the central idea or thesis set forth in the introduction. The body of the essay is the writer's discussion of the subject, issues, and points presented in the introduction, developed through examples, explanations, details, and supporting arguments.
The length of the body section will depend on the number of subpoints, examples, or supporting arguments you will use. It will probably be divided into several paragraphs, each with its own main idea, related to the central idea or thesis. And like the essay overall, each supporting paragraph should be unified, developed, and coherent. The Conclusion The conclusion brings the essay to a close. It may restate the thesis or summarize the main points of the argument, but it probably shouldn't merely repeat language that has already been used. The conclusion may reflect on the importance of the subject in a wider context, or it may suggest some action, or even pose a further question. A conclusion may include any final thoughts stemming from the subject of a paper, but it should not raise any new points or arguments. ESSAY STRUCTUREIn the framework for the basic essay, each paragraph in the body of the essay is controlled by its own topic statement, which focuses on one aspect of the thesis. In other words, the thesis is the main idea and each topic statement treats one part of the main idea, as diagramed below:
Many types of writing follow some version of the basic shape described above. This shape is most obvious in the form of the traditional five-paragraph essay: a model for college writing in which the writer argues his or her viewpoint (thesis) on a topic and uses three reasons or subtopics to support that position. In the five-paragraph model, as illustrated below, the introductory paragraph mentions the three main points or subtopics, and each body paragraph begins with a topic sentence dealing with one of those main points. SAMPLE ESSAY USING THE FIVE-PARAGRAPH MODEL
Remember, this is a very simplistic model. It presents a basic idea of essay organization and may certainly be helpful in learning to structure an argument, but it should not be followed religiously as an ideal form. |