Parts of an Essay

In the color-coded sections below, the various parts of an essay are laid out for you. Use this as a guide for crafting effective essays. There are many ways to put an essay together, but the suggestions I make here are applicable to writing in many subjects. Students in the past have appreciated this guide, but I do not mean for it to stifle your need or potential to experiment with other forms.

Beginning: (Generate interest, orient the audience) [1-2 paragraphs]

Reach out to your audience Start with a specific detail and open your reader's mind to an interesting idea. You could discuss a striking statement from an article or mix in an anecdote that sets the stage for your paper. Your audience needs something real to feel involved. Writing general or opinionated ideas will hide that you are a thinking person. At its most effective, "Reach out to your audience" will be the first paragraph of your paper. Prepare your audience In your second paragraph, start setting up your paper by narrowing the focus down to your actual topic. Imagine your reader asking, "Okay, interesting beginning, but what is THIS paper going to be about?" Give background information that your audience needs to know up front. Give the impression that you have a serious purpose, and always convince the audience feel that you are leading them to an important choice. This part of the paper should naturally follow the concrete detail you discussed for "reaching out." Preview your argument In the same paragraph as "Prepare your audience," give a short version of your paper's stages of thought. These stages should not be IN your thesis, like a list of different ideas, but should mentioned BEFORE your thesis. Each stage makes a point to persuade the reader that your thesis statement is true or reasonable. In the middle section of the paper you will elaborate on each stage--they should work TOGETHER in SEQUENCE to develop ONE argument: your thesis. Laying out your stages here will keep your thesis statement from sounding like it comes out of nowhere. State your thesis, the MAIN argument of your paper Immediately following your preview, make a statement that you think is both true and persuasive. It should direct the audience toward a choice or a way of thinking that you imagine they do not already agree with. So your thesis cannot be a statement of fact or an obvious truth. A great thesis will be a single idea--it brings the topic to focus and tells the reader your position. To get a thesis that works with your stages, you will have to go through some trial and error.

Middle: (Present stages, at least 1 paragraph per stage) [3-4 paragraphs]

For EACH middle paragraph: Transition and topic sentence The topic sentence starts the paragraph and represents one (or part of one) of your stages. If you need a transitional hook, ask yourself, "what is the relationship of THIS stage to the PREVIOUS one?" The answer is your transition. Of course, if your transitions are solid and true, you often won't need to write a hook. Details to support topic sentence Illustrate using concrete examples from real life, quotations from texts and experts (if appropriate to your subject), personal stories, logical deduction, etc. Closing statement to explain your support Giving evidence is not enough. Every paragraph should have a closing sentence or two to show that the topic sentence has actually been proven. No claim is self-evident, so proof must be demonstrated AFTER evidence is given. How is this stage tied to your thesis? Sometimes, one of your middle paragraphs can acknowledge a different point of view that questions your thesis. First, you state the other point of view and explain how it is reasonable. Then disagree, offering NEW evidence in response to this opposing point. But mentioning a counter-point at the beginning of your essay is counter-productive.

Ending: (Answer the crucial question "so what?") [1-2 paragraphs]

Explain importance of proving your thesis Clarify why the point of your essay is important. In other words, discuss the significance of your thesis. Why is it relevant? Why does it matter? The WORTH of your thesis is not self-evident. New information to help apply the thesis Save some recent developments or information to add body to your conclusion. Keep the attention of your reader. Using general conclusion cliches to finish your essay will leave your audience with an empty feeling. Instead, apply the relevance of your thesis by extending your attention. Satisfy reader with a closing statement Discuss the benefits of taking your position; give a warning or call for action; suggest a solution or another problem. Or you can raise issues that leave your audience thinking and wondering.

Sharpening Your Paper Topic

The best way to sharpen your own topic is to help your classmates sharpen theirs. For our in-class workshop, I would like you to read two topics of other students, offering advice where necessary, according to the guidelines below. Comment on your classmate's document with elaborate and detailed suggestions. After you have evaluated the topics of two other students, please look at your own topic again and revise it by applying what you have learned.

What to look for in a topic:

1. Based on a complex idea from an article or assignment you read for class

If the topic addresses a general idea, indicate so because a general idea will make for an overly general essay. The topic should be grounded in an idea from a reading assignment but clearly show the writer's intent to take the idea in a new direction according to his or her own concerns.

2. Focuses on ONE particular experience, question, or idea that the writer can base, to some extent, on first-hand experience

If the student seems to want to write about the article as a whole, or several different ideas, help him or her decide which one would work BEST. For instance, if the approach is to analyze an experience, it should be a single incident. If the approach is to point out a consequence, reason, or improvement to a problem, it should be singular and specific, not plural or general.

3. Has stages that develop a central idea in a logical sequence, not a list

The ultimate goal of this paper is to extend an idea from an article with a discussion of your own. Whatever that topic is, and there is a lot of room for different kinds of topics, the discussion has to lead the reader through a sequence of stages. If the topic only tries to summarize the article or give a list of examples, be sure to offer a suggestion for a more complex rhetorical discussion.

4. Indicates a possible thesis and the relevance of the topic

Even if a topic is well-developed, it is not necessarily clear why it is important, so make sure the writer has offered a reason that the paper topic will be worth reading. The relevance of a topic could come from any direction, but it needs to be open stated so that the purpose of writing the essay is well-defined.

Outline and Write

The Outlining Stage

Save this outlining template to your computer and use it to fill in all the parts of your essay before you begin writing your rough draft.

A few points to remember:

• This template is NOT an exact structure for your paper. You might not have THREE stages—-you could have four. Also, sometimes you can dedicate more than one middle paragraph to a particular stage, when more elaboration is needed, so their number might vary as well.
• Sometimes one of your middle paragraphs might not correspond to a stage in your argument. You might include a paragraph acknowledging a counter-argument to your thesis. But you will not include this counter-argument in your preview in the beginning section.
• When you fill in this outline template, abbreviate the CONTENT of what you actually plan to write in your paragraphs; each part of this outline should be in your paper.

The Writing Stage

Use this essay template to start your rough draft. All the MLA formatting you'll need is already set up.

For some, writing the paper is the easiest stage of all, but for others it is the most intimidating. Here are some pointers to help you compose your paper with less stress:

• Write in your natural voice instead of forcing yourself into "essay" mode and trying to sound smart. If your natural voice leads to grammatical errors, you can deal with them during the editing stage.
• Use your outline as a guide for writing your paragraphs. Free yourself from holding all of your ideas in your head at once by referring to the ideas you have already laid out in your outline. If you feel more comfortable writing your draft before you compose your outline, you should write your draft first. But then come back and write an outline afterward and make adjustments to your draft if you discover gaps or find that your ideas need to be in a different order.
• Try not to overwhelm yourself with grammatical concerns at this stage. Over-monitoring yourself can lead to a robotic style of writing, which will be more harmful to your paper in the long run than grammar errors, which you can fix later on anyway.
• Focus on writing complete paragraphs and making your paragraphs connect to each other logically.

The Writing Process

Most importantly, find a method that works best for your learning style. Here are some suggests for different stages of writing:

1. Pre-Writing: Discover valuable ideas by opening your mind to ALL ideas. Ask thought-provoking questions about your topic.
2. Thesis Statement: As the main idea of your entire essay, this statement should be truthful and persuasive.
3. Organization / Outline: Arrange your stages and details into the beginning, middle, and end of the paper.
4. Rough Draft: Focus on content, organization, and style. As you write, ask yourself, "who is my audience, and how should I write for them?"
5. Revising: Fix Logical mistakes, missing steps, clumsy transitions, confusing organization before fixing grammar and formatting. Use this guide.
6. Proofreading: Using a list of your common mistakes, read the paper BACKWARDS one sentence at a time and LOOK FOR ONE ERROR AT A TIME. Then read the paper OUT LOUD while following the text with your pen. Use this guide.
7. MLA Formatting: Now make your essay PERFECT. Make sure the essay is formatted correctly and meets the MLA style requirements.

All of the steps are important, but you do not HAVE to do them in this order. In fact, you might go back to certain steps several times. You can write your rough draft and then reverse outline, for instance. Or what if you have writer's block? Most important is making sure that you include all the parts of an essay in your final draft.