Structure and Support

For college students, reading and writing are constant activities. We started this course by looking at sentence agreement rules. When our sentences are in agreement, we communicate more clearly in Standard English. We also communicate better when we carefully choose vocabulary that is specific and has the appropriate connotations. When writing sentences, paragraphs, and essays, we carefully consider both agreement and vocabulary to improve the clarity of our writing.

Essays: The Magic of Threes

Before you start writing, it's important to picture the final product. What will it look like? What shape does it have? What is its structure? Whether you're writing a simple opinion essay or a complicated academic research paper, the structure is basically the same: introduction, body, and conclusion. Yes, there are variations within each of these parts, but most academic writing shares these same three parts. In fact, three is a magic number in writing. Take a look, and you'll see:

• A complete sentence:
  
  subject + verb + complete idea
  
  
• A complete paragraph:
  
  Topic sentence (states topic + claim) +
  Supporting sentences (give details to explain claim) +
  Concluding sentence (ends discussion by reviewing topic + claim)
  
  
• A complete essay:
  
  Introduction (hook, background information, and topic + claim = thesis) +
  Body paragraphs (each paragraph provides a main idea and supporting details to explain the thesis) +
  Conclusion (restates the thesis in a new way and wraps up discussion, sometimes with prediction, suggestion, or opinion)

This video explains the three basic parts of an essay:

Now, let's take a look at the basic structure of an essay in more detail.

Key Elements

Essays written for an academic audience follow a structure with which you are likely familiar: Intro, Body, Conclusion. Here is a general overview of what each of those sections "does" in the larger essay.

Introductory Section

This paragraph is the "first impression" paragraph. It needs to make an impression on the reader so that he or she becomes interested, understands your goal in the paper, and wants to read on. The intro often ends with the thesis.

• begin by drawing your reader in – offer a statement (hook/attention grabber) that will make your readers curious about your topic
• offer some context or background information about your topic that leads you to your thesis
• conclude with the thesis statement

This video explains the introduction element of the essay:

Also, because the thesis statement is the most important sentence in the entire essay, let's watch a video that explains this element of the introduction in more detail:

Body of the Essay

The Body of the Essay is where you fully develop the main idea or thesis outlined in the introduction by providing support. Each paragraph within the body of the essay explains one major point in the development of the thesis. Each paragraph should contain the following elements:

• Clearly state the main point in each paragraph in the form of a topic sentence.
• Then, support that point with evidence.
• Provide an explanation of the evidence's significance. Highlight the way the main point shows the logical steps in the argument and link back to the claim you make in your thesis statement.

Remember to make sure that you focus on a single idea, reason, or example that supports your thesis in each body paragraph. Your topic sentence (a mini thesis that states the main idea of the paragraph), should contain details and specific examples to make your ideas clear and convincing).

This video explains the body element of the essay:

Conclusion

Many people struggle with the conclusion, not knowing how to end a paper without simply restating the paper's thesis and main points. In fact, one of the earliest ways that we learn to write conclusions involves the "summarize and restate" method of repeating the points that you have already discussed.

While that method can be an effective way to perhaps begin a conclusion, the strongest conclusions will go beyond repeating the key ideas from the paper. Just as the intro is the first impression, the conclusion is the last impression–and you do want your writing to make a lasting impression.

Below are some things to consider when writing your conclusion:

• what is the significance of the ideas you developed in this paper?
• how does your paper affect you, others like you, people in your community, or people in other communities?
• what must be done about this topic?

This video explains the conclusion element of the essay:

Let's put it all together in an example:

Now that we know more about essays, let's take a closer look at a specific type of essay and how we can write one.

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Content adapted from:

Timothy Krause, https://openoregon.pressbooks.pub/synthesis/chapter/3-4-composition-basic-essay-structure/
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License.

Texas Wesleyan Academic Success Center, https://youtu.be/W_G2ffWudaw?feature=shared&t=12
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Carol Anne Byrnes, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_imzxbzT1o&t=129s
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

David Hunter, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnWVPBjUDbA&t=58s
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Carol Anne Byrnes, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4S9VQTlNyUg
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Emilie Zickel and Charlotte Morgan, https://pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu/csu-fyw-rhetoric/chapter/basic-essay-structure/
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License.

Excelsior Online Writing Lab, https://owl.excelsior.edu/writing-process/essay-writing/essay-writing-traditional-structure-activity/
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.