Writing an essay is like building a house. First, you need to lay a firm foundation with a strong introduction; then, build the storeys with your body paragraphs, and finally, use a conclusion to complete your essay just as a roof covers the entire house. Without structure, the reader will find it hard to follow the essay’s logic and make sense of arguments.

Every Part is Important

In general, an essay should consist of three main parts: introduction, body and conclusion. Students often focus on the body and forget that the introduction and conclusion are just as important.

In the introduction, you need to introduce the essay topic as well as state your thesis statement (the main argument of the entire essay). The introduction also gives a short overview of the points that will be discussed in the essay.

At the end, there should be a conclusion which ties the whole essay together by referring back to the thesis statement and key points. You should avoid bringing up new ideas in the conclusion.

Structure within the Essay

Not only does the essay have an overall structure, each body paragraph needs to have a certain structure as well. You can begin with a topic sentence which states the main point of the paragraph and relates it to the thesis statement. If the thesis statement of the essay is ‘Social media causes more harm than good,’ a good topic sentence for a paragraph would be ‘Social media has led to an increase in cyberbullying.’

This main point is then followed by further elaboration and supported with relevant examples. These examples can take a variety of forms, such as anecdotes, statistics or literary quotations. You can then wrap up the body paragraph with a short concluding sentence.

When writing essays, the how (structure) is as critical as the what (content). With practice, every student is able to write great essays.