how to structure an essay
How to structure an essay
Introduction
Your introduction should include an explanation of how you intend to address the question and a brief outline of how you are going to organise your essay. It is also a good idea to refer briefly to the context or background to the topic. If there are words in the title that have contested or ambiguous meanings it is important to deal with this in your introduction by giving clear definitions and possibly a justification for your choice of definition.
Main body
You should organise the main body so that the information is coherent, logical and accessible to the reader. The following steps will help you to plan:
1. Be clear what your response to the question is. This should become clear after reading and research, and perhaps after discussing the question with other students.
2. Decide on four or five main points which best represent your response.
3. Select relevant evidence from your reading to support these main points.
4. Organise your main points into a coherent argument. Think very carefully about the best order for the points and how they contribute to answering the question. Make the relevance of each point to the question absolutely clear. Link each point to the next point you make, showing how you are organising your argument.
5. Sum up your main points in your conclusion.
Conclusion
There should be a strong link between the title of an essay and the conclusion. The conclusion should draw together the main ideas from the essay and give (or reiterate) a firm or tentative answer to the question asked. A conclusion can also perform the following functions: (i) it can indicate the implications of your findings (ii) it can suggest future trends (iii) it can point to possible areas for further study (iv) it can provide a brief summary of your main ideas.
Introduction
Your introduction should include an explanation of how you intend to address the question and a brief outline of how you are going to organise your essay. It is also a good idea to refer briefly to the context or background to the topic. If there are words in the title that have contested or ambiguous meanings it is important to deal with this in your introduction by giving clear definitions and possibly a justification for your choice of definition.
Main body
You should organise the main body so that the information is coherent, logical and accessible to the reader. The following steps will help you to plan:
1. Be clear what your response to the question is. This should become clear after reading and research, and perhaps after discussing the question with other students.
2. Decide on four or five main points which best represent your response.
3. Select relevant evidence from your reading to support these main points.
4. Organise your main points into a coherent argument. Think very carefully about the best order for the points and how they contribute to answering the question. Make the relevance of each point to the question absolutely clear. Link each point to the next point you make, showing how you are organising your argument.
5. Sum up your main points in your conclusion.
Conclusion
There should be a strong link between the title of an essay and the conclusion. The conclusion should draw together the main ideas from the essay and give (or reiterate) a firm or tentative answer to the question asked. A conclusion can also perform the following functions: (i) it can indicate the implications of your findings (ii) it can suggest future trends (iii) it can point to possible areas for further study (iv) it can provide a brief summary of your main ideas.