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A well-structured essay should consist of a series of paragraphs that progress logically through the series of points that you intend to cover. Obviously, the difficult part is working out what that order should be. In essence, an essay is an argument, so your structure should be based on the particulars of your argument.
An important skill of essay writing is learning how to structure what you want to say. All essays should have an introduction and a conclusion. In most cases these will be your first and last paragraphs, respectively, although once you’ve mastered the art of essay writing, you will be able to vary your structure somewhat. In a technical write-up, the order is often prescribed or logically dictated by the material (e.g., methods before results). But even in a technical write-up the introductory section may itself be like a mini-essay that aims to make a point.
Remember that relevance does not only apply to the material you use, but also the way that you use it. Summarizing each relevant research area for an essay does not constitute an answer: you have to orient the material you use towards the assigned topic. Part of what you need to learn consists of relationships among ideas.
It can signpost the broad organisational structure of the essay
Although this may sound obvious, a lot of essays lose marks for containing material that is simply irrelevant. Make sure that you read the assignment sheet thoroughly and are sure about what it asks for before you start reading for the essay. While you are reading, bear in mind what sort of material you are looking for in order to address the assigned topic. Even if you do come across a lot of interesting material when researching for your essay, be selective. Interesting material won’t gain you extra marks unless it is relevant.
First—plan! Don’t just start writing, and hope that it will work out first time: many people find that their ideas and arguments develop during the process of planning and/or writing. The whole process is very much an iterative one and you should expect to be writing more than one draft. As you are required to process your work electronically, editing and re-drafting is a relatively easy task.
Conclusions are difficult because you feel that you have nothing left to say and you are merely repeating the same information. On the contrary, the conclusion is your last chance to impress. It is often what your reader remembers best. It should, in fact, be the best part of your essay.
The writer follows this "attention-grabber" with specific examples of earning and spending money. Compare how the specific details of the second example paint a better picture for the reader about what the writer learned about money as a child, rather than this general statement: "As a child, I used math to run a lemonade stand." In the first introduction, this statement leaves the reader to guess how the writer used math, but in the second introduction we can actually see what the child did and what she learned.
How to write an academic essay
"A penny saved is a penny earned," the well-known quote by Ben Franklin, is an expression I have never quite understood, because to me it seems that any penny—whether saved or spent—is still earned no matter what is done with it. My earliest memories of earning and spending money are when I was ten years old when I would sell Dixie cups of too-sweet lemonade and bags of salty popcorn to the neighborhood kids. From that early age, I learned the importance of money management and the math skills involved. I learned that there were four quarters in a dollar, and if I bought a non-food item—like a handful of balloons—that I was going to need to come up with six cents for every dollar I spent. I also knew that Kool-Aid packets were 25 cents each or that I could save money and get five of them for a dollar. Today, however, money management involves knowing more than which combinations of 10-cent, five-cent, and one-penny candies I can get for a dollar. Proper money management today involves knowing interest rates, balancing checkbooks, paying taxes, estimating my paycheck, and budgeting to make ends meet from month-to-month.
[PDF] Basic Essay and Paragraph Format
A paragraph hasunityif all the facts, examples, reasons and other details included in it are relevant to the idea introduced at the start of the paragraph. A paragraph hascoherenceif all the ideas are related to each other in a logical sequence, with each sentence building on the previous sentence.
How To Write An Essay: Structure
Finally, this sample introduction is lacking a clear thesis statement. The writer concludes with a vague statement: "I will be talking more about these things in my paper." This kind of statement may be referred to as a "purpose statement," in which the writer states the topics that will be discussed. However, it is not yet working as a thesis statement because it fails to make an argument or claim about those topics. A thesis statement for this essay would clearly tell the reader what "things" you will be discussing and what point you will make about them.
How to Write an Essay: 4 Minute Step-by-step Guide
Go to the tab in the section for a simple way of working out how many body paragraphs of an appropriate length you should have.