Guide For Beginners – How To Structure An Essay

By Laura Brown on 2nd December 2020

An essay is a piece of writing that is crafted based upon its need of being narrative or argumentative. An essay can be an outcome of interpretation or evidence-based statement analysis.

There are many kinds of essay, and the criteria of writing can be different according to the subject, course level and purpose of submission. However, all academic essays aim to persuade the reader’s perspectives via well-researched and authentic arguments.

Three Stages – Essay Writing Process

According to the expert writers at Crowd Writer UK, an essay writing process comprises of three main stages:

• Preparation: includes the choice of topic, researching data and creating an outline.
• Writing: includes writing the introduction, main body and conclusion in an organised structure of a essay and well-cited references.
• Revision: it is done to evaluate the content, proofread it for possible errors and plagiarism; it helps you to place sections to soften your flow of writing.

However, the efforts and time required for each stage depend upon the level of academia and type of essay. For an expository essay, students often spend more time on writing. At the same time, for the argumentative one, they may need to do extensive research and preparation to develop an authentic argument.

How To Structure An Essay Effectively?

Before writing, it is vital to draft the structure of a essay. It gives a clear idea of what is required and what you will include in your report. Follow the following tips to ensure that you are well-prepared.

• Understanding of the allotted topic is the foremost step in essay writing. Define your goal, length and deadline of your work. If needed, then must clarify your queries with your instructors.
• If you are allowed to pick your topic then always try to choose something that you are aware of, it will help to keep you motivated and hold your interest. You may also like to check out our post "how to choose a dissertation topic" for more details.
• Explore all possible resources to take notes of every angle of your topic. By this, you will find a fair backup data for your statements.
• Make a clear hypothetical statement to discuss in your essay. It is essential to take 2-3 ideas in case one doesn’t work for you.
• Map out a rough draft or an outline will help you to keep on your track. So always make the format of a essay before writing.

So, now you have an idea how to structure your essay, you are all ready to start with it.

1. Introduction

An introduction is an essential tool to grab your reader’s attention. Also, it gives them a brief of what will be included in the essay. An introduction mainly occupies 10-20% of the format of a essay. Let’s start by describing the three most important goals of an essay introduction.

Hook Your Reader’s Attention

The very first sentence of your introduction should enhance your reader’s curiosity and interest. This sentence is called a hook, and writing team at Crowd Writer is best at this. It may be a quote, a shocking statement, a question, or a surprising statistic. However, it must be relevant to your topic.

Present The Background Of Your Topic

After grabbing the attention of your readers, it’s time to help them understand your argument. You can provide them with brief background information by presenting an overview of some important details. You may also explain complicated terminologies. However, avoid including too many lengthy information as it can be saved for the body of your essay.

Present Your Statement

Just after a brief detail on your topic, introduce your hypothetical statement, also known as a thesis statement. It will elaborate on your central argument that you are going to discuss in the entire content. There is a difference between thesis and dissertation; while, a thesis statement will help to set the spotlight on your topic. It is recommended to keep it not more than 1-2 sentences long.

2. Body

After knowing how to structure an essay introduction, it’s time to craft further. The body of your essay is a place where you provide shreds of evidence to support your arguments and develop your ideas. The ultimate goal of your discussion is to interpret, analyse and present the information that you have gathered with proper citations. Here you can divide your data into multiple sections to make your essay flow smoothly.

Length Of The Body Text

An ideal essay body length comprises 70-80% of your essay. Moreover, the context depends upon the type of essay. For example; a high school essay can be just 4-6 paragraphs long; however, a graduate essay can be of 8-10 pages long, and a PhD thesis is around 50-500 pages in context.

Paragraph Structure & Purpose

It is critical to make the best use of paragraphs and headings to give you a clear structure of a essay. Make sure to centre each section on a single idea or argument. Start each paragraph with a topic sentence and connect them with a transition word to make a good flow of reading. Also, you can make section standalone or interconnect them with referencing them among each other.

Argument & Discussion

Make sure you explain and interpret pieces of evidence and present your readers how it helped to develop your argument. Provide your readers with examples, statistics, references and updated data. An authentic argument and relevant discussion are what makes your essay presentable and high-quality. If you still find it challenging, then you can avail essay writing services UK from us as well.

3. Conclusion

The conclusion hence comprises around 10% of your essay and generally taken up as the last paragraph of your text.

What To Include In A Conclusion

A good-quality essay conclusion must:

• States the overall outcome of insights that you have provided in your arguments.
• Summarise the connections among your points that you have elaborated in the body.
• Emphasise the significance and relevancy of your argumentative statements.

What Not To Include In A Conclusion

Below are a few things which are integral to how to structure an essay. You should not have in conclusion and prevent it by being scattered and weak. The most common mistakes students make while writing conclusion are below to avoid:

• Undermine your stated arguments.
• Including new shreds of evidence or information even it is relevant to your topic.
• Using common concluding phrases like; in conclusion, to sum up, in the end.

An excellent conclusion must finish an essay with an impactful and memorable statement to leave your readers with a strong impression that lasts.

We hope that the above post on how to structure an essay will be helpful for students. Good luck!