Essay Writing Structure with Examples

When you are writing an essay, you are presenting a set of your ideas. If you throw away these ideas without following any proper structure, it won’t make any sense to the reader. On the contrary, if you successfully manage to structure your essay, it shows that you are paying attention to your reader’s logic.

You should start by mapping your ideas into a written narrative. You can surely win the hearts of your reader by sensing his/her needs. Your reader might need a context to have some background information in hand. After which you can move to counterarguments and your primary & secondary resources.

Introductory Paragraph

Your essay must start with an introductory paragraph which is also your chance of making the first impression. It will help you in setting the tone of your essay. You must give a proper idea to your reader about the direction towards which you are going to take your essay.

The point is to give an overview of your whole argument by the opening statements. It will make the reader think that your thought process is crystal clear and logical. However, you can make your introductory paragraph end with a thesis statement. Your thesis statement can be the central idea of the text, an interpretation, or anything which others can oppose.

For instance, your topic is about fairy tales, you can present your central idea about it in your introductory paragraph with such thesis statement, “Although some critics argue that fairy tales cause violence in children nevertheless, this essay suggests that every child should read fairy tales, because these tales grow his imagination by becoming a part of his growing brain which further garnishes his intelligence and cognitive abilities”

Main Body

The main body of your essay must include minor body paragraphs while each one of them starts with a different topic sentence. The number of such paragraphs depends upon the points you have made in your thesis statement, following the same order. This way, all of the ideas will be presented to the reader in a more organized way.

With reference to the example mentioned before, you should make your topic sentences for each supporting and opposing paragraph like the following respectively.

• ‘Fairy tales help in enhancing the imagination skills of the children because they encourage them to think out of the box.’
• ‘Fairy tales also contribute to cultural exposure & creative skills of the children because they cross the cultural boundaries and keep their thinking abilities vivid.’
•  ‘Fairy tales develop the moral point of views of the children by helping them discriminate between right & wrong and good & evil.’
• ‘Fairy tales may have many positive effects on the children, but still some people believe that they are twisted in a wrong way which is not good for children.’

Concluding Paragraph

If you want your essay to be well-structured, you must not forget to end it with an impactful conclusion. It depends upon how well you can summarize your point of views and ideas to draw a final judgment. You must also make sure that you are not introducing any new ideas in the conclusion.

It is just about giving closure to whatever points you have discussed while leaving a little room for the opposing point of views and discussions. Your essay will be more engaging to the reader and the examiner if you address each of the questions in an organized manner.

With reference to the previous example, you can add closing statement like this one ‘Fairy tales have both pros and cons. So, it is important to guide your children properly to make sure that they don’t misinterpret the tales in any possible way. This way, they might become able to enjoy all the related benefits of fairy tales.’ Once you have made sure that your essay is properly structured, you can conveniently leave the rest on your reader for him/her to decide and judge.