If you just don’t know how to approach an essay so that it’s even remotely correct or well structured, try using the following guide:
Every essay has an Introduction. The easiest form of introduction is called a “funnel introduction,” and it is so called because it funnels the reader into the essay, and because it looks like funnel. A funnel introduction works like an upside down triangle:
First Sentence: Broad Beginning Statement
Second Sentence: Narrower Statement
Third Sentence (the tip of the funnel):
Thesis
An example:
[Broad Beginning Statement] For years, scientists have been looking for the Higgs particle, an elementary physics building block that is supposed to explain mass. [Narrower Statement] After several failed attempts, on 4 July 2012 two separate groups of researchers confirmed the existence of a particle consistent with the description of the Higgs particle. [Thesis] Because it seems scientists may soon be able to confirm its existence, it is worth considering precisely what the Higgs particle (also called the Higgs boson) will offer to physics.
And you’re off!
Claim
Evidence
Explanation
An example:
[Topic] Marriage has long played a central role in successful societies. [Evidence] Anthropologists have discovered that even before the appearance of Judaism and Christianity, primitive ceremonies linking men and women together in monogamous unions were carried out. [Explanation] The existence of such ceremonies suggests that even societies very different from modern ones believed sanctioned unions between individuals were vital.
Remember, each paragraph deals with only a single point. Once you’ve dealt with that point, move on to a new topic, and a new paragraph. Also, check your paragraph to make sure you haven’t included anything irrelevant to its point.
Finally, every essay needs a Conclusion. Conclusions are very hard (in my experience, even harder than introductions), so it may help to think of them as reversed introductions, and thus right-side-up triangles. Like every other paragraph, a conclusion needs to have three sentences. In this case, it needs them because it needs to accomplish three goals: it needs to Restate your thesis, Remind readers what you offered in proof of that thesis, and End well:
Restate
Remind
Final Sentence
We will go over conclusions in more depth later in these lectures, but for now just remember that “restate your thesis” doesn’t mean “find words that mean the same as each word in your thesis, and replace those original words with the new words.” It means state your thesis in a way that makes it feel fresh. The same goes for reminding the reader what you offered. Your final sentence should be separate from these two (a sentence in its own right), and it should try to round off the essay firmly and elegantly.
An example (this conclusion ends the essay that contained the body paragraph above):
[Restate] It seems, then, that marriage has long played a vital role in many societies.
[Remind] Religious, literary, and anthropological sources all offer evidence that connections between two people, sanctioned by the church, the law, or some other central authority, are an integral building block of moral, stable communities. [End] This evidence, combined with the declining marriage rate among heterosexuals, leads to a simple question: why are we denying marriage to homosexuals, the one population that actively wants it?
And you’re out!
If you can’t get started, just write three bad sentences as your introduction. You can always go back and change them.
If a paragraph seems hopelessly confusing, put each sentence on a separate line and try shifting them around: it may turn out that you need a different sentence order.
Read your essay out loud to see how it sounds. You’ll notice problem areas your inner ear didn’t pick up.
Just remember that your essay should be shaped like this (although you may have more body paragraphs):
It looks like a sweet stood on end!
Don’t start your conclusion with “In conclusion.” It’s your last paragraph: it’s obvious that whatever you say will be in conclusion.
In an academic essay, a paragraph MUST have three sentences. That is because each paragraph (even the intro and conclusion) needs a claim, a back-up, and an explanation of why it all matters.
A paragraph can certainly be LONGER than three sentences. Every sentence must relate to the point of the paragraph, though.
Almost certainly, the last sentence of your essay will be the hardest to write.