In the color-coded sections below, the various parts of an essay are laid out for you. Use this as a guide for crafting effective essays. There are many ways to put an essay together, but the suggestions I make here are applicable to writing in many subjects. Students in the past have appreciated this guide because it offers structure without stifling creativity.
| Beginning: (Generate interest, orient the audience) [2 paragraphs] |
Reach out to your audience Because your essay is about someone else's writing, not yourself, start with a specific detail from the work you are writing about: an example of an artistic or story-telling strategy that is relevant to your thesis or a particular example that shows an interesting technique that makes the author's style interesting. Your audience needs something real to feel involved. Writing general or opinionated ideas will only give the impression that you are not a thinking person. "Reach out to your audience" should be the first paragraph of your paper. Prepare your audience In your second paragraph, start setting up your paper by bringing focus to your actual topic. Imagine your reader asking, "Okay, interesting beginning, but what is THIS paper going to be about?" Give background information that your audience needs to know and create the impression that you have a serious purpose. Convince the audience to feel that you are leading them to an important insight, an insight that matters, that will change how they think. This part of the paper should naturally follow the concrete detail you discussed for "reaching out." Preview your argument In the same paragraph as "Prepare your audience," give a short version of your stages of thought for the paper. These stages should NOT be IN your thesis, like a list of different ideas, but can be mentioned BEFORE your thesis. The stages are the logic that will explain the main idea you want to get across to the reader. The middle section of the paper (see below) will contain the actual stages--they should work TOGETHER in SEQUENCE to develop ONE argument, which is your thesis. Laying out your stages in the beginning will keep your thesis statement from sounding like it comes out of nowhere. State your thesis, the MAIN argument of your paper Immediately following your preview, make a statement that you think is both true and persuasive. It should direct the audience toward a way of thinking that you imagine they might not already understand or agree with. So your thesis cannot be a statement of fact or an obvious truth. A great thesis will be a single idea--it brings the topic to focus and tells the reader your position. To get a thesis that works with your stages, you will have to go through some trial and error. Avoid the most common temptation: to state a conclusion instead of a persuasive claim. Conclusions are thoughts for an ending, not the beginning. |
| Middle: (Present stages, at least 1 paragraph per stage) [3-4 paragraphs] |
| For EACH middle paragraph: Transition and topic sentence The topic sentence starts the paragraph and represents one (or part of one) of your stages. If you need a transitional hook, ask yourself, "what is the relationship of THIS stage to the PREVIOUS one?" The answer is your transition. Of course, if your mental transitions are solid and true, you won't need to write a hook. Details to support topic sentence Illustrate using quotations and examples from the text(s) you are analyzing, describe details that help the reader see how you are thinking, use logical deduction to lead your reading to understanding, etc. Closing statement to explain your support Giving evidence is not enough. Every paragraph should have a closing sentence or two to show that the topic sentence has actually been proven. No claim is self-evident, so proof must be demonstrated AFTER evidence is given. The question to ask yourself is "How is this stage tied to your thesis?" Sometimes, one of your middle paragraphs can acknowledge a different point of view that questions your thesis or one of your stages. First, you state the other point of view and explain how it is reasonable. Then disagree, offering NEW evidence in response to this opposing point. But mentioning a counter-point at the beginning of your essay is counter-productive. |
| Ending: (Answer the crucial question "so what?") [1-2 paragraphs] |
Explain importance of proving your thesis Begin explaining why the point of your essay is important. In other words, discuss the significance of your thesis. Why is it relevant? Why does it matter? What does it apply to? The WORTH of your thesis is not self-evident. When analyzing other people's writing, the importance of your thesis will have something to do with how your ideas help the audience interpret the author's ideas more effectively. But do NOT just repeat your thesis. New information to help apply the thesis Save some elements of the writer's techniques or content from the text to add content to your ending. Keep the attention of your reader with real details instead of rehashing what you've already said. Using general conclusion cliches to finish your essay will leave your audience with an empty feeling. Instead, apply the relevance of your thesis by extending your attention to a new but related idea. Apply what you have already said to an idea beyond your thesis. Satisfy reader with a closing statement Discuss the benefits of taking your position on the text you analyzed; offer a warning or call for action that can help your audience read that text better; suggest a solution or another problem related to interpreting that text. Or you can raise issues that leave your audience thinking and wondering. But remember the purpose of your essay: to highlight a technique the author used to convey an idea in the text you analyzed. At the same time, do not address your audience directly (this is true for the whole paper). Imagine that they are listening to you think. They stand to gain from your thinking, but this is less likely to happen if you write directly AT them. |
