Essay Organization

Learning Objectives

  • Examine the basic organization of traditional essays

One common way to structure an essay is to present the main idea or thesis early in the essay, followed by categories of support that reinforce the argument.

Example

To better understand this structure, think of a courtroom argument in a television drama. The lawyer begins by making a clear assertion: “My client is not guilty.” The lawyer then provides multiple reasons to support this claim, such as:

  • No physical evidence places the client at the crime scene.
  • The client had no motive to commit the crime.
  • Additional evidence further disproves the charges.

In an essay, the assertion is the thesis sentence, and the different reasons are the topic sentences.

Example: Thesis and Topic Sentences

  • Thesis Sentence (assertion): The 21st-century workforce will require a unique set of personal skills.
    • Topic Sentence (reason) #1: Workers need to learn how to deal with change.
    • Topic Sentence (reason) #2: Because of dealing with such a rapidly changing work environment, 21st-century workers need to learn how to learn.
    • Topic Sentence (reason) #3: Most of all, in order to negotiate rapid change and learning, workers in the 21st century need good communication skills.

As you can see, the supporting ideas in an essay develop out of the main assertion or argument in the thesis sentence.

Essay Organization

The structural organization of an essay will vary, depending on the type of writing task you’ve been assigned, but they generally follow this basic structure: The thesis and the topic sentences are all concerned with workers and what they need for the workforce.

Introduction

The introduction provides the reader with context about your topic. You may be familiar with the cliché about how first impressions are important. This is true in writing as well, and you can think of your introduction as that first impression. The goal is to engage the readers, so they want to read on. Sometimes this involves giving an example, telling a story or narrative, asking a question, or building up the situation. The introduction should almost always include the thesis statement.

Body Paragraphs

The body of the essay is separated into paragraphs. Each paragraph usually covers a single claim or argues a single point, expanding on what was introduced in the thesis statement. For example, according to the National Institute of Mental Health, the two main causes of schizophrenia are genetic and environmental. Thus, if you were writing about the causes of schizophrenia, then you would have a body paragraph on genetic causes of schizophrenia and a body paragraph on the environmental causes.

A body paragraph usually includes the following:

  • Topic sentence that identifies the topic for the paragraph
  • Several sentences that describe and support the topic sentence
  • Evidence from outside sources
    • Correctly formatted in-text citations indicating which source listed on the Works Cited page has provided the evidence,
      • Remember that information from outside sources should be placed in the middle of the paragraph and not at the beginning or the end of the paragraph so that you have time to introduce and explain the outside content
  • The words "the end" written in sand.

    Figure 1. College instructors require more than just “the end” at the close of a paper. Take the time to revisit your thesis statement, bringing all of your claims and evidence together in your conclusion.

    Quotation marks are placed around any information taken verbatim (word for word) from the source

  • Summary sentence(s) that draws conclusions from the evidence
  • Transitions or bridge sentences between paragraphs.

Conclusion

If you began with a story, draw final conclusions from that story in your conclusion. If you began with a question, refer back to the question and be sure to provide the answer.

A concluding paragraph:

  • summarizes any final conclusions from the key points
  • provides a brief comment on the evidence provided in the paper
  • ties in the introduction

Try It

Now let’s take a look at what this looks like in practice. Read through this presentation to review the main components of an essay, and then see if you can correctly organize the essay.