Essay

Essay

1. Writing an academic essay means fashioning a coherent set of ideas into an argument

2. Essays are essentially linear—they offer one idea at a time

3. Present their ideas in the order that makes most sense to a reader

4. Successfully structuring an essay means attending to a reader's logic

5. Parts of an Essay

   • Introducing the argument
     • Start of essay
   • Analyzing data
   • Concluding
     • End of essay
   • Raising counterarguments
     • May appear within a paragraph, as a free-standing section, as part of the beginning, or before the ending
   • Questions your reader might ask when encountering your thesis
     • What
       • What evidence shows that the phenomenon described by your thesis is true
     • How
       • The claims of the thesis are true in all cases
       • How does the thesis stand up to the challenge of a counterargument
       • How does the introduction of new material
     • Why
       • Why does your interpretation of a phenomenon matter to anyone beside you
       • This question addresses the larger implications of your thes
       • It allows your readers to understand your essay within a larger context