Essay Structure

Essay Structure

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

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

3. Although there are guidelines for constructing certain classic essay types, there are no set formula.

4. Answering Questions: The Parts of an Essay

   • It's helpful to think of the different essay sections as answering a series of questions your reader might ask when encountering your thesis.
     • "What?"
       • What evidence shows that the phenomenon described by your thesis is true?
       • To answer the question you must examine your evidence, thus demonstrating the truth of your claim.
       • This "what" or "demonstration" section comes early in the essay, often directly after the introduction.
     • "How?"
       • How does the thesis stand up to the challenge of a counterargument?
       • How does the introduction of new material—a new way of looking at the evidence, another set of sources—affect the claims you're making?
     • "Why?"
       • Why does your interpretation of a phenomenon matter to anyone beside you?

5. Mapping an Essay

   • Structuring your essay according to a reader's logic means examining your thesis and anticipating what a reader needs to know, and in what sequence, in order to grasp and be convinced by your argument as it unfolds.
   • ssay maps are not concerned with paragraphs so much as with sections of an essay.
   • Try making your map like this:
     • State your thesis in a sentence or two, then write another sentence saying why it's important to make that claim. Indicate, in other words, what a reader might learn by exploring the claim with you.
     • Begin your next sentence like this: "To be convinced by my claim, the first thing a reader needs to know is . . ." Then say why that's the first thing a reader needs to know, and name one or two items of evidence you think will make the case.
     • egin each of the following sentences like this: "The next thing my reader needs to know is . . ." Once again, say why, and name some evidence.

6. Signs of Trouble

   • A common structural flaw in college essays is the "walk-through"
     • -through essays follow the structure of their sources rather than establishing their own.

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