How to Structure an Essay: Tips for Beginners

All students sooner or later are assigned with essays. But there is no reason to be afraid of this task. The main thing is not just to reveal the topic, but also to make it interesting, trying to attract the reader’s attention from the first sentence.

Many think that an essay is a regular composition However, it is not. Essay reflects its author’s individual experiences, view of a particular issue. It does not give an exhaustive answer to a specific question, but reflects opinion or impression. Essay writing helps to develop the logic, the skills to present your opinion and information.

Features of an Essay

• description of an exact topic or question. Essay does not cover a wide variety of problems, only specific issue;
• essay expresses individual impressions and considerations on a specific subject or issue and does not provide a full interpretation of the subject in question;
• essay implies a new, subjectively colored opinion about something; it may be of a philosophical, historical biographical, journalistic, literary-critical, popular science, or purely fiction character;
• the audience evaluates, first of all, the author’s personality – views, thoughts and feelings.

Those writing essays need to remember these 5 rules to design an ace text:

1. Choose an interesting and familiar topic

The chosen essay topic should be interesting and, which is also important, you should know something about it. After all, it is hardly possible to express one’s point of view on a subject you don’t know anything about. If you choose the topic from the list provided by your teacher, it is better to initially choose what you really like.

2. Author’s statement

You need to feel the depth of your thoughts and describe your feelings and emotions, without any templates, hints and copying other authors’ works.

3. Journalistic style of presentation

To convey the personal perception of the world, the author of the essay can give examples, make parallels, select analogies, use various associations. An essay will be a winning one if there are unexpected turns of thought and unpredictable conclusions. That is where you have the room for creativity, logical and figurative thinking!

4. Briefness

Essay is a free genre, there are not set limits for its volume. The limits can be defined by the teacher, let’s say 4-7 pages. Always keep the recommended parameters of the volume. This will prove your ability to express your thoughts in several pages.

5. Compliance with the structure

Many students make the same typical mistake. Thinking that the essay has a free composition, they believe that it does not have any particular structure either. This is not entirely true. Yes, students are rather free in expressing their thoughts, but there is a certain order of their presentation.

Before you proceed to writing, you need to consider the structure of an essay which includes:

1. introduction;
2. main part:
• paragraph 1
• paragraph 2
• paragraph 3
3. conclusion.

Introductory Part of an Essay

Structuring an essay you should begin with the first and main part – introduction. It is the first paragraph of your text. It should be written in a way to attract reader’s attention and provoke them to keep reading the essay till the end.

In this part you should give an idea of what will be said further. It would be appropriate to use different methods of catching reader’s attention – telling a short story, a joke, a quote, etc. Keep the language plain and understandable, avoid introducing new difficult terms.

Introductory part is usually one paragraph consisting of 5-7 sentences.

Main Part of an Essay

This part is the longest one in the essay structure. It covers several opinions on the same issue.

The main part is usually divided into three or more paragraphs each of which is devoted to a certain opinion. First you present the thesis – your opinion on the issue under question, then arguments in favor of your thesis. For example, personal or social life situation, theory or a documented fact.

You can provide an unlimited number of argument to support your thesis. It depends on the structure of an essay and its volume. The key idea is that all the parts of the text are logically connected.

Arguments can be presented in the following order:

• statement;
• explanation;
• example;
• short summary of the above said;
• conclusion.

Conclusive Part of an Essay

In conclusion they usually summarize everything that was said in the essay. The author together with the reader summarizes the presented information.

It is important that the conclusions are not logical and relate to the data contained in the main part of the text.

Here are several tips on how to write the conclusion:

• To make the reading process easier for your reader, mix long and short sentences.
• Avoid using unknown and difficult words. They will only make your essay unclear and puzzle your reader.
• Avoid using a lot of generalized phrases. This is your paper, expression of your ideas, this is why it should be more personalized.
• Avoid using a lot of humor. For some topics it may be completely inappropriate.
• Speak about your experience, impressions, express your own ideas – this will help you persuade your audience that everything you talk about is true.
• Stick to your topic. Every example, every fact or statement should be linked to your topic.
• Provide results of research and surveys conducted in connection with your topic.
• After finishing, reread your essay to see if there are no mistakes, if everything is logical.

Despite the availability of many examples and guidelines, students still make mistakes when writing essays. Here are the most common:

1. Essay structure is not preserved. Many students go into the wilds of their reasoning, completely forgetting about the structure and composition. As a result, instead of an essay, they get something vague and formless.
2. Volume is not preserved. Do not think that the more theses you put into the essay, the better.
3. Inconsistency of the argument with the thesis.
4. Inability to make a conclusion. Your essay should have a logical conclusion summarizing everything written.
5. Poor language. Any essay is an opportunity to reveal your individuality in a verbal form, so use it in full!

Actually, the number of mistakes is larger than that. So, what should students do if they don’t know how to design an ace essay?

If you keep trying but fail to compose a good essay, or simply don’t have time or inspiration, you can entrust us with this task. We guarantee top quality and uniqueness of essays, and full support of our team!