Essay Structure: 5 Main Parts of an Essay?

Essay writing.

How many times have you heard of it?

How many essays have you come across in your life?

Countless, right?

Essay writing is one of the most popular forms of writing you will ever encounter in life. However, its popularity doesn’t always equal to our ability to excel at it. This is the reason why it’s very important to learn how to write a perfect essay. Essay writing is not something that is only helpful when it comes to having good grades. Learning how to write a good essay equips you with knowledge that you need for school and even after leaving school. When learning how to write an essay, it is very important to understand the structure of an essay. So what are the the 5 parts of an essay?

5 Parts of an Essay

Part 1

Introduction

The introductory part acts as the foundation of the essay. It informs how strong or weak your essay will be. This is the part that determines whether your essay is worth reading or not. Chances are, if a reader is not captivated by your introduction, he won’t be patient enough to see what the rest of the essay has to offer. Given the importance of the introduction, it’s always advisable to spend some good time here, before proceeding to the next part. Make sure your introduction is captivating and very creative.

The introduction part mainly comprises of an opening statement, a supporting statement, and the thesis statement. Ensure that you have all the necessary facts needed for your essay as you work on the introduction. For example, when writing a personal narrative essay , the reader should have a clear picture of what your essay is all about by just going through your introduction. Therefore, make sure to keep your introduction simple, clear, without it being too wordy.

Body

The body is the meat of your essay. It contains arguments that support your thesis statement. The body is wordier as compared to the introduction. For standard essays, three paragraphs are enough for the body. Every paragraph contains a strong point supporting the thesis. These paragraphs should build up on each other, to ensure that your essay flows from beginning to the end.

Part 2

The First Paragraph

The first paragraph should contain your strongest, most valid point. Saving the best for the last is a principle that doesn’t apply when it comes to essay writing. Ensure you put across your strong point at the beginning of the paragraph. Ensure it is followed by a more explanatory statement. This will help your readers understand what you are talking about easily, without getting lost in your words. Giving examples is a very good way of ensuring that the readers completely understand your point. Give examples that build up on your argument, not examples that destroy the credibility of your argument. Once your main point is well understood, you can now easily move to your next point. Thus, the last statement in your paragraph should provide a way to transition from your first point to the second one

Part 3

The Second Paragraph

The second paragraph in the body should contain your second point supporting your thesis statement. The first statement should easily connect with the last statement you wrote. Ensure your argument is quite compelling. You shouldn’t labor too much to ensure that your introduction is captivating only for the body of your essay to become such a bore. Present your argument in such a way that the readers can’t have enough of it. Adding clear examples will help describe your argument even much better. Once you’ve exhausted your point, you can now indicate a transition to another point.

Part 4

The Third Paragraph

The third paragraph includes the third point meant to support your thesis statement. Traditionally, this includes your weakest point. However, nobody has to know this. Write it in such a way that your reader will be left totally convinced of what you were trying to put across. Alternatively you can provide a counter argument in the case of an argumentative essay. A good counterargument should provide a view that tend to criticize the thesis statement but in a positive qay. The mistake that most people make is to appear hurried during this last paragraph. Others try to compensate for everything they feel like they haven’t included in the previous paragraphs. This ends up destroying everything you’ve worked on so far. The best way to write this paragraph is to be as natural as possible. Also, indicate that this is your last main point for the essay.

Part 5

The Conclusion This is the last part of an essay. Being the concluding part, it is important to restate the thesis statement given in the introduction. However, restate it in a way that doesn’t seem too obvious. It is also in this last part that you get to summarize your main points. While the introduction is important in keeping readers glued to your essay, the conclusion should be captivating enough to ensure that readers are left with something to think about. Clearly indicate that this is the last part of your essay. Your conclusion should not be so flat that readers forget it the moment they’re done reading it. Ensure that you arouse their interest during the conclusion

The three main parts of the essay give it a good, firm structure. Your essay has a greater probability of standing out when it contains these parts in their right order. Other than understanding the parts of the essay, it is also very important to know what is expected of you. Don’t just start writing without taking time to understand the question.

What is the question?

What is expected of you?

What do you need to provide the needed results?

Ask yourself these questions before you get to it.

It is very important to have a schedule for working on your essay. Don’t get the question and just start writing as this may leave you pretty messed up. Taking time before you begin writing gives you an opportunity to think critically about the essay and develop a clear picture of how it should look like. Take time to understand the question, to come up with the thesis statement, and the arguments for your thesis. Once this is done, you can now easily organize your essay into the three main parts. Go through your essay once done to ensure that everything flows as it should.