How to Structure an Essay

Most essays lose marks for structure rather than for a lack of reading. The argument is there, but the reader cannot find it because the paragraphs wander and the ending answers a question nobody asked. Structure is decided before you write, not fixed afterwards with extra words.

Start with the question, not the topic

The question sets the structure. Underline the instruction, usually a verb such as compare, evaluate or explain, and the limit, such as a period, a region or a text. Every paragraph should answer part of that instruction inside that limit.

Rewrite the question in your own words as a single sentence you can argue. If the sentence is a fact, there is nothing to argue and the essay will read as description. If it is a claim someone could dispute with evidence, you have a thesis worth building on.

Count the parts. A question asking you to compare two approaches needs a paragraph on each and at least one that weighs them against each other. Failing to answer every part is the most common way a well-read essay loses marks.

• Instruction word - The verb telling you what to do: compare, evaluate, explain, discuss.
• Thesis - One arguable sentence that the rest of the essay supports with evidence.

Writing the introduction

Three moves are enough. State the question you are answering, give the thesis in a sentence, then say how the essay is organised. Skip the sweeping opening about how humans have always communicated, because examiners have read it many times.

Define any term the essay uses in a contested way, keeping it brief and citing a source for the definition. If the definition takes a whole paragraph, it belongs in the body where it can be analysed.

Write the introduction last, even though it appears first. By then you know what you actually argued, so the opening matches the ending rather than promising something the essay never delivers.

Keep the introduction to roughly a tenth of the word count. In a two-thousand-word essay that is about two hundred words, enough for a thesis and a roadmap and not enough for a survey of the field, which is what the literature discussion in the body is for.

• Signposting - Telling the reader the order of your argument in the introduction or a roadmap sentence.

Body paragraphs that carry an argument

One claim per paragraph. Open with a sentence stating what that paragraph proves, then give the evidence, then explain how the evidence supports the claim. Close by linking to the next paragraph in a phrase rather than a whole sentence.

The explanation is where the marks live. A quotation dropped in without analysis reads as decoration. Say what it shows, why it matters to your thesis, and how a reasonable critic would respond to it.

Paragraph length is a signal. Two sentences usually means the idea is thin; a page and a half usually means two claims have been crammed together. Split or merge until each block does one job. If a paragraph needs a diagram to follow it, the shape is the problem rather than the reader.

• Claim, evidence, analysis - State the point, support it, then explain how the support proves the point.
• Counterargument - Naming the strongest objection and answering it with evidence.

Transitions and the shape of the argument

Each paragraph should follow from the one before it. If you shuffled them and the argument still read, the essay is a list of observations rather than a case being built.

Use transitions that do work: however, therefore, in contrast, building on this. Avoid stacking them in every sentence, which sounds mechanical and hides where the real moves happen.

Read only the first sentence of every paragraph, in order. Those sentences should form a summary of your argument. When they do not, the fix is usually inside those sentences rather than in more words elsewhere.

Paragraph order carries the argument, so the order should be forced. If two paragraphs could swap places without changing the meaning, you probably have two examples of one claim and should merge them into a single paragraph with stronger evidence.

• Reverse outline - Listing the first sentence of each paragraph to check that the argument progresses.

The conclusion and the final check

Answer the question outright in the conclusion. Do not introduce new evidence and do not simply repeat the introduction. Say what the argument showed and what follows from it.

Before submitting, check three things: every part of the question is addressed, every claim has evidence, and every quotation has a reference. Then read it aloud to catch sentences that lose their way in the middle. Print it and read it on paper rather than on a phone screen, where the shape of the argument is much harder to see.

Check the word count against the guidance. An essay well under the limit usually has an unfinished argument, and one well over usually has an unimportant section that was never cut.

• Answering the question - The conclusion states the answer plainly instead of restating the opening.