English
Guidelines for Organizing Essays

• A well-structured essay begins with an introduction in the first paragraph(s).  The introduction contains the most important sentence in the essay:  the thesis statement, also called the preview statement or the controlling idea.  The thesis statement clearly and concisely states the main idea of the essay.  It may contain the main points of your essay and the order you will discuss them; eg., The three main causes for the increase in juvenile delinquency in our city are the lack of job opportunities, the lack of recreational facilities, and the quest for “thrills.”
• You may choose not to incorporate the main points in your thesis statement and create a short thesis, or you could include them in a subtopic sentence which follows your thesis statement; eg., There are three main causes for the increase in juvenile delinquency in our city.
  1. The lack of job opportunities;
  2. The lack of recreational facilities; and
  3. The quest for “thrills.”
• Arrange your main points in an appropriate (according to your topic and purpose of your essay) organizational order:  chronological, climactic, logical, or, infrequently, random.
• Sometimes in a short essay, all you need in the introductory paragraph is one sentence — the thesis statement.  However, usually you begin with a good opening sentence—a grabber—something that gets the reader’s attention.  An effective “grabber” may be a well-phrased quotation, a provocative statement, a rhetorical question, a definition, a generalization related to your subject, or an interesting anecdote; eg., For six months I lived with “the roommate from hell.”
• Depending on your topic and readers, you may include some background information in your introductory paragraph(s) to explain your topic; eg., It has been two years since Bernice moved out of my apartment, but I still have nightmares about her.
• Essentially the introduction provides a blueprint or “road map” of the rest of your essay.  It tells your reader clearly where you are going with the topic.  A good introduction is like a mini-essay or outline of your whole essay.
• The body paragraphs serve to develop the points you have raised in the introduction.  A good body paragraph contains a topic sentence and supporting details.  The topic sentence reiterates one of the points you have presented in the introduction.  Thus in a five-paragraph essay, the first body paragraph will develop the first main point, the next body paragraph will develop the second main point, and the third, the third main point.
• The topic sentence may occur anywhere in the paragraph depending on the effect you wish to create.  The topic sentence is like the thesis statement or controlling statement of that particular paragraph. The supporting details provide examples or illustrations of the topic sentence.  In other words, they should graphically “prove” to the reader the validity of the topic sentence by providing “evidence” to support it.  Supporting details may take the form of anecdotes, paraphrasing, quotations, definitions, examples, paraphrase, quotations, statistics, etc.
• The concluding paragraph has two main functions:
  1. It summarizes or reinforces the main points of your paper; and
  2. It ends with an appropriate clincher.
• Your summary statement should be concise, and it must be phrased in such a way that it does not repeat word-for-word the portion of your thesis statement that identifies the main points.  Your clincher is a memorable statement designed to leave your readers feeling satisfied with your essay and perhaps taking away with them something to think about.
• Some devices for creating appropriate clinchers are the following:
1. End with a relevant or thought-provoking quotation;
2. Offer a solution to a problem discussed in your essay;
3. End with one or more relevant or thought-provoking rhetorical questions;
4. Point out the value or significance of your subject to your readers;
5. Make a connection to a statement made in your introduction; and
6. End with a suggestion for change or a prediction about the future.
• In technical and business writing, long essays often have headings (similar to those used in a report) preceding the major sections.