FIFTH LESSON: GENERAL STRUCTURE OF AN ESSAY

 Today we are going to see the general structure of an essay.

To begin with,  let's start answering this question: WHAT IS AN ESSAY?

An essay is a formal short piece of writing, which is formed by paragraphs.

But, how is it structured?

In the following image, you are going to find the structure and its content.

As you can see, the introductory paragraph is the first in an essay. This paragraph introduces the main idea and main points of the essay with the thesis statement. To catch the reader's attention, you can start your introductory paragraph with a fact, statistics, a question, news, historical events, and a quote to sustain what the writer wants to say.

 Its length depends on the length of the essay.

An essay of 1 page must have  5-7 lines of introduction

2 pages must have 10-15 lines of  introduction

3 pages must have 15-20 lines of  introduction 

Also, it is important to know that each essay's paragraph starts with indentation. 

EXAMPLE

                                

                                                                      Workaholism Problem (TOPIC)

          Have you ever wondered if you are a workaholic?(CATCHING PHRASE) Although it seems unlikely, this is a problem that has been in society for a long time. Despite it being believed that workaholism is not so grave, it is actually a very serious problem. These days, this condition has increased bringing with it numerous side effects.  Workaholism has caused a lot of consequences(MAIN IDEA) in people, but the most common are problems in their social life, psychological factors, and health disturbances. ( MAIN POINTS are included on the thesis statement)

As you can see, this example starts with a question that will attract the reader's attention. Furthermore, in the end, it mentions the main points on the thesis statement, so in that way, the reader can know what the essay it's about. 

Now, let's see a body paragraph.

In each paragraph, you can develop ONLY ONE of the main points mentioned in the thesis statement.

Which is the structure of each paragraph?

MAIN IDEA

• The main idea goes in the introductory sentence.
• It mentions one of the main points of the Thesis Statement.
• is It has to state what the paragraph is about. 

EXAMPLE STATEMENT

•  It could be one or more than one sentence, and it comes from one of the subpoints in your outline.

QUOTATION

•  It could be a literal transcription, but in this case, you need to use quotation marks “” and mentioned the author.
•   It could be paraphrasing, but you do not need to use quotation marks, however, you still need to mention the author.

METTACOMENTARY

• It is a commentary or an opinion after a quote, in which you can explain what it said.

CONCLUDING SENTENCE

• It is the conclusion of the paragraph.
• It is not a summary of the paragraph.
• You cannot add more information.
• It restates the point and subpoints.

Finally, to end with this lesson, we are going to see what the concluding paragraph should include.

CONCLUDING PARAGRAPH

 

It is a restatement of the thesis statement, however, you cannot copy and paste all the thesis. You can rewrite the same but with different words such as synonyms. You can end it with a memorial phrase to make the reader reflects. Remember that you can't add new information to it.

That was the lesson about the general structure of an essay, byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.