How to write an essay

There are three main parts to an essay:

1) Intro
2) Body
3) Conclusion
1) The introduction introduces the main topic or debates and
summarizes them whilst also putting forward your point of view on
these debates or the issue at hand. The point of the introduction is to
write an outline or a map of what the rest of the essay will look like for
the benefit of the reader. Remember to write a few sentences at the
beginning explaining the main terms of the debate. And generallyspeaking, the introduction should be no longer than one paragraph.
2) The body (or meat as its sometimes referred to) is meant to
illustrate the argument or approach that you have set out in the
introduction. Each paragraph in the body of the essay should only
introduce one idea at a time. This should normally be indicated in the
first sentence of the paragraph. And each paragraph should conclude
itself before moving onto to write the next paragraph. It is also very
important that each sentence logically follows from the previous one
and ties in with the forthcoming sentence.
3) The conclusion, on the other hand, summarizes your argument and
reiterates what was said by you in the introduction. There MUST be
circulatory between the intro and conclusion! In other words, what you
outlined in the introduction needs to be demonstrated in the body and
re-emphasized in the conclusion. Finally, the conclusion can also
introduce a key point that wasnt raised in the intro but was mentioned
in the body, but no new ideas or quotes should ever be introduced in
the conclusion hence lending both to the circulatory and
cohesiveness of your overall argument.
Note:
Remember, what we are looking for is a well-defined argument that
summarizes the main debate/s in your own words, and puts forward
your point of view or your assessment of the relative strengths and
weaknesses of these debates. What is more, the reader should be able
to follow the continuity of your argument from beginning to end.1
Hint: read articles by journalists who write for either newspapers or magazines and
you will notice that they construct an argument that can be traced from the very
beginning through to the end of the article. This is what you should be trying to
emulate.
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