• Essay Structure

(Outline of an Essay)& (Thesis Statement Explanation)

In Eng 103 course, you will be writing different types of essays. There
are 5 paragraphs in an essay which is the format you have to follow.

-The 1st paragraph is called ‘Introduction’.

-The last sentence of the ‘Introduction’ is called a ‘Thesis Statement’.

-There are 3 ‘Body Paragraphs’.

-The last paragraph is called ‘Conclusion’.

Now look at the Essay Outline below which is a 5 paragraph:

Title
Introduction:-----------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thesis Statement:
1st Body Paragraph:
2nd Body Paragraph:
3rd Body Paragraph:
Conclusion:

↓
 5 Paragraph Burger

As I have said, the thesis statement is always placed as the last

sentence of the introduction.

• Let us now find out what a thesis statement is. A thesis

statement is a complete sentence with a full stop at the end. It
contains the topic of the essay and it has one main idea or
opinion about the topic.

• Topic means subject that is what the essay is about.

• Main idea means what the topic says or what the opinion of the
topic is.

• For example, let us say the topic of the essay is ‘Smoking’. Now
add one main idea or opinion to the topic i.e., what do we want
to say about smoking which is the topic of the essay.

• Smoking is harmful. Let us take this as our thesis statement.

• So ‘Smoking’ is the topic of the essay and ‘harmful’ is the main

idea of the topic. And we have to write an essay on the main
idea which is ‘harmful’.

• The main idea ‘harmful’ is the most important part of an essay

because you have to write the whole essay based on the main
idea which is ‘harmful’. You have to write ‘Why is smoking
harmful?’ in the whole essay.
• Now I hope you understand why the main idea of the thesis
statement is the most important part of an Essay.

The End