A lot of students enter their first year of university with no clear understanding of how to write an essay. This is shameful, because it is probably the most important skill for an academic to have. Furthermore, unless you take a lot of very boring first-year seminars specifically dedicated to it, nobody at a university will ever teach you how to write one. Your professors will simply grade your papers, detracting marks for shortcomings in structure, shortcomings which may have impeded their ability to understand your thinking also.
The first thing to know about the essay format is its structure. It's structure is what sets it apart from a poem, a reflection, a journal, or any other writing format. Essays are structured for a specific purpose, and that purpose is to help the reader digest the information within the essay as quickly and efficiently as possible.
It's also important to note that the type of information contained within an essay is specific as well. An essay is not meant to simply transmit information. If that were the case, it would be a telegram: "LIGHTNING STORM - SEEK SHELTER." No, although the purpose of the essay is to aid the reader to receive information, the type of information is of a specific kind. The essay is meant to convey, as completely as possible, your thoughts on a given subject. Think of it as a snapshot of your way of thinking.
And so it is structured thusly:
An essay should start by briefly explaining the context. This is usually done in a way that tries to capture the attention and imagination of the audience. This is sometimes referred to as a 'hook', but it may not be beneficial to think of it, as such. If you are too focused on 'catching' the audience, you may find yourself waxing fantastic, and starting essays with phrases such as "Since the dawn of time, man has..." which is seen as somewhat juvenile. Generally speaking, a brief explanation of the context through the eyes of the author is enough to frame the topic and present it in an interesting way.
Crucially, an essay must include a thesis. Although the thesis could, technically, appear anywhere in the essay, and in some styles of writing, sometimes does appear in the conclusion, I highly recommend that you state your thesis clearly in the introduction paragraph. This is for a number of reasons, three of which can be made immediately clear:
Firstly, it ensures that you do not forget to clearly include a thesis in your writing.
Secondly, it ensures that your professors do not miss the point of your essay, or fail to notice your thesis. Professors are lethargic creatures, and by prominently displaying your thesis very clearly, you are making their lives easier. They will reward this.
The third important reason is that, in addition to making your essay easier to read, it also makes it easier to write. Starting with a clear thesis will help you focus your writing, allowing you to refer back to it as you progress and keep yourself on-track. Also, the essay style associated with stating the thesis at the end of the essay (as we shall see below) is generally more difficult to write.
An author may provide an exegesis as a part of the introduction, or as a separate, second paragraph. It depends on how many words they wish to devote to the matter, and the aim of the essay. If the essay were about the consequences of rising prices, the exegesis could be as simple as, "I was at the grocery store, and saw that potatoes now cost..." Or, it could be as complex as "According to So-and-So and Whats-His-Name, inflation rates ... ... ..." The critical concern is to prevent the introduction paragraph from becoming too long-winded. A good introduction paragraph should be four to six sentences long- no more, no less.
The author's position is revealed in the thesis, and the author's defense of that position is developed in the main body of the essay. This is the purpose of the essay. The author states their beliefs, and justifies their beliefs. The reader is able to gain an understanding of the author's thought by absorbing the contents of the essay.
The number of main body paragraphs depends on the length and complexity of the essay. However, the length of main body paragraphs can conform to a pattern, or general rule of thumb (especially when you are learning the art). It is this:
Mirroring how the essay (as a whole) takes a position and justifies it, each main body paragraph is usually dedicated to the justification of a single claim. That claim could be positive (support for the thesis) or negative (attacking a view that opposes the thesis).
A paragraph is a division of thought, one step in a line of thinking. Express the thought, and when you're ready to make a new one, start a new paragraph. How can you tell where one thought starts and another ends? How can you tell where one footstep starts and another ends? All it takes is a bit of attention, and the answer will become clear to you.
It has been suggested that the ideal number of sentences needed to state a claim and justify it, is eight. If you have more than eight sentences, check to make sure whether you aren't combining two ideas into one paragraph. If you have fewer than eight sentences, check to make sure that you are providing a complete justification for your thought.
Remember that the first and last sentences of a paragraph frame the thought, the first introducing it, and the last pointing the way to the next.
The essay concludes with a review of its position - was it successful in proving the position? How successful? (the essay is almost always successful, in the eyes of its author. If not, why was it published?)
Although it is easy to discount the importance of a conclusion, but it plays a crucial role in aiding the reader to digest the information they have received. The reader should have reached the same conclusion as the writer, if they have followed their thinking correctly. Being able to check in with the author here, at the end, is the true purpose of the essay's conclusion.
As stated earlier, there are two types of essay structure:
A deductive essay structure is the most common, and it is recommended that you focus your writing to achieve mastery of this style. For the vast majority of college and university subjects, it will be expected that you write deductively.
This form of essay makes your position on any issue immediately clear to the reader, and proceeds to inform them of the reasons why you hold that position.
You can see an example of a deductive essay here.
An inductive essay structure has its place, but most college and university subjects will consider the style too informal for serious work.
This form of essay starts by establishing some shared baseline of understanding with the reader, and then proceeds to walk them "down a garden path", to some new or futher understanding which (presumably) the reader must remain in agreement with, if they have been following the writers steps correctly. The purpose is to persuade the reader to agree with the writer's claims, which are induced from earlier, simpler claims, eventually arriving at a grand conclusion (the thesis) at the end.
You can see an example of an inductive essay here.
Any university you attend will assume that you are familiar and comfortable writing according to these conventions. Therefore, in the interest of ensuring that you are prepared for the future, it is expected that anything which is referred to as an "essay" will be written in either of these two formats.
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