How to Structure an Essay

If youve been tasked with  writing an essay  for a class assignment, the project might seem daunting. However, your assignment doesnt have to be a hair-pulling, frazzled all-nighter. Think of writing an essay as if you were  making a hamburger. Imagine the parts of a burger:  Theres a bun (bread) on top and a bun on the bottom. In the middle, youll find the meat.   Your introduction is like the top bun announcing the subject, your supporting paragraphs are the beef in the middle, and your conclusion is the bottom bun, supporting everything. The condiments would be the specific  examples  and  illustrations  that can help to  clarify  key points and keep your writing interesting. (Who, after all, would eat a burger composed only of bread and beef?) Each part needs to be present: A soggy or missing bun would cause your fingers to slip immediately into the beef without being able to hold and enjoy the burger. But if your burger had no beef in the middle, youd be left with two dry pieces of bread. The Introduction Your  introductory paragraphs  introduce the reader to your topic. For example, you might choose to write an essay titled, Technology Is Changing Our Lives. Start your introduction with a  hook  that captures the readers attention: Technology is taking over our lives and changing the world. After you introduce your topic and draw the reader in, the most important part of your introductory paragraph(s) would be you  the main idea, or  thesis. The Little Seagull Handbook calls this a statement that introduces your main point, identifying your topic. Your thesis statement could read: Information technology has revolutionized the way we work. But, your topic can be more varied and may cover seemingly mundane subjects, such as this opening paragraph from  Mary Zeiglers  How to Catch River Crabs. Zeigler grabs the readers attention  from the first sentence: As a lifelong crabber (that is, one who catches crabs, not a chronic complainer), I can tell you that anyone who has patience and a great love for the river is qualified to join the ranks of crabbers.​ The final sentences of your introduction, then, would be a mini-outline of what your essay will cover. Dont use an outline form, but explain briefly all the key points you intend to discuss in narrative form. Supporting Paragraphs Extending the hamburger essay theme, the  supporting paragraphs  would be beef. These would include well-researched and logical points that support your thesis. The  topic sentence  of each paragraph might serve as the reference points of your mini-outline. The topic  sentence, which is often  at the beginning of a  paragraph, states or suggests the main idea (or  topic) of a paragraph. Bellevue College in Washington state shows how to write  four different supporting paragraphs on four different topics: a description of a beautiful day; savings and loan and bank failures; the writers father; and, the writers joke-playing cousin. Bellevue explains that your supporting paragraphs should provide rich, vivid imagery, or logical and specific supporting details, depending on your topic. A perfect supporting paragraph for the technology topic, discussed previously, could draw on current events. In its Jan. 20-21, 2018, weekend edition, The Wall Street Journal ran an article titled, Digital Revolution Upends Ad Industry: A Divide Between Old Guard and New Tech Hires. The article described in searing detail, how one of the worlds biggest ad agencies lost a major Mcdonalds advertising account to a relative upstart  because the fast-food chain felt the older agency was not adept enough at using data to quickly produce online ads and target minute slices of its customer base. The younger, hipper, agency, by contrast, had worked with Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Incs Google to assemble a team of data experts. You could use this news story to illustrate how technology—and a need for workers who understand it and are able to use it—is taking over the world and is changing entire industries. The Conclusion Just as a hamburger needs a durable bottom bun to contain all the ingredients inside, your essay needs a strong conclusion to support and buttress your points. You can also think of it as the  closing argument  a prosecutor might make in a criminal court case. The closing arguments section of a trial takes place when the prosecution attempts to strengthen the evidence she presented to the jury.  Even though the prosecutor likely provided solid and compelling arguments and evidence during the trial, it isnt until the closing arguments that she ties it all together. In the same way, youll restate your main points in the conclusion in reverse order of how you listed them in your introduction. Some sources call this an upside-down triangle: The intro was a triangle that was right-side up, where you started with a short, razor sharp point—your hook—which then fanned out slightly to your topic sentence and broadened further with your mini-outline. The conclusion, by contrast, is an upside-down triangle that starts by broadly reviewing the evidence—the points you made in your supporting paragraphs—and then narrows to your topic sentence and a restatement of your hook. In this way, youve logically explained your points, restated your main idea, and left readers with a zinger that hopefully convinces them of your point of view. Source Bullock, Richard. The Little Seagull Handbook with Exercises. Michal Brody, Francine Weinberg, Third edition, W. W. Norton Company, December 22, 2016.