37 Strategy: Writing an Academic Essay [in pieces…]

The Introduction:

The introduction has work to do, besides grabbing the reader’s attention. Below are things to consider about the purposes or the tasks for your introduction and some examples of how you might approach those tasks.

• The introduction needs to alert the reader to what the central issue of the paper is.
• The introduction is where you provide any important background information the reader should have before getting to the thesis.
• The introduction tells why you have written the paper and what the reader should understand about your topic and your perspective.
• The introduction tells the reader what to expect and what to look for in your essay.
• The thesis statement (typically at the end of the introduction) should clearly state the claim, question, or point of view the writer is putting forth in the paper.

The Thesis Statement:

The purpose of academic writing is to offer your own insights, analyses, and ideas—to show not only that you understand the concepts you’re studying, but also that you have thought about those concepts in your own way, agreed or disagreed, or developed your own unique ideas as a result of your analysis. The thesis sentence is the one sentence that represents the result of your thinking as it offers your main insight or argument in condensed form.

A basic thesis statement has two main parts:

• Topic: What you’re writing about
• Angle: What your main idea is about that topic

As you begin drafting your own thesis statement, be sure to check out the following thesis statement checklist:

My thesis statement…

• is debatable.
• states an opinion or provides an angle on my topic.
• states my topic.
• lets my readers know the main idea of the essay.
• is specific but not so specific that I cannot develop it well for the length requirements of my assignment.

Body Paragraphs:

Use body paragraphs to elaborate, support, and expand upon the ideas that you originally presented in your introduction. A good paragraph should have at least the following four elements: transition, topic sentence, specific evidence and analysis, and a short wrap-up sentence.

Take a glance at the above-mentioned paragraph elements:

• Transition sentence that leads in from a previous paragraph to the next. This assures smooth reading and acts as a hand-off from one idea to the next.
• Topic sentence that tells the reader what you will be discussing in the paragraph.
• Specific evidence that supports one of your claims. It [evidence] should provide more specific detail about your topic sentence.
• A brief wrap-up sentence that tells the reader how and why this information supports the paper’s thesis. It connects your reasoning and support to your thesis, and it shows that the information in the paragraph is related to your thesis and helps defend it.

The Conclusion:

A satisfying conclusion allows your reader to finish your paper with a clear understanding of the points you made and possibly even a new perspective on the topic.

• Restate your main points for emphasis (don’t literally use the same sentence(s) as in your introduction, but come up with a comparable way of restating your thesis.) You’ll want to smoothly conclude by showing the judgment you have reached is, in fact, reasonable.
• Point out the importance or worthiness of your topic
• Point out the limitations of the present understanding of your topic, suggest or recommend future action, study or research that needs to be done.

Here is the general essay structure including the introduction, body, and conclusion: