WRITING YOUR ESSAY

Once you have a good essay plan (see Planning Your Essay), with a thesis statement and
some main supporting points, you can go on to build your argument in the form of an essay
draft. Keep in mind that an essay has a specific structure of: introduction, body & conclusion.
The introduction says what the essay is about, the body gives the content and the conclusion
summarises and restates the main points.

Writing your introduction

An introduction leads your reader into the topic and sets out the context. The number of
words in an introduction should be approximately 10% of the total essay word count. The
structure of the introduction is: sentence 1 - introduce the general subject; sentence 2 -
introduce the topic; sentence 3 - introduce your position (thesis statement); sentence 4 -
introduce the essay as a document (first, second, third, finally); sentence 5 - state the scope of
the essay and say what you will not cover.

Hint!
The introduction gives an overview of your whole essay. Do not go into too much
specific detail; avoid quotes – this is a ‘big picture’ of YOUR argument. Save the detail
for the body of your essay.

Writing the paragraphs in the body of the essay

The body of an essay comprises a series of paragraphs in which you support your thesis. In a
1-2000 word essay, each paragraph will be 2-400 words. This is where your describe and
analyse the reasons in support of your thesis statement. Include evidence to back up your
reasons (this can be in the form of in-text citations to other authors). Start each paragraph with
a topic sentence. This states the main point you will make in this paragraph. The second
sentence of a paragraph often expands and explains this point. Begin and end each paragraph
with either clear or implied links to the previous and next paragraphs, so that there are no big
jumps of meaning, and there is a sense of ‘flow’.

Writing your conclusion

The final paragraph of your essay should summarise your argument. Do not add any new
material. Remind the reader of the main argument (your thesis) and the reasoning behind it
(your supporting points). Add any other remarks that emphasise the significance of the thesis.
You may want to point to other implications that could be addressed in further research. The
number of words in a conclusion should be approximately 10% of the total essay word count.

Plan to do a few drafts of your essay before you submit it. Academics usually rewrite their
work multiple times!