BEST WRITING SKILLS GUIDES -PART 5 FREELANCERS SITE

2. Paper Structure

A well-organized, grade-A paper should have perfect structure. Every part of your essay
should have its purpose, be coherent and correctly formatted. The following are the inevitable
constituents of any essay:

● Introductory sentence
In a typical essay, that first sentence leads into two or three sentences that provide details about
your subject. All of these sentences build up to your thesis statement.

● The thesis statement is that sentence or two in your text that contains the focus of your
essay and tells your reader what the essay is going to be about. The entirety of your paper
hangs on that sentence. But its function is to be informative and direct.
To get your paper off to a great start, you should try to have a first sentence that engages your
reader. Think of your first sentence as a hook that draws your reader in.

● Body part
Body should consist of several paragraphs (usually not shorter than 3), each talking/discussing
different fact or point of view. Each paragraph should have a topic sentence which expresses a
controlling idea. A topic sentence has several important functions: it substantiates or supports
an essay’s thesis statement; it unifies the content of a paragraph and directs the order of the
sentences; and it advises the reader of the subject to be discussed and how the paragraph will
discuss it
.
● Conclusion
It is a good idea to recapitulatewhat you said in your thesis statement in order to suggest to
your reader that you have accomplished what you set out to accomplish. Do not, in any case,
simply restate your thesis statement in your final paragraph. The conclusion is no place to
bring up new ideas. The conclusion should contain a definite, positive statement or call to
action, but that statement needs to be based on what we have provided in the essay.

● Paragraph structure (should resemble an essay)
Most paragraphs in an essay have a three-part structure—introduction, body, and conclusion.
You can see this structure in paragraphs whether they are narrating, describing, comparing,
contrasting, or analyzing information. Each part of the paragraph plays an important role in
communicating your meaning to your reader.
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