Techies Line You’ve done your research and are ready to write. Congrats! The next step is only ahead of you: the writing itself. Are you sitting at your essay and wondering how to structure it the best? Do you think your essay structures could be better? These seven tips we’ve got for you will get you covered. Remember, the structure is only the first step in your writing endeavour. Don’t forget to let proofreading services have a look at it. If you’d like to find out more about proofreading services.
Table of Contents
1. Lay Out a Basic Outline
Your outline is the most important part of your first step to start writing your essay. It lays out a roadmap for you about which points you’d like to talk about. Once you’ve put it down, you won’t experience any writer’s block either. Writer’s block only happens if there’s not a single word in your document and that’s when most don’t know how to start. With the outline at hand, you already know each point. It can also serve as an organisational tool that you can hand in your essay to proofreading services faster.
An essay basically consists of three parts:
- Introduction
- Main body
- Conclusion
2. Take Care of the Introduction
Some students like to write their introduction only after they’ve finished writing the body. It’s a good idea to write your introduction first as it can also serve as an outline for the main part of your essay, the body. However, if you like to write it last, do prepare at least an outline for your introduction. Use bullet points to note the following:
- Hook: The hook is supposed to gather the interest of your readers. For some teachers, the introduction already determines whether they think it’s a good or bad essay. As a hook you can use statistics, common misconceptions or simply your thesis statement.
- Why are you writing your essay? Provide some short information about what you’re going to talk about in your essay. The W’s are helpful in this instance, such as: who, where, when, what and why.
- Core Statement: Put down a sentence about what you’re trying to achieve with your essay.
3. Choose a Method for Your Body
Before you start with the main part of your essay, choose which method you’re going to use. You’ve got three to choose from:
- Chronological order
- Contrast and Comparison
- Problem, method, solution
The Chronological Order
Chronological orders are easiest to follow as you start with events in their order. These are most common in historical contexts, but also for experiments. If your essay is supposed to be about a particular subject matter, you can start with the earliest findings related to your topic.
Contrast and Comparison
This method is most common when you have to cover more than one subject. For example, you’d have to compare two literary texts and compare their strengths and weaknesses against each other. However, these can get quite chaotic if you don’t pay attention and you may need editing instead of proofreading services first.
Problem, method, solution
Essays are often about trying to solve a problem. It could be a scientific problem or simply a practical problem. First, you explain the problem. In the second part, you’d find a method for a possible solution. Last, but not least, you’d present the solution in your essay.
4. Your Body
Your body, your choice doesn’t quite apply here. Your essay body provides arguments to support your thesis claim, but also to possibly refute it. It starts with a bit more background info about your thesis. Split it into three parts with subheadings or subtopics demonstrating your key points. As a rule of thumb, you start with topics that have the most impact/are most important. Alternatively, move from the simplest idea to the more complicated one. With chronological orders, you obviously start with the earliest point. You can still add more parts if you feel like you don’t yet cover all you want to say. It’d be a shame to come up with more ideas you feel you’d have to mention after your essay already went through proofreading services.
5. Use Paragraphs Wisely
The more paragraphs you’re writing in your essay, the more pleasant it is to the eye. Entire pages without paragraphs make it even a bit hard for proofreading services to do their job, Each of your paragraphs should focus on one idea. Start with an introductory sentence and end it with a closing sentence. Add a good transition at the end of each paragraph to introduce an idea of the next paragraph.
6. Use Subtopics
While your main body might consist of just three or four parts, it can be hard to follow each chapter without subtopics. Subtopics are there to dive deeper into a point you’re trying to make for your thesis claims. For example, if you were to write about navy troops in World War 2 in one part of your body, subtopics could describe navy troops in the Pacific, the Atlantic and the Baltic Sea. Proofreading services don’t do that part for you.
7. The Conclusion
The conclusion is the end of your essay. You briefly write about your findings as a kind of summary. It should be convincing of your thesis claim. If you’ve got new ideas for your thesis, keep them to yourself. At best, you can put a note in that there should be further research into some topics you’ve covered.
Parting Words
Your structure is the backbone of your essay. It should follow a logical order or rather a golden thread. With a good structure in place, you will find it easier to stick at it and not to go off-topic. Always make an outline first to navigate yourself through the writing process. Proofreading services cannot help you with adjusting your structure as it’s more an editing task. Thus, it’s best to make sure first that your structure is perfect.