Okay, so you need to write an English essay. How do you get a high score? And what do you write about? If you’re asking these questions, this is the blog for you. In this blog, I will show you an essay structure that you can use for high-level English exams like IELTS, PTE, or TOEFL, or even just for high school essays. It works in any situation, for any essay type, or any question prompt. And, speaking of essay types and question prompts, we need to start there.
Essay types and question prompts: #
Before I show you the amazing essay structure, we must first ensure that you meet the requirements of the essay you’ve been given. To achieve this, you must focus on one task at a time. Answer the question. It sounds simple, but people always seem to screw it up. If I give you a question prompt like this one that requires you to write a comparison essay by providing advantages and disadvantages:
In some countries, most people prefer to rent their houses rather than buy them. What are the advantages and disadvantages of renting a home?
Okay, now that we have gotten that out of the way, we can move on to a powerful and flexible essay structure that you can use for any essay question.
The essay’s structure: #
This is the essay structure I want to demonstrate to you. This is the ultimate essay structure. Trust me, it’s perfectly coherent and logical. And once you learn it, you’ll never forget it. I’m going to teach you how to write an introduction that connects to both your body paragraphs and mirrors your conclusion paragraph. I’ll show you how the conclusion paragraph will connect back to the body paragraphs and mirror the introduction.
Honestly, this essay structure is so simple and powerful that you could end up teaching the class, or you could keep it a secret and achieve high scores for yourself; the choice is entirely yours. Let’s now look at each part of the essay and understand why each paragraph exists.
Paragraph purposes: #
So a standard essay will have four parts: an introduction, some body paragraphs, maybe two, three, or more, and a conclusion.
There’s actually a very simple and powerful way to understand the purpose of each paragraph. In the introduction, you simply tell the reader what you’re going to tell them, and then in your body paragraphs, you tell them. And then, in the conclusion, you tell the reader what you told them. That’s it. That’s the purpose of each paragraph. It also provides you with an understanding of how everything is interconnected.
Keep it simple and keep it clear.
Teachers and examiners hate paragraphs and essays that lack purpose. You’re not writing a novel, a poem, or a biography; you’re answering a question using a specific structure.
Make a quick plan: #
Before we begin writing, it’s important to make a quick plan. You should never start writing without thinking the question through. If you start writing without planning, you end up deleting entire sections and wasting heaps of time. You need to set a direction for your essay.
Let’s plan my essay; it will only take a few seconds, and it’s going to relate to yours. So my essay prompt says, In some countries, most people prefer to rent their houses rather than buy them. And the question asks, What are the advantages and disadvantages of renting a home?
We need to pause and consider this for a moment. In order to write my essay, I need to identify one advantage and one disadvantage of renting a house. That’s what the question asked. So that’s what we should do.
Advantages of renting. Well, what about you? You can move the house when you want. disadvantages of renting? Well, it is somewhat of a waste of money, as you are not making any progress on the house.
That was pretty easy.
My advice is to thoroughly consider the question, remain calm, and identify the primary idea or ideas. If you can identify the most important idea or ideas, then your essay will come together and flow much more easily.
Writing becomes more challenging if you stall on minor ideas. However, I have successfully identified my primary ideas. So I’m now ready to write my essay. Ready?
The introduction. We’re going to write a three-part introduction. It doesn’t have to be three sentences; you can write more if you wish, but it must consist of three parts.
First, you need to make a broad background statement.
Second, you need to rewrite the question prompt in your own words.
Third, you need to write a thesis statement.
Stay with me; this isn’t hard. I’ll show you how to write mine. You can easily follow along and replicate the same structure for your own essay. So number one is the introduction sentence, where we write a broad background statement.
Your first sentence is very broad; you almost need to pretend that your teacher, examiner, or whoever is going to read your essay has no idea what you’re writing about. As a result, you must provide them with some background information. You can’t just jump straight into your arguments; you need to set the context. So let’s take a look at my question prompt. Allow me to present you with an effective opening sentence for your essay.
In some countries, most people prefer to rent their houses rather than buy them.
Alright, so what’s the broad social context here? Every essay has a social context. Well, this one is about renting versus buying houses. I’m going to write something along these lines:
For some people, the dream of owning a home is not possible or is unfavorable.
Pretty simple, right? I’ve written a simple sentence; it’s almost obvious. And yours also needs to be obvious. Don’t make it confusing or profound. I’ve simply stated that some people can’t or don’t want to buy a house. It’s actually a great opening sentence. Remember that essay diagram I showed you earlier? Let’s look at it again. So the introduction is an upside-down pyramid, and your first sentence, the first sentence of the introduction, is broad. The second sentence of your introduction should be a rephrasing of the essay prompt in your own words. So in the second sentence of your introduction, simply rewrite the essay prompt in your own words.
Another way to express this is that you need to paraphrase the essay prompt. So let’s do it to mine. Here’s the prompt.
In some countries, most people prefer to rent their houses rather than buy them.
Okay, so I’m going to rewrite this essay prompt rather than the question; the prompt is the first part.
Mine says:
In some countries, many people decide that renting their home is preferable to buying it.
Notice how some words and phrases are exactly the same. That’s fine. Observe how certain words, such as “prefer” and “preferable,” are the same, but their forms have been altered. Observe that I’ve incorporated synonyms, which are distinct terms with comparable or identical meanings. Additionally, I have substituted a pronoun for a noun in that particular instance.
So far, so good.
We began our essay in a broad manner, but now, as we refine it, we are narrowing our focus. Your teacher or examiner will be extremely impressed with our work thus far. They’ll ask, Who’s this wonderful student?
The third introduction sentence instructs you to write your thesis statement and inform the reader about the topic of your writing. So, a thesis simply means an argument, your position, or what you think. Okay, so here we tell the reader, your teacher, or examiner. Let me show you mine.
My thesis statement says:
In this essay, I will discuss why renting can allow for a more flexible lifestyle, but why it can eventually be financially disadvantageous.
Can you identify the two concepts I’ve presented in this plan? And can you see how explicit I’m being? I will discuss or you can write; I will compare or argue; or I will show; and then simply write your two ideas.
Let’s now continue on to the body paragraphs.
The body paragraphs: #
In the introduction, we conveyed our intended message to the reader, and now it’s time to deliver it. Your body paragraphs are where you take two ideas from your plan and write a paragraph about each of them. This is the meat in your sandwich. Now your body paragraphs also have a structure. Each body paragraph will have four parts. Each body paragraph should not necessarily consist of four sentences; you are free to write more, but it should have four underlying parts.
First, a topic sentence where you introduce your main idea.
Second, give a reason or an example in a sentence.
Third, give another reason or example in a sentence.
The final sentence serves as a summary of your idea. This is the broad structure, and you can leave out a reason if you want to, or add two examples. It’s up to you.
Let’s now go through each section of the body paragraph, sentence by sentence, to ensure you understand it completely. Your body paragraph aligns perfectly with your introduction. Remember, in your thesis statement, you mentioned in the third part of your introduction, “I will.” As I said in this essay, I will discuss why renting can allow for a more flexible lifestyle. I now have to write a paragraph about that.
By doing so, we are establishing a connection between our introduction and our body paragraph. So here’s my first body paragraph.
The main benefit of renting a house rather than buying one is that you can move at any time. If you change jobs and your new office is far away, you can rent a house closer to work, which will save you a lot of time commuting. Similarly, if crime becomes an issue in your local neighborhood, you can pack up your belongings and move.
Clearly, there are advantages to renting a home. Let’s unpack it. Here is my topic sentence, where I make it very clear what the paragraph is about. It’s not a mystery story; I make it explicit.
The main benefit of renting a house rather than buying one is that you can move at any time. Now I need a reason or an example to back up that main idea. If you change jobs, for example, or your new office is far away, then you can rent a house closer to work, which will save you lots of time commuting.
Now, I need an additional argument or example to reinforce my main point. Or, for whatever reason, if crime becomes an issue in your local neighborhood, you can pack up your belongings and move.
Finally, I need to summarize my main point in a concise sentence. Clearly, being able to move is a key advantage of renting.
Can you see how the final wrap-up sentence also connects back to the essay question prompt? It’s very clever.
Now for your second body paragraph. Just repeat that structure again with your second idea. Simple, powerful. By now, you’re well on your way to a plus or a top score. Now we’re going to put it all together and write a conclusion that mirrors the introduction and re-iterates the main ideas mentioned in our body paragraphs one and two.
The conclusion: #
The conclusion is simple to write. You’re not writing anything original, and you’re not adding new ideas. In the conclusion, you’re simply repeating or reiterating what you’ve already said.
Remember the purposes of the paragraphs we discussed earlier.
In the introduction, you tell the reader what you will tell them. In your body paragraphs, you elaborate on your points, and in the conclusion, you reiterate your points. Easy.
So our conclusion will have two parts—not necessarily two sentences, but two parts.
In the first part of the conclusion, you will write what this essay discussed, argued, compared, or showed, and then you’ll express main idea one and main idea two.
In the second part of your conclusion, you will express your personal opinion.
Notice how the first sentence of the conclusion almost perfectly mirrors the final sentence of the introduction that we saw earlier.
The thesis statement of the introduction, which is also the final sentence of the introduction, states, “In this essay, I will,” while the first sentence of the conclusion states, “In this essay, I did, I argued, I discussed, and I showed.”
This is how you create that powerful, coherent, and logical flow. In my opinion, the final sentence is straightforward. You just give your opinion.
Here’s my conclusion:
In this essay, I argue that renting provides greater flexibility while owning results in greater financial reward. Personally, I prefer to rent so that I can live a more flexible lifestyle.
Can you see how I repeated the main idea one and main idea two in the first sentence of the conclusion?
And can you see how I’ve given my opinion in the second sentence to finish the entire essay?
So today, we’ve learned an essay structure that you can use for the rest of your life. In any situation, it works for every essay type and every question prompt. It’s powerful because it’s interconnected and keeps you on topic. The logic and coherence of this structure are powerful, but you need to practice them. Once you do that, you can’t forget it; it just makes perfect sense.
Let’s just recap the key concepts one more time. So in an essay, you need to tell the reader what you will tell them in the introduction, then in the body paragraphs, and then in the conclusion. Your introduction starts broad, paraphrases the essay prompt, and finishes with your thesis statement. This essay will… Your body paragraphs have an opening or topic sentence where you introduce the main idea, give reasons and examples, and then wrap up with a final sentence.
Then, in your conclusion, you rephrase your introduction by writing, “In this essay, I argued disgust showed,” among other similar phrases. You conclude by simply expressing your personal opinion. Job done. Cool. Hopefully, that clarifies what an essay is and how to write it. Now, you’re ready to begin writing.
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