The Essay and Its Parts
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An introduction to good writing practice
Introductions
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Things NOT to do in an introductory paragraph:
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Apologize. Never suggest that you don't know what you're talking about or that you're not enough
of an expert in this matter that your opinion would matter. Your reader will quickly turn to
something else. Avoid phrases like the following:
 In my [humble] opinion . . .
I'm not sure about this, but . . .
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Announce your intentions. Do not flatly announce what you are about to do in an essay.
 In this paper I will . . .
The purpose of this essay is to . . .
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Get to it. Move confidently into your essay. Many writers find it useful to write a warm-up
paragraph (or two, even) to get them into the essay, to sharpen their own idea of what they're up
to, and then they go back and delete the running start.
© http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/intros.ht
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Introductions
3
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Introductory paragraphs should accomplish two tasks:
 1. They should get the reader's interest so that he or she will want to read more.
 2. They should let the reader know what the writing is going to be about.
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The second task can be accomplished by a carefully crafted thesis statement. Writing thesis
statements can be learned rather quickly. The first task — securing the reader's interest — is more
difficult.
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The question then becomes: "What can a writer do that will secure the interest of a fair sized
audience?"
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Professional writers who write for magazines and receive pay for their work use five basic
patterns to grab a reader's interest:
historical review
anecdotal
surprising statement
declarative
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©http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/intros.ht
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Introductions
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1 Historical review: Some topics are better understood if a brief historical review of the topic is
presented to lead into the discussion of the moment. Such topics might include… "an upcoming
execution of a convicted criminal," or "drugs and the younger generation." Obviously there are
many, many more topics that could be introduced by reviewing the history of the topic before the
writer gets down to the nitty gritty of his paper. It is important that the historical review be brief so
that it does not take over the paper.

from "Integration Turns 40" by Juan Williams in Modern Maturity, April/May, 1994.
 The victory brought pure elation and joy. It was May 1954, just days after the Supreme Court's
landmark ruling in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. At NAACP headquarters in
New York the mood was euphoric. Telegrams of congratulations poured in from around the world;
reporters and well-wishers crowded the halls.
[After reaching back forty years ago to bring up the landmark Supreme Court decision that started
school desegregation, this article discusses school segregation in the present time.]
Introductions
5
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2 Anecdotal: An anecdote is a little story. Everyone loves to listen to stories. Begin a paper by
relating a small story that leads into the topic of your paper. Your story should be a small episode,
not a full blown story with characters and plot and setting…If you do it right, your story will
capture the reader's interest so that he or she will continue to read your paper. One caution: be sure
that your story does not take over the paper. Remember, it is an introduction, not the paper.
 from "Going, Going, GONE to the Auction!" by Laurie Goering in Chicago Tribune Magazine,
July 4, 1994.
 Mike Cantlon remembers coming across his first auction ten years ago while cruising the back
roads of Wisconsin. He parked his car and wandered into the crowd, toward the auctioneer's
singsong chant and wafting smell of barbecued sandwiches. Hours later, Cantlon emerged lugging
a $22 beam drill-for constructing post-and-beam barns—and a passion for auctions that has clung
like a cocklebur on an old saddle blanket. "It's an addiction," says Cantlon, a financial planner and
one of the growing number of auction fanatics for whom Saturdays will never be the same.
[This is an anecdote, a little story about one man and his first auction, that is the lead to an article
about auctions. In this article the author explains what auctions are, how to spot bargains in
auctions, what to protect yourself from at auctions, and other facts about auctions and the people
who go to them.]
Introductions
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3 Surprising statement: A surprising statement is a favorite introductory technique of
professional writers. There are many ways a statement can surprise a reader. Sometimes the
statement is surprising because it is disgusting. Sometimes it is joyful. Sometimes it is shocking.
Sometimes it is surprising because of who said it. Sometimes it is surprising because it includes
profanity. Professional writers have honed this technique to a fine edge. It is not used as much as
the first two patterns, but it is used.

from "60 Seconds That Could Save Your Child" by Cathy Perlmutter with Maureen Sangiorgio in
Prevention, September, 1993.
 Have a minute? Good. Because that may be all it takes to save the life of a child—your child.
Accidents kill nearly 8000 children under age 15 each year. And for every fatality, 42 more
children are admitted to hospitals for treatment. Yet such deaths and injuries can be avoided
through these easy steps parents can take right now. You don't have a minute to lose.
[This article begins with a surprising, even shocking, statistic, 8000 children die each year from
accidents. The article then lists seven easy actions a person can take to help guard a child against
accidents. These range from turning down the water heater to 120 degrees Fahrenheit to putting
firearms under lock and key.]
From
©http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/intros.ht
Introductions

4 Declarative: This technique is quite commonly used, but it must be carefully used or the writer defeats
his whole purpose of using one of these patterns, to get the reader's interest. In this pattern, the writer
simply states straight out what the topic of his paper is going to be about. It is the technique that most
student writers use with only modest success most of the time, but good professional writers use it too.

from "The Tuition Tap" by Tim Lindemuth in K-Stater, February, 1994.
 In the College of Veterinary Medicine and Engineering, for example, nearly one-third of the teaching
faculty may retire by the year 2004. In the College of Education, more than a third of the professors are
55 years old and older. The largest turnover for a single department is projected to be in geology. More
than half of its faculty this year are in the age group that will retire at the millennium, says Ron Downey
of K-State's Office of Institutional Research and Analysis. The graying of K-State's faculty is not unique.
A Regents' report shows approximately 27 percent of the faculty at the six state universities will retire by
the end of this decade, creating a shortage of senior faculty.
[This is a straight forward introduction that gets right down to the topic of the aging of the faculty of
Kansas State University. There are no historical reviews, no surprising statements, no anecdotes, no
quotations from or about famous people. This is a discussion that leads to further discussion about the
topic. The biggest difficulty about this type of introduction is that it can get boring. It is not likely to get
the interest of anyone except those who are already interested in this subject. Use this pattern with
caution.]
The Thesis
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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.. Many writers think of a thesis statement
as an umbrella: everything that you carry along in your essay has to fit under this umbrella, and if
you try to take on packages that don't fit, you will either have to get a bigger umbrella or
something's going to get wet.
The principle to remember is that when you try to do too much, you end up doing less or nothing
at all. Can we write a good paper about problems in higher education in the United States? At best,
such a paper would be vague and scattered in its approach. Can we write a good paper about
problems in higher education in Connecticut? Well, we're getting there, but that's still an awfully
big topic, something we might be able to handle in a book or a Ph.D. dissertation, but certainly not
in a paper meant for a Composition course. Can we write a paper about problems within the
community college system in Connecticut. Now we're narrowing down to something useful, but
once we start writing such a paper, we would find that we're leaving out so much information, so
many ideas that even most casual brainstorming would produce, that we're not accomplishing
much. What if we wrote about the problem of community colleges in Connecticut being so close
together geographically that they tend to duplicate programs unnecessarily and impinge on each
other's turf? Now we have a focus that we can probably write about in a few pages (although more,
certainly, could be said) and it would have a good argumentative edge to it.
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/compositio
n/thesis.htm#
The Thesis
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Thesis Checklist
 Your thesis is more than a general statement about your main idea. It needs to establish a clear
position you will support with balanced proofs (logos, pathos, ethos). Use the checklist below to
help you create a thesis.
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This section is adapted from Writing with a Thesis: A Rhetoric Reader by David Skwire and Sarah
Skwire:
Make sure you avoid the following when creating your thesis:
A thesis is not a title: Homes and schools (title) vs. Parents ought to participate more in the
education of their children (good thesis).
A thesis is not an announcement of the subject: My subject is the incompetence of the Supreme
Court vs. The Supreme Court made a mistake when it ruled in favor of George W. Bush in the
2000 election.
A thesis is not a statement of absolute fact: Jane Austen is the author of Pride and Prejudice.
A thesis is not the whole essay: A thesis is your main idea/claim/refutation/problem-solution
expressed in a single sentence or a combination of sentences.
©http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/724/01/
The Thesis
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Make sure you follow these guidelines when creating your thesis:
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A good thesis is unified: Detective stories are not a high form of literature, but people have
always been fascinated by them, and many fine writers have experimented with them (floppy). vs.
Detective stories appeal to the basic human desire for thrills (concise).
A good thesis is specific: James Joyce’s Ulysses is very good. vs. James Joyce’s Ulysses helped
create a new way for writers to deal with the unconscious.
Try to be as specific as possible (without providing too much detail) when creating your
thesis: James Joyce’s Ulysses helped create a new way for writers to deal with the unconscious.
vs. James Joyce’s Ulysses helped create a new way for writers to deal with the unconscious by
utilizing the findings of Freudian psychology and introducing the techniques of literary stream-ofconsciousness.
Quick Checklist:
_____ The thesis/claim follows the guidelines outlined above
_____ The thesis/claim matches the requirements and goals of the assignment
_____ The thesis/claim is clear and easily recognizable
_____ The thesis/claim seems supportable by good reasoning/data, emotional appeal
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©http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/724/01/
The Thesis
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A thesis is never a question. Readers of academic essays expect to have questions discussed,
explored, or even answered. A question ("Why did communism collapse in Eastern Europe?") is
not an argument, and without an argument, a thesis is dead in the water.
 A thesis should never be vague, combative or confrontational. An ineffective thesis would be,
"Communism collapsed in Eastern Europe because communism is evil." This is hard to argue (evil
from whose perspective? what does evil mean?) and it is likely to mark you as moralistic and
judgmental rather than rational and thorough. It also may spark a defensive reaction from readers
sympathetic to communism. If readers strongly disagree with you right off the bat, they may stop
reading.
 An effective thesis has a definable, arguable claim. "While cultural forces contributed to the
collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, the disintegration of economies played the key role in
driving its decline" is an effective thesis sentence that "telegraphs," so that the reader expects the
essay to have a section about cultural forces and another about the disintegration of economies.
This thesis makes a definite, arguable claim: that the disintegration of economies played a more
important role than cultural forces in defeating communism in Eastern Europe. The reader would
react to this statement by thinking, "Perhaps what the author says is true, but I am not convinced. I
want to read further to see how the author argues this claim."
©http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~wricntr/documents/
Thesis.html
The Thesis
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The thesis statement should remain flexible until the paper is actually finished. It ought to be one of the last
things that we fuss with in the rewriting process. If we discover new information in the process of writing our
paper that ought to be included in the thesis statement, then we'll have to rewrite our thesis statement. On the
other hand, if we discover that our paper has done adequate work but the thesis statement appears to include
things that we haven't actually addressed, then we need to limit that thesis statement.
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The thesis statement usually appears near the beginning of a paper. Here is the first paragraph of Arthur
Schlesinger, Jr.'s essay The Crisis of American Masculinity. Notice how everything drives the reader toward the
last sentence and how that last sentence clearly signals what the rest of this essay is going to do.
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What has happened to the American male? For a long time, he seemed utterly confident in his manhood, sure of
his masculine role in society, easy and definite in his sense of sexual identity. The frontiersmen of James
Fenimore Cooper, for example, never had any concern about masculinity; they were men, and it did not occur to
them to think twice about it. Even well into the twentieth century, the heroes of Dreiser, of Fitzgerald, of
Hemingway remain men. But one begins to detect a new theme emerging in some of these authors, especially in
Hemingway: the theme of the male hero increasingly preoccupied with proving his virility to himself. And by
mid-century, the male role had plainly lost its rugged clarity of outline. Today men are more and more conscious
of maleness not as a fact but as a problem. The ways by which American men affirm their masculinity are
uncertain and obscure. There are multiplying signs, indeed, that something has gone badly wrong with the
American male's conception of himself.
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/compositio
n/thesis.htm#
Thesis Statement Examples
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Example of an analytical thesis statement:
An analysis of the college admission process reveals one challenge facing counselors: accepting students
with high test scores or students with strong extracurricular backgrounds.
The paper that follows should:
explain the analysis of the college admission process
explain the challenge facing admissions counselors
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Example of an expository (explanatory) thesis statement:
 The life of the typical college student is characterized by time spent studying, attending class, and
socializing with peers.
 The paper that follows should: explain how students spend their time studying, attending class, and
socializing with peers
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Example of an argumentative thesis statement:
 High school graduates should be required to take a year off to pursue community service projects before
entering college in order to increase their maturity and global awareness.
 The paper that follows should: present an argument and give evidence to support the claim that students
should pursue community projects before entering college
©http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/545/01/
Thesis Activity
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 Create one thesis statement for each of the following five topics:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Energy Conservation
Obesity
Free College (yes/no)
Nationalized Healthcare for U.S.A (yes/no)
5.
http://english-9-period-6f.ycjusd.yhs.schoolfusion.us/modules/locker/files/get_group_file.phtml?gid=170185
6&fid=7603658
6.
http://wps.ablongman.com/long_fowler_lbh_11/118/30441/7793086.cw/index.html
http://wps.ablongman.com/long_fowler_lbh_11/118/30441/7793078.cw/index.html
7.
The Body
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Body Paragraphs: Moving from General to Specific Information
 Your paper should be organized in a manner that moves from general to specific information.
Every time you begin a new subject, think of an inverted pyramid - the broadest range of
information sits at the top, and as the paragraph or paper progresses, the author becomes more and
more focused on the argument ending with specific, detailed evidence supporting a claim. Lastly,
the author explains how and why the information she has just provided connects to and supports
her thesis (a brief wrap up or warrant).
 Image Caption: Moving from General to Specific Information
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The Body
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The four elements of a good paragraph (TTEB)
 A good paragraph should contain at least the following four elements: Transition, Topic sentence,
specific Evidence and analysis, and a Brief wrap-up sentence (also known as a warrant) – TTEB!
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1.A Transition sentence leading in from a previous paragraph to assure smooth reading. This acts
as a hand off from one idea to the next.
2.A Topic sentence that tells the reader what you will be discussing in the paragraph.
3.Specific Evidence and analysis that supports one of your claims and that provides a deeper level
of detail than your topic sentence.
4.A Brief wrap-up sentence that tells the reader how and why this information supports the paper’s
thesis. The brief wrap-up is also known as the warrant. The warrant is important to your argument
because 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.
Supporting evidence (induction and deduction)
The Body
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
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http://wps.ablongman.com/long_fowler_lbh_11/118/30441/7793112.cw/index.html
Topic Sentences
 http://wps.ablongman.com/long_fowler_lbh_11/118/30441/7793112.cw/index.html
Transitions
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 http://www.smart-words.org/transition-words-
phrases.pdf
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syXhdcDeH64
©University of Wales, Aberystwyth
Example of The Difference
 Original Sentence: Succeeding in college often is a
challenge for students. Most colleges provide services
designed to help students. They include peer tutoring
and personal counseling. Colleges need to provide more
services to help students succeed.
 Revised with transitions: Succeeding in college often
is a challenge for students. Therefore, most colleges
provide services designed to help students, such as peer
tutoring and personal counseling. However, colleges
need to do more to help students succeed.
Problems to Avoid
 1. Use the appropriate transitions:
 Example: George's wife stands at the window and looks out at
the rain falling on the empty streets. For example, she sees
a cat huddled under a table in the rain. (“Consequently”
would be more appropriate.)
 2. Do not overuse transitions:
 Example: Writing an essay can be challenging. However,
there are techniques that can make the process a little easier.
For example, taking plenty of notes on the subject can help
the writer generate ideas. Therefore, note-taking is an
important "pre-writing" strategy. In addition, some people
"free-write," writing quickly for ten or twenty minutes to see
what ideas arise.
Punctuation with Transitions
 Add a comma after a transitional word that begins a
sentence, (i.e. First, Finally, Moreover,) = T, I or I;T,I
 Enclose the transitional with commas if the
transitional word functions as an interruption.
 Do not a comma after transitional words that are
subordinating conjunctions, i.e. because, after,
although…(explain D,I rule).
Conclusions
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
Your conclusion is your opportunity to wrap up your essay in a tidy package and bring it home for
your reader. It is a good idea to recapitulate what you said in your Thesis Statement in order to
suggest to your reader that you have accomplished what you set out to accomplish. It is also
important to judge for yourself that you have, in fact, done so. If you find that your thesis
statement now sounds hollow or irrelevant — that you haven't done what you set out to do — then
you need either to revise your argument or to redefine your thesis statement. Don't worry about
that; it happens to writers all the time. Do not, in any case, simply restate your thesis statement
in your final paragraph, as that would be redundant. Having read your essay, we should
understand this main thought with fresh and deeper understanding, and your conclusion wants to
reflect what we have learned.
 The conclusion is no place to bring up new ideas. If a brilliant idea tries to sneak into our final
paragraph, we must pluck it out and let it have its own paragraph earlier in the essay. If it doesn't
fit the structure or argument of the essay, we will leave it out altogether and let it have its own
essay later on. The last thing we want in our conclusion is an excuse for our readers' minds
wandering off into some new field. Allowing a peer editor or friend to reread our essay before we
hand it in is one way to check this impulse before it ruins our good intentions and hard work.
Conclusions
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
Never apologize for or otherwise undercut the argument you've made or leave your readers with
the sense that "this is just little ol' me talking." Leave your readers with the sense that they've been
in the company of someone who knows what he or she is doing. Also, if you promised in the
introduction that you were going to cover four points and you covered only two (because you
couldn't find enough information or you took too long with the first two or you got tired), don't try
to cram those last two points into your final paragraph. The "rush job" will be all too apparent.
Instead, revise your introduction or take the time to do justice to these other points.
 Here is a brief list of things that you might accomplish in your concluding paragraph(s).
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include a brief summary of the paper's main points.
ask a provocative question.
use a quotation.
evoke a vivid image.
call for some sort of action.
end with a warning.
suggest results or consequences.