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Essay writing hints for beginners - structuring guidelines

The equivalent of an essay structure is the blueprint or plan for a house on the map for someone who's going on a journey. The structure can be on a piece of paper or on the screen of a digital appliance. It will contain information or details. And it will be the basis or the guidebook for writing the essay. The better the structure, the better the essay.

The contents are just as important

Again getting the structure right is one thing but within the structure will be the contents. This is a list of all the points you want to make throughout your essay. Now obviously this is not the essay itself and so you won’t write the same amount of information. You need to develop some expertise in shorthand. You need to make a point in as few words as possible. So getting the structure right is the first step and the second step is filling the structure with the right content. Both steps are essential and you can't have one without the other if you want to be a successful writer of essays.

What is a thesis statement?

As soon as you understand a thesis statement, what it is and what it does, the better essay writer you will become. In short a thesis statement is a motto or a creed or a single sentence which sums up the thrust or the name of your essay. You go back to your thesis statement time and again when writing your essay. You're trying to prove it. Or you're trying to answer the question posed in the thesis statement if you use a question. So take your time and read about thesis statements. What are they? What do they do? And how important are they in the creation of an essay?

The three main sections

In every essay there are three main sections. There is the introduction, the body paragraph or paragraphs and the conclusion. You need to know what each of these sections does and what does and does not go inside each one. For example you would almost always put the thesis statement in the introduction and in many cases it's the opening sentence of your introduction. Each one of your body paragraphs will only have one main point. The conclusion will have no new material whatsoever.

Read and learn

One of the best ways for a beginner to learn how to discover a structure in writing an essay is to read essays which have received high marks. Once you know what the structure is, look at examples of essays, and in particular good essays, and then look for the various sections. Look for the introduction, the body paragraphs and the conclusion. Are the requirements for each section accurate in the sample essay you are studying? What makes this particular essay good? In many cases it's good writing, good topic, sticking to the subject but in every case it will always be a good structure.