Every academic piece of work follows a particular structure to maintain parity and improve its readability. Analytical essays are not an exception. Throughout your academic years, you’ve probably written hundreds of essays. So, you should already know that they follow the same structure, that is, one introduction, three body paragraphs, and one conclusion.
The essay structure plays a crucial role in determining the overall quality of the paper. For example, the order of body paragraphs influences the overall unity of thought and logical cohesion throughout the content. This blog will highlight these in more detail. But before that, let’s check out the ideal structure of an essay.
How Should You Structure the Essay?
I. Introduction
The introduction is one paragraph only. If you check any analytical essay sample from Allessaywriter.com, you will notice that every paper includes three major things in this section –
- The hook sentence
- Background information
- The thesis statement
The hook is meant to grab the reader’s attention. It can be anything from a lesser-known fact to statistical data. Then, you have to ease in the reader and provide some context for the topic. Once that’s done, your thesis statement should take a firm stance and allow the readers to figure out what the essay is about.
II. Body Paragraphs
Usually, the standard analytical paper contains three body paragraphs. Every paragraph begins with a topic sentence that highlights the point to be discussed in it. It is followed by –
- The evidence
- The analysis
- The concluding sentence
- The transition sentence
III. The conclusion
The significance of the concluding segment is to –
- Restate the thesis statement
- Summarize the main points
- Provide a call to action
This concludes the standard essay writing format that you are expected to follow while writing analytical papers. Now, let’s dive into its significance.
The Importance of Analytical Essay Structure
The structure of an essay determines its unity and coherency. Let’s take a closer look at how it influences both.
I. Unity
The unity of an essay is maintained when a single idea is developed throughout the paper. Suppose you have a thesis statement – “Growing awareness regarding childhood obesity can decrease the overall consumption of fast food in the USA.” Now, let’s consider two samples:
Sample 1:Children have grown accustomed to fast food. According to Graham L. Simons, “Only 4% of children in the USA are not regular consumers of fast food – and that’s because they can’t afford it.”
Sample 2:Recently, a “Ban Fast Food” campaign was held in every public school in New Jersey, California, and Seattle, where parents and their children were educated about the dangers that fast food consumption presents. The fast food intake in those localities decreased by 30% after the campaign.
The first option talks about fast food, but it has no relation to the thesis statement. Readers cannot find a connection between growing awareness about childhood obesity to the statements presented. However, that is not the case for the second sample. There is a clear connection that highlights awareness campaigns in certain cities resulting in decreased consumption of fast food.
So, every paragraph of your essay should revolve around this main idea. When coming up with the topic sentences, ask yourself whether you can relate the point to be discussed to the thesis statement.
II. Coherency
Analytical papers explore a wide variety of ideas. You can’t expect the readers to figure out the connections by themselves. There are various cohesive techniques you can use in the structure to improve the readability through better cohesion. The most important one is to use transitional words and phrases.
Good transitions are crucial to help the readers move on from one idea to the other. Let’s consider an example.
“…Over the years, there has been a steady increase in the number of campaigns against processed fast food.
As a result, the consumption of fast food has been on a steady decline…”
The use of the phrase “as a result” acts as a transitional phrase that introduces an effect or a result. You can connect the idea at the beginning of the paragraph to the final sentence of the previous paragraph. So, when the reader goes through your work, they won’t waste time trying to figure out how one idea connects to the other.
In conclusion,
The essay structure determines the overall quality of your paper. When the reader goes through your work, they should be able to read the entire essay smoothly. In order to achieve this, you must have unity of thought and coherency throughout the content. Follow the standard essay structure, avoid going off-topic, and use sufficient transitions to write top-notch papers.
