By Mia Hanuska
Listen, I’m not a perfect writer. Far from it, in fact. However, I’ve found essays to have a formula you can copy and reuse essay after essay that will easily get you at least a B. Essay requirements will differ teacher to teacher, but I’m hoping no matter what teacher you have, this will be able to help. A little warning before I begin: this is long. REALLY long (an entire 2386 words). It is meant to be used as help for those who just don’t know how to start or write an essay, and should not be taken as fact.
**I am not liable for if you follow this and get a bad grade, this is based off my personal experience with essays.**
Overview
A basic five paragraph essay should be formatted the same every time: introduction, body paragraph (BP) 1, BP2, BP3, and a conclusion. Want to try something else? Don’t. This is how pretty much all teachers, no matter if they teach how to write an essay or not, want their essays structured. All paragraphs should be 5-8 sentences with a variety of sentence patterns.
Introduction
Introductions can be broken into 3 parts: hook, context, and thesis. Your hook should catch the reader’s attention—if you’re in Evans’ class, a quote works perfectly. Otherwise, think of a real-world topic that is relevant to your thesis. In the next few sentences, explain your hook and tie it into your book. If it’s a quote, add some background information, if it’s real world start broad and slowly bring it to the topic you’re arguing. Another sentence or two should be an overall summary of the events that occurred—try to introduce key characters and important scenes. Finally, your thesis. Many people struggle with this, so if you’re having trouble, don’t fear your teachers! They’re there to help.
Examples
Quote: “I […] remembered what Atticus had said, then dropped my fists and walked away,” proudly recalls Jean Louise “Scout” Finch, the young protagonist, after avoiding a fight at school (Lee 102). In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout explores the changing world as her father, Atticus Finch, defends an unjustly convicted black man in court. Through her open-minded adventures, Scout witnesses discrimination in families unlike her own, namely the Ewell family. Utilizing the empathetic Scout and the lazy Mayella Ewell, Lee proves that parents define innocent children’s morals.
Start large: The politics of society is a messy subject. Many describe the state of the word as unacceptable, ruined, or even unsavable. Similarly, the world of William Golding’s Lord of the Flies is a hopeless society. After crashing on an uninhabited island with no adults, countless children are left to survive with only the clothes on their backs. As the children try to stay alive, rifts between “good” and “evil” plague the kids’ decisions. In Lord of the Flies, Golding predicts that civilization, given time, is hopeless through Jack’s recruitment of the bigguns, Roger’s descent into madness, and the tragic deaths of Piggy and Simon.
Breaking Down a Thesis
Your thesis statement needs a defensible theme (NOT a topic—it must be arguable), the title and author of the book/novella/play, and THREE divisions of proof. What are divisions of proof? Divisions of proof are what will support your theme. Depending on your teacher, you can use different things for this, but a good start is a character, two similar events (i.e. the death of two characters), or a symbol. Keep in mind when choosing your DOPs that you’ll need at least two Sub-DOPs, or evidence that supports your DOP. It’s kind of like a tree.
Here are some examples of my theses from past essays:
Characters as DOPs: Through the use of the Frenchman, Richard Parker, and the meerkats, Yann Martel in Life of Pi reveals that companionship, albeit dangerous, promotes survival.
- Arguable Theme: “Companionship, albeit dangerous, promotes survival.”
- This is arguable because someone could say “no, companionship is bad for survival.”
- Not a topic—although it has topics in it, “companionship” & “survival,” it’s a theme because it’s more than just a few words, and again, it’s arguable!
- Title & Author: “Yann Martel in Life of Pi”
- Remember book titles are italicized in typing and underlined when writing!
- DOPs: Frenchman, Richard Parker, meerkats
- This is an example with characters. The Frenchman, Richard Parker, and the meerkats are what help me prove that companionship is beneficial for survival.
Events as DOPs: In Lord of the Flies, Golding predicts civilization, given time, is hopeless through Jack’s recruitment of the bigguns, Roger’s decent into madness, and the deaths of Piggy and Simon.
- Arguable Theme: “civilization, given time, is hopeless.”
- Arguable because the opposite could be proved—and also it answers the prompt!
- Title & Author: “In Lord of the Flies, Golding”
- Since I mentioned the author’s full name earlier in the introduction, it’s not necessary to restate his first name. In all theses later on, the author will be referred to as Golding, not William Golding.
- DOPs: Jack’s recruitment of the bigguns, Roger’s decent into madness, and the deaths of Piggy and Simon
- These are all events that I use to prove my arguable theme. Later you’ll see I break down these events into two subpoints to flush out my essay.
Body Paragraphs (3)
Body paragraphs are where the “meat” of your essay is. This is where you will provide evidence to support your thesis. Begin with a topic sentence. This includes one of your DOPs (always write the paragraphs in the order you list your DOPs in your thesis), your two subDOPs, and a restated shortened thesis. Provide enough detail about your subDOPs so readers can understand them, but don’t add too much.
Very basic example: To begin, the rouge Frenchman’s threats and lies demonstrate the dangers of others.
- DOP: Frenchman
- subDOPs: his lies and his threats
- Restated thesis: dangers of others
- This is a shortened version, as my style of essay writing proves each part of the thesis in each paragraph, but that will be different depending on how you like to write.
For quotes:
After your topic sentence, introduce context for your quote. What is happening in the story at the time it’s stated? This can be a sentence or integrated with your quote. Then use your quote. Make sure your quote is easily analyzed and must support your thesis. Remember to use a tag line (said, stated, whispered, etc), who’s talking, and any other information needed for your quote.
Ex: After a rough night panicking on the boat and ensuring space between him and Richard Parker, his imaginary stowaway, Pi realizes his furry foe “kept me from thinking too much about my family and my tragic circumstances” (Martel 164).
- Context: “after a rough night panicking on the boat and ensuring space between him and Richard Parker, his imaginary stowaway”
- Tag for quote: “Pi realizes his furry foe”
- Quote + Citation: “kept me from thinking too much about my family and my tragic circumstances” (Martel 164).
- Citations should have the authors last name and page number of the quote in parentheses, and the period ending the sentence should be AFTER the last parenthesis.
Great, now you have a quote. What now? Now analyze this quote to show HOW it supports your claim. Easier said than done, I know. Some ways you can analyze it:
- Talk about the wording and diction used.
- Ex: Synonymous with gas, both “fume” and “smoke” portray the emptiness, or loneliness, Romeo experiences.
- Explain what’s happening in the quote.
- Ex: Curley’s “terrier”-like aggression reveals how Curley acts towards those he views as inferior to him. His aggression also demonstrates how Curley often acts standoffish towards strangers or those he feels could harm his image, regardless of if his words will hurt the recipient.
- There’s more, but they (unfortunately) come naturally. As you write, you’ll naturally figure out how you like to analyze quotes and how to tie them to your thesis.
Next, tie your explanation and quote to your thesis. This can be a couple sentences, and should take the analysis and explain how it’s significant to your point.
- In an essay about control:
- Therefore, he uses threatening control instead of kindness in his relationships to ensure he achieves authority.
- In an essay about companionship and survival:
- In addition, Pi’s combination of himself and the tiger exhibits the importance of working together. Both parts of his mind must work in harmony to keep Pi alive; if the insane portion—Richard Parker—takes over he will rip himself to pieces, and if the sane fragment ruins Richard Parker’s illusion, the boy will descend into depression and end his own life.
Sweet. Now you have the first part of your first DOP. Repeat this process with your next subDOP and end with a conclusion sentence that is a variation of your intro—boom! Done with first body paragraph. Do the exact same procedure for the rest of your DOPs.
Without quotes:
If you just skipped here because you know your teacher doesn’t allow you to use quotes, I’d recommend going back and reading it because the processes are very similar. However, instead of providing context for your quote, you’re going to want to combine the context with your evidence. A sentence or two of context before your actual evidence (which will be stated in your own words) is enough. Evidence will be an event or action of the character.
- Evidence examples:
- Deaths
- Personality traits
- Storyline events (leading action, climax, falling action)
Make sure you get to your evidence quickly—you don’t want to seem like you’re summarizing. If you want you can even combine your context and evidence, just make sure you introduce the proof enough.
Ex: When the boys decide to elect a leader, Roger initially calls out for a vote. This shows his civilization, as this is likely what he used to see in his everyday life. To add, it shows his naïvity: he does not realize that this will pit the two strongest boys against each other. During this, Roger is still innocent and childlike, and hasn’t yet evolved into the save he later becomes.
- Context/evidence: “When the boys decide to elect a leader, Roger initially calls out for a vote”
- This is short and sweet, a quick background for what I need to analyze. Nothing more is needed, remember that your teachers have read the book and don’t need a retelling of the story.
Analysis will be similar to quotes, but since you aren’t able to actually analyze the wording of the quotes, you must be more creative. Tie your evidence back to your thesis and prove what it shows.
Ex: When the boys decide to elect a leader, Roger initially calls out for a vote. This shows his civilization, as this is likely what he used to see in his everyday life. To add, it shows his naïvity: he does not realize that this will pit the two strongest boys against each other. During this, Roger is still innocent and childlike, and hasn’t yet evolved into the save he later becomes.
- Analysis: Since the thesis has two parts, I use this to strengthen the time portion of it. The evidence shows that Roger began as good, then became corrupted due to the lack of civilization. I’ll continue in the paragraph to explain how Roger became bad, again using one of his actions as proof.
Conclusion
Almost there, trust me. If you’ve read this far, you deserve a cookie (and an A). The conclusion is pretty much the opposite of your intro. In Evans’ class three sentences is enough, but I know teachers like Ashleigh Tighe require a full 5-8 sentences. Don’t worry though, I have a perfect outline to follow for these that works like a charm. Similar to introductions, there are two ways to write this depending on if you can use quotes or not.
With Quotes:
I try to make these three sentences if they’re quotes, as I feel they’re more impactful.
Sentence 1: Thesis
Restate your thesis with slightly different wording. Ensure all DOPs are kept in the order you talk about them in your essay.
Sentence 2: A quick summary
Use this to somewhat summarize your analysis. Just one (or two if you really want) sentence(s) is enough.
Sentence 3: Quote
Introduce the quote while tying it into the summary. If you want you can even use the second part of your introduction quote—I know, mindblowing.
Ex: Reflects Pi on Richard Parker, “he pushed me to go on living” (Martel 164).
Without Quotes:
Sentence 1 will be the same as with quotes. The rest is where things get switched up.
Sentences 2-4: A quick summary
Use these to somewhat summarize your analysis. A sentence or two per DOP is definitely enough, and you can combine things to better the flow.
Sentences 5-7: Real world tie back
This is even better if you can use part of the same real-world application you used for your intro.
Ex: Nowadays, this occurs through politics and the laws parties pass. Similar to Jack, many recruit a large following and create rules of savagery or evil. Oftentimes these laws can result in the death of people who still have hope things will change.
- Remember the example I used for the intro? Notice how bring this back to it—both are about politics and the state of the world.
Sentence 8: The final mic-drop
Try to have your last sentence be thought-provoking and impactful. You want to feel like you’re dropping a mic after stating it: have it be memorable and make sure to wrap everything up. If it’s a question, make sure you aren’t restating the prompt question. You just answered the prompt. Why are you asking others it?
And that’s it. My ultimate and entire guide to writing an essay, complete with examples of my very own essays I’ve turned in. Keep a link to this guide for future reference if you’re a freshman or struggling with writing. Good luck on your essay-writing endeavors and hopefully you found this helpful (especially if you read the whole thing—holy moly you’re dedicated). If you have questions, teachers, past students, and the internet are great resources. Remember to stay calm, and you often write better not under stress. Keep calm and write on.