3.6 Understanding Essays

Just as essays fall under the umbrella of academic writing, different types of essays can be viewed as sub-genres to the essay. Like all genres, essays have certain conventions, or expectations, that have developed over time. Some of these conventions you are likely already familiar with, such as an introduction paragraph and a thesis.   Other conventions, however, can be specific to the type of essay or sub-genre. For example, a close reading essay that a student might encounter in a literature class typically asks that the lines that will be analyzed from the poem or story are quoted at the top of the paper. Therefore, it's important to understand the type of essay that has been assigned along with the expectations and purpose. 

Sub-genres of Essays

Most students think of types of essays along the lines of argumentative, compare-contrast, or narrative essays. While an essay assignment in an English class may be labeled with these terms, these are actually rhetorical modes to help students understand different approaches to writing. Outside of English classes, essays are rarely assigned with those terms. Many students will find that the most typical essay assigned in their classes is just called "an essay." While "essay" will give you some information about the assignment expectations, it's likely not giving you all the information you need. There may be additional instructions that ask you to compare two things or to argue a point, but the assignment also might not state that explicitly. Once you are deeper in your field, you'll likely start to notice trends about the types of essays and writing assignments that your professors are assigning. Until then, you may need to do some investigating and analysis of your own. 

For more information on how to read and understand writing assignments, see the previous chapter "Understanding the Writing Assignment." 

For more information on understanding new genres and for identifying options that can help writers carry out their goals, see Chapter 5.2, "Make Your 'Move': Writing in Genres."

Most essay types, however, share some common conventions as seen below. 

Common Conventions of Essays 

Basic Elements of an Essay

Knowing what a first draft looks like will help you make the creative leap from your pre-writing materials, like an outline, to the first draft. 

A first draft should include the following elements: 

• An introduction that piques the audience’s interest, tells what the essay is about, and motivates readers to keep reading. 

• A thesis statement that presents the main point, or controlling idea, of the entire piece of writing. 

• A topic sentence in each paragraph that states the main idea of the paragraph and implies how that main idea connects to the thesis statement. 

• Supporting sentences in each paragraph that develop or explain the topic sentence. These can be specific facts, examples, anecdotes, or other details that elaborate on the topic sentence. 

• A conclusion that reinforces the thesis statement and leaves the audience with a feeling of completion. 

These elements follow the standard five-paragraph essay format, which you probably first encountered in high school. This basic format is valid for most essays you will write in college, even much longer ones.

For more information on writing body paragraphs, see 3.7 Paragraphing and Drawing Conclusions in Academic Essays.

Parts of an Essay

Introductions

When you drive, you start at 0 mph and build up speed. It’s the same with writing. Your writing is not about showing off how much you know by being cryptic and esoteric and leaving your audience to guess what you mean. Considering your rhetorical situation means recognizing your purpose and communicating it in a way your audience can follow. A simple introduction can do wonders to help the audience see the information and why it’s important. You’ve got to ease the reader into your essay. Your audience could have been watching reruns of The Office, buying dog food online, attending yoga class, or any number or random tasks before reading your paper. The point is, your reader, even if they are intensely familiar with your topic, or deeply interested in your progress as a writer, needs a starting place.

Give your audience enough background so they know what the issue is and why it’s important. At the same time, it’s essential to note that setting the context doesn’t mean overwhelming audiences with pages of explanations that leave the reader unsure of the paper’s purpose. When driving you don’t go 5 mph for the first ten minutes on the freeway just to warm up. Instead, you quickly build up speed so you can merge onto the freeway and get to your destination.

Here’s an example introduction from a paper about the causes of Celiac disease. Notice how it quickly gives context then asks a focusing question to set up the organization for the paper: 

Twenty-five years ago most people had no idea what gluten was. Fast forward to today and you’re sure to have heard of it. Someone you know may be gluten intolerant or have been diagnosed with Celiac disease. Your local restaurant menus offer gluten-free options. Entire shelves in grocery stores are dedicated to products without wheat, barely, or rye, and the group of proteins, called gluten, that these grains contain. It seems over the past several years Celiac disease and gluten intolerance has been on the rise. What’s responsible for what seems to be an explosion in the increase of diagnosed cases of Celiac disease? 

This introduction started with the idea that twenty-five years ago most people had no idea what gluten was, moved on to the idea that today you’re sure to have heard of it, and suggested maybe the audience knows someone with Celiac disease or has seen restaurant menus or offerings in the grocery store. Starting from the very basics (most people had no idea) and moving to the question What’s responsible for the increase in Celiac disease? ensures the audience can follow along.

Thesis Statements 

The thesis statement is the key to most academic writing. 

The purpose of academic writing is to offer your own insights, analyses, and ideas—to show not only that you understand the concepts you’re studying, but also that you have thought about those concepts in your own way, agreed or disagreed, or developed your own unique ideas as a result of your analysis. 

The thesis statement is the one sentence that encapsulates the result of your thinking, as it offers your main insight or argument in condensed form. A basic thesis statement has two main parts: 

1. Topic: What you’re writing about 

2. Angle: What your main idea is about that topic

Most writers can easily create a topic: television viewing, ChatGPT, online learning. The more difficult part is creating an angle. But the angle is necessary as a means of creating interest and as a means of indicating the type and organization of the information to follow. 

So what about this thesis sentence? 

Adult college students have different experiences than traditionally-aged college students. 

As a reader, you understand intuitively that the information to come will deal with the different types of experiences that adult college students have. But you don’t quite know if the information will deal only with adults, or if it will compare adults’ experiences with those of typical college students. And you don’t quite know what type of information will come first, second, third, etc. 

Realize that a thesis sentence offers a range of possibilities for specificity and organization. As a writer, you may opt to pique reader interest by being very specific or not fully specific in your thesis sentence. The point here is that there’s no one standard way to write a thesis sentence. Sometimes a writer is more or less specific depending on the reading audience and the effect the writer wants to create. 

Sometimes a writer puts the angle first and the topic last in the sentence, or sometimes the angle is even implied. You need to gauge your reading audience and you need to understand your own style as a writer. The only basic requirements are that the thesis sentence needs a topic and an angle. The rest is up to you.

Topic Sentences

In academic writing, many paragraphs or groups of paragraphs start with topic sentences, which are like mini-thesis statements. Topic sentences are idea indicators, or “signs” that help guide a reader along from idea to idea. Topic sentences have a topic and an angle, just like thesis sentences. But the angle of topic sentences usually is smaller in range than that of the thesis sentence. Very often the topic remains the same from thesis to topic sentence, while the angle shifts as the writer brings in various types of ideas and research to support the angle in the thesis.

Look at this sample again; these are topic sentences created from the thesis sentence. The topic remains the same in all (regular exercise) and the overall angle remains the same (benefits). But the angle narrows and shifts slightly from topic sentence to topic sentence as the writer brings in different supporting ideas and research.

All paragraphs do not need topic sentences. Sometimes, you may need multiple paragraphs to help explain one topic sentence because you have a lot of supporting information.

Supporting Sentences

Supporting sentences are the sentences in each paragraph that develop or explain the topic sentence. These can be specific facts, examples, anecdotes, or other details that elaborate on the topic sentence. It's not enough to just add facts or examples, though! In your supporting sentences, you should explain how your facts or examples connect to and support your topic sentence or thesis statement. 

For more on paragraph development, see the next chapter "Paragraphing and Drawing Conclusions."

Conclusions

A satisfying conclusion allows your reader to finish your paper with a clear understanding of the points you made and possibly even a new perspective on the topic. 

Any one paper might have a number of conclusions, but as the writer you must consider who the reader is and the conclusion you want them to reach. For example, is your reader relatively new to your topic? If so, you may want to restate your main points for emphasis as a way of starting the conclusion. (Don’t literally use the same sentence(s) as in your introduction, but come up with a comparable way of restating your thesis.) You’ll want to smoothly conclude by showing the judgment you have reached is, in fact, reasonable. 

Just restating your thesis isn’t enough. Ideally, you have just taken your reader through a strong, clear argument in which you have provided evidence for your perspective. You want to conclude by pointing out the importance or worthiness of your topic and argument. You could describe how the world would be different, or people’s lives changed if they ascribed to your perspective, plan or idea. 

You might also point out the limitations of the present understanding of your topic, suggest or recommend future action, study or research that needs to be done. If you have written a persuasive paper, hopefully, your readers will be convinced by what you have had to say!

License and Attribution

"Understanding Essays" by Sarah Karlis is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted. 

"Write for the Conditions: Help your audience HOLD ON" from Open English @ SLCC by Stacie Draper Weatbrook is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

"Parts of a Thesis Statement" by Excelsior Online Writing Lab (OWL) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-4.0 International License.

"Drafting Part 2: Introductions" from Writing For Success by University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License,