How To Organize The Structure Of Your College Essay

When a young college student has a task to write the first essay, it may seem so difficult and unusual. Simple homework from high school is not acceptable anymore. How should I start? How to structure a college essay? How to write a good college essay? All those questions are often asked by students who have recently started their studies at college

Even if you’ve never written big and complex essays before, you can master it. Here you can find some advice for organizing the structure of your essay.

Introduction

You should always put the introduction at the beginning of your essays and other similar works. It helps you to reach the following goals:

• Introduce the subject of the text.
• Involve your readers and make them read further.
• Give information about the essay that your readers should know.
• Show your position and tell your thoughts.

To reach those goals, you can use the following methods:

• Official statistics.
• Tell about something compelling in the next sections of the essay.
• Using quotations.
• Tell an anecdote, but only relevant jokes are acceptable.
• Start from interesting questions.

And two more pieces of advice for students:

• Although the introduction is the first section of your work, you may write it at last. When all other sections are already written, it may be easier for you to write a good introduction.
• Don’t use sentences which are often a waste of words. Use only interesting information and get to the point of your essay.

Thesis statement

This part of an essay shows your own take on the subject. Be careful when writing the thesis statement, because it guides the other arguments in your paper.

Before writing this section of an essay, you’d better answer the following questions:

• Does the thesis statement answer the question proposed by the person who gave you this task?
• Can it be polemical? Can you or other people find the arguments for or against it?
• Is it concise and specific?

Body paragraphs

This is the part when academic papers become more difficult and complex than high school homework. The structure of body paragraphs must comply with the thesis statement and support it.

Your may think your main goal is to tell the information you had learned, but you must show that you conducted research and analyzed the subject. In high school, you may write a list of events of the story to support your thesis statement and prove that you read this story. In college, you should do deeper research to explain your position.

Body paragraphs often contain the following elements:

• Deep analysis. It helps you develop the skills of critical thinking. Although you know Who, Where, When, and What somebody did, you should also wonder Why and How he or she did it. If your essay is about a historical character, always think about the historical context to understand and explain the actions of this character.
• Credited sources and evidence. You can use books, interviews, essays, and articles written by the experts. It’s not recommended to use dubious sources, because they often contain fakes and much unproven information. It’s better to use academic publications made by known authorities.

Conclusion

Academic paper conclusions are also different from high school papers. They contain not only the summary of the main points, but also the analysis and reflection of your ideas. You can use the following methods to write a good conclusion:

• Read your introduction again and continue it with the conclusion. Show how the arguments and ideas from the essay changed the perception of your introduction.
• Tell about relevance of the essay and explain why the people should be interested in it.
• You may use a quote, which helps highlight the main arguments presented in other sections.
• Tell your thoughts about how this research can be continued and what the next steps should bee.

Editing

After writing the draft, you should revise and edit your essay. Fix grammatical and logical errors, make the text easier for its readers and listeners, and check whether the body paragraphs support your main ideas presented in the beginning.

You should also number the paragraphs. It helps organize the structure of an essay.

You need proper guidance and structure to come up with an organized and compelling piece for your college essay. Establish a format you will use throughout your text. This helps in maintaining your ideas within the context of the subject. Be analytical with your arguments.
Use simple terms and proper grammar. There is no need for complex terminology unless your instructor clearly states so. Breaking down your paper into different sections makes it easy to read and understand. Apart from the structure, make sure your information is factual.  Your aim is to deliver a well-structured and informative essay.