DEVELOPING THE BODY OF THE ESSAY
The body of your essay is where you argue your thesis. You will need to make several points or
claims that prove your thesis. A good formula for developing the ideas in your argument is the “CSE”
formula:
1) State a claim. (This may be your topic sentence in a paragraph.)
2) Support it with evidence from the text.
3) Explain your reasoning, especially showing how or why.As you write practice essays, use a different highlighter for each “CSE” element to
be sure you are indeed writing an analysis and not a summary.