How to Write Better Essays

to another. For the same reason, avoid long, ambling paragraphs that

obscure the structure. In fact, this is not as difficult to avoid as it might

seem. Long paragraphs, in which you lose the thread of what the

writer ’s doing, are like the long, ambling essay: the product of writing

without structure.

You can build this structure into each paragraph by keeping a simple

formula for paragraphs in your mind. Although it would be arrogant to

lay down the law on the structure of paragraphs, as it would be with

introductions, it helps to have a simple formula, particularly when

you’re unsure of what you’re doing. As for introductions, you can

always use the formula as the basis for improvisation once you’ve

grown in confidence using it.

Three parts

For this purpose remind yourself that there are three parts to a para-

graph: the topic sentence; the development; and the evidence. This

structure may not always be appropriate, you may need to adapt it, but

if you remind yourself of each part, you will always be aware of the

weaknesses you’re allowing to appear in your essay when you omit

one part. You’ll be reminding yourself that if you do decide to leave one

part out, you will have to address the problem later in the essay.

1 The topic sentence

The topic sentence, as its name implies, introduces the topic of the

paragraph. But even more important, it establishes the topic’s rele-

vance by tying it in with one of the major issues in your plan, that you

mapped out in your introduction. As we’ve already pointed out, by tying

all the components tightly together in this way you create both rele-

vance and tight cohesion within the essay.

For example, the paragraph after the introduction in the advertising

essay might begin:

As this suggests, at least part of the advertiser ’s role is to provide

consumers and the public with information.

And, later in the essay, after you have examined the way advertisers

manipulate through the selective use of information, you may go on to

examine the other forms of manipulation by introducing it with the

topic sentence:

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