When it comes to writing an essay, you might have a great topic and a catching idea. However, it’s not enough for a powerful piece because you also need to prove your point and present your arguments. This is where many students face the challenge of properly structuring and putting the whole thing together. The following tips will help you to write a great body of an essay yourself.
The Significance
Talking about essays or any other academic pieces mainly means talking about their main paragraphs, where the main arguments and proofs are presented. But what makes it a great body of an essay? Here are the key elements that you should pay attention to when working on your essay’s body:
- Clear topic sentences. Topic sentences at the beginning of each paragraph should clearly state the main point of the following information. Start each of your paragraphs with concise sentences that are close to the thesis statement.
- Supporting evidence. Each paragraph and each claim should be supported by varied and relevant supporting evidence, including statistics, examples, quotes, etc.
- Smooth transitions between the paragraphs. Use transitional words, phrases, and sentences to move from one point to another slowly.
- Logical flow and organization. In the majority of cases, it’s a rule to start the body paragraphs with the most significant and relevant argument with the most persuasive proof. Then, gradually move to weaker or less significant arguments.
By keeping all of these elements present in the body of your essay, you can create a powerful and high-quality piece that will surely get a high grade.
Strategies to Use
Some of the best strategies that you might want to try the next time you are working on your essay include the following:
The PEEL Paragraph Structure
The PEEL method stands for Point-Evidence-Explanation-Link. It means that in order to make each paragraph easy to comprehend, it’s better to use this order in the structure. You basically start with the strong point, aka the topic sentence, and then provide evidence to prove your point, explain it in detail, and link the paragraph back to the thesis statement.
Example:
Point (P): One of the most notable impacts of technology on education is the transformation of traditional teaching methods.
Evidence (E): According to EdTech Magazine, 85% of students use their cellphones for school, indicating a move toward mobile learning.
Explanation (E): Students are empowered by smartphones since they can access instructional information whenever it’s convenient for them. Personalized learning is encouraged by this accessibility via online lessons, e-books, and mobile applications.
Link (L): Essentially, the impact of technology on education allows for flexible, learner-centered activities outside of traditional classroom settings.
Chronological Order
The chronological order of the body of your essay is not always the most suitable but is surely effective when it comes to topics where you need to highlight the development of the niche, research methods, or historical background.
Present your arguments, facts, or data in the order when they occur. You might or might not add the dates.
Compare and Contrast Structure
This type of structure is used in order to highlight similarities and differences between subjects, arguments, and points. This structure can have a powerful effect if it is used correctly in academic pieces that are focused on different approaches, systems, etc.
Crafting a Powerful Body of an Essay
When working on any essay, you usually might start with an outline of some sort. This would surely help you save time and also pick the best structure for the body of your essay. After writing down the key points that you are going to use in the writing process, be sure to:
- Begin each paragraph with a topic sentence that supports your thesis statement point.
For example: “Technology have provided opportunities to improve the study process.”
- Ensure that each of the paragraphs is dedicated to this single idea or point. Don’t mix arguments, but rather stay close to the topic sentence that you picked for the paragraph.
- Provide important evidence, proofs, or supporting quotes to make your claims more relevant and valuable.
- Summarize each paragraph in a concluding sentence.
The body paragraphs usually take the most time to write. It’s not surprising, considering the amount of work you need to do with all the evidence picked, analyzed, and put in the right order.
If you don’t have time to complete all of these steps, you might want to delegate an essay to a team of professional writers who will complete an essay or any other type of paper for you. We can surely write a great and powerful essay on any topic without using AI or generators.
Common Pitfalls to Avoid
In the process of writing and editing, a lot of students make the same mistakes. They are pretty common, so we have prepared a few tips for you on how to avoid these pitfalls.
- Lack of coherence. Sometimes, your paragraphs might get too messy, with different points mixed and no logical flow in between. Make sure to pick the focus for each of the paragraphs and stick to it. Avoid jumping from one point to another.
- Overwhelming amount of evidence. Supporting your claims with evidence is crucial and required. However, when there is too much evidence provided, it can confuse the reader as it makes it harder to follow the author’s point. When picking the evidence, focus on the quality of it rather than on quantity.
- Ineffective transitions. Abrupt transitions, or lack of them, might make the whole body of the essay unclear and hard to understand and follow. Use transitional words, phrases, and sentences, as well as concluding sentences, to highlight the main points.
- Lack of variety. Monotonous sentences with very similar structures commonly make the whole piece sound very unprofessionally and dull. Add rhythm with different sentence length and structure. Use clear and appropriate language.
Conclusion
Writing an essay might be challenging, especially when it comes to the body of an essay. However, we hope that the tips that we have gathered for you will help you to overcome the difficulties and complete the task.
Karen Palmer
