Basic Structure of an Academic Essay


Any academic paper should be properly structured, no matter whether it’s a dissertation or a small essay. Keeping the elements of a good structure in mind, you will create a paper much faster and better.

Basic Structure Elements of an Essay

  • An introduction.
  • This is an opening paragraph of your project. With its help, you inform your readers what they can find on further pages. You introduce your topic, goals, methods of researching, and the importance of your work. Depending on the type of your paper, the introduction can have different forms. For example, an intro in a narrative or reflective paper will be significantly different from the one in argumentative or persuasive projects.

  • A thesis statement.
  • It’s an important part of the intro that has a big weight. This couple of phrases is meant to keep your readers attracted to the reading. Make them informative, catchy and debatable to keep your readers hooked.

  • Three body paragraphs.
  • As a rule, a regular essay has three body paragraphs, one per each statement that you make and the reference information you use to support it. Such a structure is logical and usual for argumentative, information, persuasive papers. If you have more statements to make or more points to prove, you can have more paragraphs within the body but three is the most common quantity.

  • One body paragraph.
  • Sometimes, depending on the type of your project and your teacher’s demands, your paper can have only one body paragraph. It’s more typical for narrations, reflections and other projects that don’t require any statements and argumentation. It can be quite difficult to fit everything you want to say within one paragraph but it’s a good training for being informative and laconic at the same time.

  • Conclusions.
  • This is the closing part of your paper that somehow repeats the intro and shows how effectively you have achieved your goals. There should be no new information in it, only findings. All the new discoveries must be listed in the body.

The Importance of a Proper Essay Structure

It’s very important to stick to a good and logically built project structure. It will show you as a professional researcher who knows well how to represent some research data in an interesting, clear and concise form so that readers get the idea, follow the research, and estimate the found results.