Guides: Essay writing: Introduction to essay structure

What is the Purpose of Essay Writing?

"Writing essays ideally requires students to engage actively with material, to examine ideas in depth, to integrate and critically evaluate what they read, and to state their understanding clearly - which often means that they develop their understanding further" (Hounsell, cited in McCune, 2004, p. 257).

Academic essays have muliple puposes, including to:

analyse, argue, and reflect;
compare and contrast different positions; and
discuss the advantages and disadvantages of a position.

Essays can be be chronological, sequential, or logical in order. The essay question or purpose should guide how the content is organised and how your position/findings are presented.

Analysing Assignment Questions (PDF 611 KB)
Check out these workshop slides presented by the Student Success team to learn more about analysing assignment questions.

How do you structure an essay?

The table below indicates what is generally included in each section of an essay.

Section	What the section contains
Introduction (Overview) Approximately 10-15% of the word count, unless stated otherwise.	A background statement to establish context. A thesis statement with a clear stance/scope (focus of the analysis or argument). A preview of the main points that will be presented within the essay (topics of your body paragraphs). TIP: The introduction is best written after the body paragraphs of the essay, not before.
Body (Analysis) Contains several body paragraphs, each of which expand on one idea related to your thesis statement or topic. Approximately 75% of the word count, unless stated otherwise.	Each body paragraph contains: Topic sentence with main analysis idea. Supporting evidence (e.g. description/definition of key idea). Supporting evidence (e.g. explanation of details that relate to this idea). Supporting evidence Concluding sentence with summary of main point.
Conclusion (Summary) Approximately 10-15% of the word count, unless stated otherwise.	Restatement of the main argument/topic (paraphrase the thesis). Summary of the main points from each paragraph (in the same order). Final comment linking back to the topic/thesis. TIP: The conclusion should not contain any new information or references.

Section

What the section contains

Introduction (Overview)

Approximately 10-15% of the word count, unless stated otherwise.

A background statement to establish context.
A thesis statement with a clear stance/scope (focus of the analysis or argument).
A preview of the main points that will be presented within the essay (topics of your body paragraphs).

TIP: The introduction is best written after the body paragraphs of the essay, not before.

Body (Analysis)

Contains several body paragraphs, each of which expand on one idea related to your thesis statement or topic.
Approximately 75% of the word count, unless stated otherwise.

Each body paragraph contains:

Topic sentence with main analysis idea.
Supporting evidence (e.g. description/definition of key idea).
Supporting evidence (e.g. explanation of details that relate to this idea).
Supporting evidence
Concluding sentence with summary of main point.

Conclusion (Summary)

Approximately 10-15% of the word count, unless stated otherwise.

Restatement of the main argument/topic (paraphrase the thesis).
Summary of the main points from each paragraph (in the same order).
Final comment linking back to the topic/thesis.

TIP: The conclusion should not contain any new information or references.

This video (2:08 min) from RMIT University Library Videos (2021) provides an excellent overview of the structure of an essay.

Further Resources

Essay Writing (2.17 MB)
Check out these workshop slides presented by the Student Success team to learn more about essay writing. This resource contains examples of an Introduction, Body paragraph and a Conclusion.

Academic Phrasebank (The University of Manchester)
Get some ideas for high quality sentence starters from the Academic Phrasebank.

See an example essay plan and annotated essays from Monash University (2024).

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Essay writing

Learning Objectives

What is the Purpose of Essay Writing?

How do you structure an essay?

Further Resources

Access Student Services

References