The introduction and the thesis statement

The introduction is very, very important. Your reader will probably have fifty or more essays to mark at any one time and in order to impress her (or him) you need an introduction that catches her attention. This means that you should not waste words with waffle, but clearly state what your intentions are. A poorly drafted introduction with spelling mistakes and grammatical errors will give a very poor impression and is likely to doom your essay before the reader has got half way down the first page.

Some students assume that because there is an essay title at the top of the page, they do not need to tell the reader what they are going to write about. That is incorrect. It is very important to state your intentions right at the beginning of your essay, and this is done in the thesis statement.

The thesis statement comes at the start of your essay and it states very clearly what you're going to do in the essay. It will be an important part of the first paragraph where you outline what you are going to do and, perhaps, how you are going to do it. Your thesis statement:

· will be in the essay introduction

· will probably be a statement of intent: This essay will examine the reasons for the growth of racism within our society.

· will probably not be a simple statement of fact because a fact cannot be developed easily: The population of Pakistan is overwhelmingly Muslim.

· will not express your own opinion: I believe that fundamentalist religious views are a major problem in American society.

· probably will not be expressed as a question because this looks rather cumbersome: The question I want to examine is 'Can child abuse be completely eliminated from our society? '

 

Look at these good examples of thesis statements:

· In this essay I will attempt to show how recent changes in Iran have led to far greater opportunities for Iranian women.

· This essay will critically examine the process leading to the election of the Mayor of London and show how this process contributed to the election defeat of the Labour Party.

· Recent political changes in China have had far reaching economic effects. This essay will outline the political changes, and examine what impact these have had on the lives of ordinary Chinese people.

· Child abuse has proved to be a persistent problem within our children's homes. This essay will examine current policies towards children's homes and suggest ways in which these policies could be modified.

Writing a paragraph

Constructing clearly defined paragraphs is the key to a good essay. Paragraphs can be seen as being rather like the bricks in a wall. They are all interdependent but they are also independent units. They support each other but they have their own character. Every paragraph will have its own focus and this will be different from that of any other paragraph in your essay. Each paragraph will be one element in your overall answer to the question that has been asked.

The topic of the paragraph must always be very clearly stated at the start. Not surprisingly, this first sentence is referred to as the topic sentence of the paragraph.

Paragraphing is an important convention of written English. It has developed as a visual way of helping the reader to follow an extended piece of writing. Paragraphs help us to understand how the sentences are grouped together and in this way they are very useful. The sentences within a paragraph explore one specific theme while a new paragraph indicates that a new topic or idea is being addressed. Paragraphs may be long or short, but each one will develop a particular topic point. Paragraphs are not a unit of length. There is no specific length for a paragraph in an academic essay, although in general we can say that three lines is too short and one full page is too long. It is very important that your paragraphs are sequenced in a logical order because they will provide the major building blocks for the argument in the essay. In the same way that blocks are placed one on top of each other to construct a building, so your paragraphs will be placed in such a way that you gradually build up your argument. Many students make the mistake of thinking that an academic essay is merely a description, but this is not correct. It is an integration of facts and evidence that provides the reader with a coherent argument. Your paragraphs should be steps in the development of your argument.

A text that has been well planned has well-organised paragraphs, and the purpose of each paragraph will be clearly signposted by its layout as well as by the language. First, a new paragraph will be marked out in one of two ways: either a full line is left between the paragraphs or the first word of the new paragraph is indented. Today, the majority of writers leave an empty line between the paragraphs. Second, a paragraph is a series of sentences that develops one idea, and in academic writing that idea is usually stated in one sentence (although it may not be the first sentence) and this is called the topic sentence. This is the most important sentence in the paragraph. The rest of the paragraph will support and elaborate the idea, and perhaps provide examples to illustrate the topic sentence. In some ways this is similar to a newspaper article where you often find that the first sentence of each paragraph states clearly what it is about. You may have noticed that you can skim through a newspaper article by reading the first sentence of each paragraph.

The paragraph topic statement can take several different forms.

· It may tell the reader what to expect in the paragraph: The survey results indicate that banks are failing their customers.

· It may be a statement that will be supported with evidence: The discovery indicates that the Bronze Age settlers built three types of houses.

· It may make a clear statement of belief and then go on to elaborate: Humour is one of the best ways of combating disease.

The topic sentence cannot be:

· a simple statement of fact: Paris is the capital of France.

· a vague opinion or comment: I think that banks in Britain are overcharging.

After the topic sentence, the writer must provide illustrations or evidence to support the topic sentence. These are called topic points. There may be several topic points in a paragraph and each one will be supported by specific details. The framework of your first three paragraphs might look like this:

· Topic sentence 1

· Topic point A: specific detail 1, 2, 3 etc

· Topic point B: specific detail 1, 2, 3 etc

· Topic point C: specific detail 1, 2, 3 etc

· Topic sentence 2

· Topic point A: specific detail 1, 2, 3 etc

· Topic point B: specific detail 1, 2, 3 etc

· Topic point C: specific detail 1, 2, 3 etc

· Topic sentence 3

· Topic point A: specific detail 1, 2, 3 etc

· Topic point B: specific detail 1, 2, 3 etc

· Topic point C: specific detail 1, 2, 3 etc

Specific detail under the various topic points can comprise anything from examples, statistics, dates or description, as well as support for your argument from other writers through quotations, paraphrase or summary.

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