3000 words essay structure
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but what does it take to get 3, words? Writing an essay of 3, words is asking a lot, especially if you have never written anything of that magnitude before. That averages out to10 or more pages, typed and double-spaced. Luckily, this mammoth word count is attainable for anyone from students to experienced businessmen, if you focus, take your time and put forth your best effort. Select a topic of which you already have an understanding.
Essay Structure
Writing an academic essay means fashioning a coherent set of ideas into an argument. Because essays are essentially linear—they offer one idea at a time—they must present their ideas in the order that makes most sense to a reader. Successfully structuring an essay means attending to a reader's logic. The focus of such an essay predicts its structure. It dictates the information readers need to know and the order in which they need to receive it.
Thus your essay's structure is necessarily unique to the main claim you're making. Although there are guidelines for constructing certain classic essay types e. A typical essay contains many different kinds of information, often located in specialized parts or sections. Even short essays perform several different operations: introducing the argument, analyzing data, raising counterarguments, concluding. Introductions and conclusions have fixed places, but other parts don't.
Counterargument, for example, may appear within a paragraph, as a free-standing section, as part of the beginning, or before the ending. Background material historical context or biographical information, a summary of relevant theory or criticism, the definition of a key term often appears at the beginning of the essay, between the introduction and the first analytical section, but might also appear near the beginning of the specific section to which it's relevant. It's helpful to think of the different essay sections as answering a series of questions your reader might ask when encountering your thesis.
Readers should have questions. If they don't, your thesis is most likely simply an observation of fact, not an arguable claim. To answer the question you must examine your evidence, thus demonstrating the truth of your claim. This "what" or "demonstration" section comes early in the essay, often directly after the introduction. Since you're essentially reporting what you've observed, this is the part you might have most to say about when you first start writing.
But be forewarned: it shouldn't take up much more than a third often much less of your finished essay. If it does, the essay will lack balance and may read as mere summary or description. The corresponding question is "how": How does the thesis stand up to the challenge of a counterargument?
How does the introduction of new material—a new way of looking at the evidence, another set of sources—affect the claims you're making? Typically, an essay will include at least one "how" section. Call it "complication" since you're responding to a reader's complicating questions. This section usually comes after the "what," but keep in mind that an essay may complicate its argument several times depending on its length, and that counterargument alone may appear just about anywhere in an essay.
This question addresses the larger implications of your thesis. It allows your readers to understand your essay within a larger context. In answering "why", your essay explains its own significance. Although you might gesture at this question in your introduction, the fullest answer to it properly belongs at your essay's end.
If you leave it out, your readers will experience your essay as unfinished—or, worse, as pointless or insular. Mapping an Essay. Structuring your essay according to a reader's logic means examining your thesis and anticipating what a reader needs to know, and in what sequence, in order to grasp and be convinced by your argument as it unfolds. The easiest way to do this is to map the essay's ideas via a written narrative. Such an account will give you a preliminary record of your ideas, and will allow you to remind yourself at every turn of the reader's needs in understanding your idea.
Essay maps ask you to predict where your reader will expect background information, counterargument, close analysis of a primary source, or a turn to secondary source material. Essay maps are not concerned with paragraphs so much as with sections of an essay.
They anticipate the major argumentative moves you expect your essay to make. Try making your map like this:. Your map should naturally take you through some preliminary answers to the basic questions of what, how, and why. It is not a contract, though—the order in which the ideas appear is not a rigid one.
Essay maps are flexible; they evolve with your ideas. Signs of Trouble. A common structural flaw in college essays is the "walk-through" also labeled "summary" or "description". Walk-through essays follow the structure of their sources rather than establishing their own. Such essays generally have a descriptive thesis rather than an argumentative one. Be wary of paragraph openers that lead off with "time" words "first," "next," "after," "then" or "listing" words "also," "another," "in addition".
Although they don't always signal trouble, these paragraph openers often indicate that an essay's thesis and structure need work: they suggest that the essay simply reproduces the chronology of the source text in the case of time words: first this happens, then that, and afterwards another thing. Schedule an Appointment. Drop-In Hours. English Grammar and Language Tutor. Departmental Writing Fellows. Writing Resources. Harvard Guide to Using Sources. Skip to main content.
Main Menu Utility Menu Search. Mapping an Essay Structuring your essay according to a reader's logic means examining your thesis and anticipating what a reader needs to know, and in what sequence, in order to grasp and be convinced by your argument as it unfolds.
Try making your map like this: State your thesis in a sentence or two, then write another sentence saying why it's important to make that claim. Indicate, in other words, what a reader might learn by exploring the claim with you. Here you're anticipating your answer to the "why" question that you'll eventually flesh out in your conclusion. Begin your next sentence like this: "To be convinced by my claim, the first thing a reader needs to know is.
This will start you off on answering the "what" question. Alternately, you may find that the first thing your reader needs to know is some background information.
Begin each of the following sentences like this: "The next thing my reader needs to know is. Continue until you've mapped out your essay.
Find out how to write word essay with ease! Get practical When writing word essay pages, you should follow a similar structure. Top tips on how to write an essay in 24 hours, including how to write an introduction, how to find references, how to structure the essay and.
Writing an academic essay means fashioning a coherent set of ideas into an argument. Because essays are essentially linear—they offer one idea at a time—they must present their ideas in the order that makes most sense to a reader. Successfully structuring an essay means attending to a reader's logic. The focus of such an essay predicts its structure.
What is the best tool of completing papers?
Date published January 28, by Shona McCombes. Date updated: September 27, The length of an academic essay varies depending on your level and subject of study, departmental guidelines, and specific course requirements.
Writing a 3000 word essay
I am very tempted to write you a word answer on this very topic to prove it can be done. I may well do but for that, you will have to read to the end. In short yes it is possible to do this. Possible and a good idea are not the same though. So while I suggest that this isn't tried I'll tell you how it can be done, I'm going to do it in diary format, hell a Noir diary format I like a challenge.
How Many Paragraphs in an Essay?
There is no firm rule that says an essay needs to have a set number of paragraphs, but an essay must be a minimum of three paragraphs. In its simplest form, an essay can consist of three paragraphs with one paragraph being devoted to each section. In academic work, your paragraphs are likely to be a bit longer than most of the ones you see in this blog post. On average, there are usually to words in a paragraph. Another, less limiting and more accurate way to work out how many paragraphs you need to cover your topic is to look at the main points you have to cover in the body text. A paragraph contains all the ideas that support or explain a single concept. When you are planning your essay, you will think of or research the main elements that are needed in the body text. It would be safe to assume you need at least one paragraph for each of these.
This website uses cookies to enhance your user experience.
Unfortunately, your university essays are meant to be a bit more complex than those for GCSE. Still, there is plenty you can do to grab the high marks.
Nottingham Institute of Education
This is different both from your personal opinion on the matter, and of simply reporting matter of facts. An essay should have a strong thesis statement that answers the research question directly and comprehensively. A paragraph in an academic text is roughly words 1. The reason being that each paragraph is intended to make and substantiate 1 claim. Each paragraph should contain:. In a word essay, that is words each, or 2 paragraphs each. That leaves words — or 16 paragraphs — in the body to make an argument for the thesis statement. The word essay should be able to be read in the words introduction and conclusion and be understood apart from the substantiation of the claims. From this we can deduct the number of arguments in a word essay — 2. A word essay is only allowed on paragraph in the introduction, allowing the whole essay to be summarized in one topic statement, hence one argument. This means that we must learn to make one argument in 8 paragraphs, or 8 points.
