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- How to structure an essay: Templates and tips
How to Structure an Essay | Tips & Templates
Published on September 18, 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on July 23, 2023.
The basic structure of an essay always consists of an introduction , a body , and a conclusion . But for many students, the most difficult part of structuring an essay is deciding how to organize information within the body.
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Table of contents
The basics of essay structure, chronological structure, compare-and-contrast structure, problems-methods-solutions structure, signposting to clarify your structure, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about essay structure.
There are two main things to keep in mind when working on your essay structure: making sure to include the right information in each part, and deciding how you’ll organize the information within the body.
Parts of an essay
The three parts that make up all essays are described in the table below.
Order of information
You’ll also have to consider how to present information within the body. There are a few general principles that can guide you here.
The first is that your argument should move from the simplest claim to the most complex . The body of a good argumentative essay often begins with simple and widely accepted claims, and then moves towards more complex and contentious ones.
For example, you might begin by describing a generally accepted philosophical concept, and then apply it to a new topic. The grounding in the general concept will allow the reader to understand your unique application of it.
The second principle is that background information should appear towards the beginning of your essay . General background is presented in the introduction. If you have additional background to present, this information will usually come at the start of the body.
The third principle is that everything in your essay should be relevant to the thesis . Ask yourself whether each piece of information advances your argument or provides necessary background. And make sure that the text clearly expresses each piece of information’s relevance.
The sections below present several organizational templates for essays: the chronological approach, the compare-and-contrast approach, and the problems-methods-solutions approach.
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The chronological approach (sometimes called the cause-and-effect approach) is probably the simplest way to structure an essay. It just means discussing events in the order in which they occurred, discussing how they are related (i.e. the cause and effect involved) as you go.
A chronological approach can be useful when your essay is about a series of events. Don’t rule out other approaches, though—even when the chronological approach is the obvious one, you might be able to bring out more with a different structure.
Explore the tabs below to see a general template and a specific example outline from an essay on the invention of the printing press.
- Thesis statement
- Discussion of event/period
- Consequences
- Importance of topic
- Strong closing statement
- Claim that the printing press marks the end of the Middle Ages
- Background on the low levels of literacy before the printing press
- Thesis statement: The invention of the printing press increased circulation of information in Europe, paving the way for the Reformation
- High levels of illiteracy in medieval Europe
- Literacy and thus knowledge and education were mainly the domain of religious and political elites
- Consequence: this discouraged political and religious change
- Invention of the printing press in 1440 by Johannes Gutenberg
- Implications of the new technology for book production
- Consequence: Rapid spread of the technology and the printing of the Gutenberg Bible
- Trend for translating the Bible into vernacular languages during the years following the printing press’s invention
- Luther’s own translation of the Bible during the Reformation
- Consequence: The large-scale effects the Reformation would have on religion and politics
- Summarize the history described
- Stress the significance of the printing press to the events of this period
Essays with two or more main subjects are often structured around comparing and contrasting . For example, a literary analysis essay might compare two different texts, and an argumentative essay might compare the strengths of different arguments.
There are two main ways of structuring a compare-and-contrast essay: the alternating method, and the block method.
Alternating
In the alternating method, each paragraph compares your subjects in terms of a specific point of comparison. These points of comparison are therefore what defines each paragraph.
The tabs below show a general template for this structure, and a specific example for an essay comparing and contrasting distance learning with traditional classroom learning.
- Synthesis of arguments
- Topical relevance of distance learning in lockdown
- Increasing prevalence of distance learning over the last decade
- Thesis statement: While distance learning has certain advantages, it introduces multiple new accessibility issues that must be addressed for it to be as effective as classroom learning
- Classroom learning: Ease of identifying difficulties and privately discussing them
- Distance learning: Difficulty of noticing and unobtrusively helping
- Classroom learning: Difficulties accessing the classroom (disability, distance travelled from home)
- Distance learning: Difficulties with online work (lack of tech literacy, unreliable connection, distractions)
- Classroom learning: Tends to encourage personal engagement among students and with teacher, more relaxed social environment
- Distance learning: Greater ability to reach out to teacher privately
- Sum up, emphasize that distance learning introduces more difficulties than it solves
- Stress the importance of addressing issues with distance learning as it becomes increasingly common
- Distance learning may prove to be the future, but it still has a long way to go
In the block method, each subject is covered all in one go, potentially across multiple paragraphs. For example, you might write two paragraphs about your first subject and then two about your second subject, making comparisons back to the first.
The tabs again show a general template, followed by another essay on distance learning, this time with the body structured in blocks.
- Point 1 (compare)
- Point 2 (compare)
- Point 3 (compare)
- Point 4 (compare)
- Advantages: Flexibility, accessibility
- Disadvantages: Discomfort, challenges for those with poor internet or tech literacy
- Advantages: Potential for teacher to discuss issues with a student in a separate private call
- Disadvantages: Difficulty of identifying struggling students and aiding them unobtrusively, lack of personal interaction among students
- Advantages: More accessible to those with low tech literacy, equality of all sharing one learning environment
- Disadvantages: Students must live close enough to attend, commutes may vary, classrooms not always accessible for disabled students
- Advantages: Ease of picking up on signs a student is struggling, more personal interaction among students
- Disadvantages: May be harder for students to approach teacher privately in person to raise issues
An essay that concerns a specific problem (practical or theoretical) may be structured according to the problems-methods-solutions approach.
This is just what it sounds like: You define the problem, characterize a method or theory that may solve it, and finally analyze the problem, using this method or theory to arrive at a solution. If the problem is theoretical, the solution might be the analysis you present in the essay itself; otherwise, you might just present a proposed solution.
The tabs below show a template for this structure and an example outline for an essay about the problem of fake news.
- Introduce the problem
- Provide background
- Describe your approach to solving it
- Define the problem precisely
- Describe why it’s important
- Indicate previous approaches to the problem
- Present your new approach, and why it’s better
- Apply the new method or theory to the problem
- Indicate the solution you arrive at by doing so
- Assess (potential or actual) effectiveness of solution
- Describe the implications
- Problem: The growth of “fake news” online
- Prevalence of polarized/conspiracy-focused news sources online
- Thesis statement: Rather than attempting to stamp out online fake news through social media moderation, an effective approach to combating it must work with educational institutions to improve media literacy
- Definition: Deliberate disinformation designed to spread virally online
- Popularization of the term, growth of the phenomenon
- Previous approaches: Labeling and moderation on social media platforms
- Critique: This approach feeds conspiracies; the real solution is to improve media literacy so users can better identify fake news
- Greater emphasis should be placed on media literacy education in schools
- This allows people to assess news sources independently, rather than just being told which ones to trust
- This is a long-term solution but could be highly effective
- It would require significant organization and investment, but would equip people to judge news sources more effectively
- Rather than trying to contain the spread of fake news, we must teach the next generation not to fall for it
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Signposting means guiding the reader through your essay with language that describes or hints at the structure of what follows. It can help you clarify your structure for yourself as well as helping your reader follow your ideas.
The essay overview
In longer essays whose body is split into multiple named sections, the introduction often ends with an overview of the rest of the essay. This gives a brief description of the main idea or argument of each section.
The overview allows the reader to immediately understand what will be covered in the essay and in what order. Though it describes what comes later in the text, it is generally written in the present tense . The following example is from a literary analysis essay on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein .
Transitions
Transition words and phrases are used throughout all good essays to link together different ideas. They help guide the reader through your text, and an essay that uses them effectively will be much easier to follow.
Various different relationships can be expressed by transition words, as shown in this example.
Because Hitler failed to respond to the British ultimatum, France and the UK declared war on Germany. Although it was an outcome the Allies had hoped to avoid, they were prepared to back up their ultimatum in order to combat the existential threat posed by the Third Reich.
Transition sentences may be included to transition between different paragraphs or sections of an essay. A good transition sentence moves the reader on to the next topic while indicating how it relates to the previous one.
… Distance learning, then, seems to improve accessibility in some ways while representing a step backwards in others.
However , considering the issue of personal interaction among students presents a different picture.
If you want to know more about AI tools , college essays , or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!
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- Post hoc fallacy
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- Sunk cost fallacy
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The structure of an essay is divided into an introduction that presents your topic and thesis statement , a body containing your in-depth analysis and arguments, and a conclusion wrapping up your ideas.
The structure of the body is flexible, but you should always spend some time thinking about how you can organize your essay to best serve your ideas.
An essay isn’t just a loose collection of facts and ideas. Instead, it should be centered on an overarching argument (summarized in your thesis statement ) that every part of the essay relates to.
The way you structure your essay is crucial to presenting your argument coherently. A well-structured essay helps your reader follow the logic of your ideas and understand your overall point.
Comparisons in essays are generally structured in one of two ways:
- The alternating method, where you compare your subjects side by side according to one specific aspect at a time.
- The block method, where you cover each subject separately in its entirety.
It’s also possible to combine both methods, for example by writing a full paragraph on each of your topics and then a final paragraph contrasting the two according to a specific metric.
You should try to follow your outline as you write your essay . However, if your ideas change or it becomes clear that your structure could be better, it’s okay to depart from your essay outline . Just make sure you know why you’re doing so.
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5 Best Websites Where I Can Pay Someone to Write My Essay
Every day the number of requests from students on the Internet is growing.
The search words “pay someone to write my paper” help people find help with their assignments .
Where there is demand, there is always supply.
As students’ need for assistance with papers grows, more and more sites with authors began popping up in Google searches.
It has become increasingly harder to decide who can be trusted with an essay and whether their services are safe.
These are the top 5 sites where you can hire someone to write an essay:
1. EssayShark.com
Topping our list is one of the best writing services you can use to pay someone to write your essay.
Are you looking for a service that has been helping students complete their academic work for a long time? Want to get personalized help?
This website has it all.
We decided to put EssayShark at the top of the list because its reputation precedes it.
Over the years, this website has earned customers’ trust and boasts a well-known reputation for security.
We analyzed the site in detail and found that it, without question, fulfilled the requirements of the search query – “pay someone to write my essay.”
Each paragraph you “write” through this service reveals the company’s attention to detail.
Carefully study what we have written so that you can make a decision and entrust your task to professional authors.
On its website, the company details exactly how they hire writers. To hire someone to write an essay, you need to be confident in the person with whom you are entrusting your important assignments.
Before EssayShark writers collaborate with clients, the service tests their skills and education, making sure that their authors can cope with both simple essays and complex dissertations.
Ease of Collaboration
To pay for an essay on this site, you can visit any of their web pages, and on the right, you will see a form for registering an order.
Modern people value their time and aren’t interested in wasting it trying to figure out how to navigate a company’s website.
The site’s interface is straightforward and transparent, making it even more attractive for students.
Price Policy
Can I pay someone to write my essay cheaply? The cost of the assistance is essential. If the price is too low, it’s alarming, if too high, it repels customers.
On this site, the price is justified since the client chooses the author and the price they offer at the auction. The price for one page starts from $13.40 and depends on the terms and volume of work.
Before you pay someone to write your essay, it is essential to be sure that their payment system is safe.
EssayShark assures its users that it only uses well-known payment systems.
Also, the client can use the site’s free plagiarism checker and have their authors make revisions as their task is being completed.
If you choose this service, you will receive an original text with no worries about losing your anonymity.
The pay someone to do my essay desire is one that should be executed with care as your security and grades depend on it.
2. WriteMyEssayOnline.com
You might wonder why WriteMyEssayOnline made it onto our list of places to pay for paper writing.
First, the opinion of customers who visited and collaborated with different sites was essential to us.
Before writing this post, we naturally analyzed the reviews and found this company among them.
According to their clients’ opinions and observations, we highlighted several main points about the company.
Security and Anonymity
The pay-to-write essay plan is quite normal, especially if you have a lot of projects and assignments to turn in to a professor.
Anonymity for students is essential, and we understand why.
WriteMyEssayOnline, as we have seen, only requires clients to give their email when filling out their applications and asks for no personal information.
We concluded that the service does not collect data about its customers and respects their anonymity.
When you pay for essays online, it is essential to be mindful of your safety and pays only for services that guarantee it.
Essay Originality
When you pay someone to write an essay, there must be guarantees against plagiarism.
This company assures its customers that the authors of the service work exclusively with unique content for each student.
And clients can independently check their essays for uniqueness and pay no extra to check.
In our opinion and from feedback from clients, the authors of this site are producing original work, and this is certainly something to rejoice about.
Customer Support
Paying someone to write an essay means that you should be able to always count on help from the service when you need it.
While you are working with the site, you may have questions. A quality service should always support its students.
WriteMyEssayOnline claims to be available 24/7 to clients and ready to provide answers for students.
Write paper for me – these are the words that students say when they’ve decided to fully trust a service with writing their essays.
WriteMyEssayOnline is worthy of your attention and will allow you to select an author and collaborate with them on your project.
The price and number of free features will please you if you visit their site. Get someone to write your essay there if you are satisfied with the authors and their level of experience.
3. PayforWriting.com
The pay someone to write essay option may be the best after you’ve weighed everything in your mind.
Most likely, after reaching the decision to entrust someone with your task, you saw a lot of advertising on the Internet about essay writing services, and, of course, it was difficult to figure out which service to use.
That is why we decided to help you make the choice.
PayforWriting made it onto our list of the best sites because it has a good reputation among customers.
We only considered the opinion of those who had decided to pay someone to write an essay for them, and many of those who used this site had positive reviews.
The best way a site can be characterized is by how well its team members adhere to the promises made to customers.
After analyzing the site pages where the company highlights its advantages, we managed to draw some basic conclusions and want to share them with you.
Before paying someone to do an essay, we are happy to invite you to consider these findings:
Free Features
Pay for an essay on this site, and you need not be worried about overpaying for the author’s work.
As we can see, PayforWriting offers its customers several free features that are guaranteed to be available to every customer.
Judging by the reviews, all of its clients receive free revisions, uniqueness checks, quoting, and formatting.
That way, they can get help when they pay someone to do an essay without hurting their wallets.
Money-Back Guarantee
By deciding to pay for an essay, you get the right to a refund if you are unsatisfied with the help you received from PayforWriting authors.
The site says that clients can ask for compensation if the order they received does not suit them.
To receive a refund, you contact the site’s support team, which is available around the clock.
Managers check the order for errors and compliance with the client’s instructions, and if there’s an issue, your money is returned.
Accurate Delivery
Clients of this service pay for essays, as they need to turn in their assignments on time.
One of the most popular reasons students turn to such services for help is the need for more free time.
Therefore, services such as this always highlight precisely how they help their customers to save time.
According to the company, their authors always deliver their orders on time.
We read the comments related to the delivery times and found that most often, their clients were satisfied with the timeliness of their deliveries after they made the decision to tell the authors of PayforWriting – “I’d like to pay to do my essay.”
Based on our research, we’ve concluded that you can safely and efficiently pay for a paper on the PayforWriting site.
Of course, it is up to you to decide what exactly you should pay attention to and how best to choose a site to pay to write an essay.
4. BuyEssay.org
To pay for essay writing is much easier if you know all the best available options.
To save you time, we have created this list of the best sites specializing in essay writing. BuyEssay has earned our attention with positive reviews and an interesting approach to working with clients.
You can pay people to write essays here who have proven their competence and can give you the support you expect online.
Diverse Disciplines
The desire to pay for someone to write an essay implies that the student hopes to receive support no matter the subject they are having difficulty with.
BuyEssay, during the application registration, offers its clients more than 60 disciplines in which their authors can create papers.
Philosophy, Art, Economics, Business, and many other subjects are available upon registration of the order.
If you decide to pay for someone to write an essay on this site, you’re sure to find someone specializing in what you are looking for.
Urgent Help
BuyEssay clients who pay for someone to write essays for them are guaranteed help within 4 hours.
This kind of fast help is available if you have a one-page assignment. With that said, the company does advise you to consider delegating papers to its authors more in advance of the deadline.
With its service, you can choose the period you need on its calculator and simultaneously determine how much it will cost you to get assistance based on the deadline you set.
The cost of writing assistance is reduced when you give your author more time to finish your assignment.
Blog with Examples
If you choose, before you pay for an essay, you can view examples of your potential author’s work.
You will feel more confident with the final result because before placing an order, you can both calculate the cost of that order with their online calculator and you can evaluate the writing proficiency of the author by reading an example of one of their finished texts before you’ve selected them.
This is a great advantage BuyEssay has over other services you can find on Google when you pay for college essays with them.
When you say, “I want to pay to write my essay!” at that point, your wishes are their commands.
As it became clear to us in our research, you can get excellent customer support on this website.
Calculate the cost of your potential author’s work, evaluate samples, and only decide to pay for the essay with them if you are pleased with what you see.
BuyEssay is one of the best examples of quality student support, and we encourage you to take a closer look at its offerings.
5. WritingCheap.com
“I dream of paying for my essay and not paying a lot of money!”
We perfectly understand your desire not to spend a lot of money on essay help.
WritingCheap, even in the name of their service, makes it clear that their services won’t make you pay much. Of course, we wanted to check this ourselves before adding the site to our list.
When looking to get an essay written, the first thing that students tend to pay attention to is the price per page and then to all the other factors.
Naturally, in these reviews, we, therefore, look for comments regarding pricing policy.
Go on to read our notes about this service to see if paying someone to write your paper on this website is worth it:
Affordable Price
To pay someone to do your essays is best at an affordable price when you don’t have a lot of expendable income.
In researching this site, we’ve seen that the service authors offer a minimum price for paper of $9 with a maximum deadline.
As part of the service, the authors include custom formatting, create a title page for you, and make corrections for free.
That is to say, you can make whatever revisions you need to in your order without paying extra to the author.
Also, customers choose their authors themselves and can review various bids from potential authors before selecting one to work on their essays.
Online Chat with the Author
Paying someone to write an essay is best when there is an opportunity to personally discuss with the author any questions that might arise while you’re working with them.
“Individual approach” is what the company calls its method of collaboration with clients who come to them for help.
Students who decide to pay for essays with this service can contact their authors in real time and receive the necessary answers.
This way, students can have corrections made and ask for help with their topic and anything related to the writing of the paper.
The online chat feature is free, as are the other features we described.
Safety and Quality
It doesn’t matter what the quality of the writing help is if the writing service lacks a safe approach for students who decide to pay people to write an essay for them.
According to WritingCheap, their services are free and anonymous to every student who registers an order with them.
They guarantee security by closely monitoring the data and payment systems that their site uses. They also do not ask for unrelated personal information.
Their service also provides students with a plagiarism checker, which is absolutely free, to ensure that students receive absolutely original work.
You might still be asking yourself, “Is it safe to pay someone to write my paper?” After analyzing this website, we’ve concluded that you can trust them.
WritingCheap deserves a place on our list, and the budget-minded student looking to pay for essays should consider them as an option.
We evaluated a number of important characteristics when researching WritingCheap and found that they have a lot to offer.
Want to get affordable help and a quality paper? You will be satisfied if you decide to register an order with this cheap assignment writing service.
The affordability of the price wins over customers from the first line.
FAQ About How to Pay Someone to Write My Essay
How can I pay someone to do my essay and be safe?
Paying for essays online is safe and very easy. Want to order an essay online without stressing about safety?
Read their guarantees and their reviews.
The sites that made our list of the best are safe for students because they do not store your payment data and do not ask for your personal information.
When you decide to “pay someone to write my essay,” make sure you are not asked for information about your residence, your name, and so forth.
Can I pay to do my essay and be sure it’s original?
Originality is essential when you decide, “I want to pay someone to write my paper.”
Your identity is confidential for each of the 5 sites because the author’s custom-write original papers.
Before your professor grades you, they will check the text for originality.
Some of these sites will give you the opportunity to check the originality of the essay yourself, while the rest will provide you with a report that the author will send along with the order itself.
Is paying to write an essay costly?
Our list includes services that offer students affordable and reasonable prices.
We recommend researching how much your author’s help will cost you before going forward.
You’ll be able to evaluate prices via registration forms or via online calculators on the site pages. Ensure you understand your essay’s exact cost before getting an author to help you with it.
Which author will I get as an assistant for my essay?
Pay for essays only with authors that you feel confident in. According to the companies hosting these writers, they are professionals with appropriate levels of education.
By choosing a site with a bidding system, you will be able to select an author yourself and read their profile before entrusting them with your essay.
If you first pay for the order and then are given the author, you should read the information provided about their hiring practices—the sites we have chosen test the authors before starting to cooperate with them and guarantee you professionalism.
When I pay someone to write my paper, am I guaranteed to receive my order on time?
Beyond needing to hand in their papers on time, pricing is another reason why customers consider delivery times.
The writing services in this post have an excellent reputation and receive excellent reviews, in which customers thank them for timely deliveries.
If you decide to order an essay, you must clarify when and how you would like to receive your order.
In all cases, it’s best to give yourself more time for the essay to be completed to save yourself time and money.
Will I get a good grade if I pay someone to write an essay?
When you choose authors to help you, you get support from professionals who have already created many papers.
Among other things, your score will depend on your originality and adherence to all the writing and formatting rules.
Since the authors of the services we have chosen are professionals, you can count on good grades.
Get an A by telling the pros – “I want to pay someone to write my essay.”
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