How to write an essay: the parts, each explained, from the question to the proofread

To write an essay, work in this order: read the question and underline the task word; write one arguable claim (the thesis); plan one paragraph per reason, each with a topic sentence and evidence; write the body before the introduction; cite every borrowed idea; check the reasoning for fallacies; then fix the sentences last. The five-paragraph shape is scaffolding, not the building. This guide explains each part with an example we wrote for it and links the full post on each.

Why the five-paragraph essay stops working

School taught most of us a shape: an introduction, three body paragraphs, a conclusion. It got a first essay onto the page, and under a timed exam it still does. What it did not teach was what a marker looks for in a 1,500-word argument: a claim worth defending, and paragraphs that develop that claim rather than list three things about the topic. Flower and Hayes (1981) studied writers at work and found that writing is not a line from the first sentence to the last but a set of processes that keep returning: planning, putting words down, reading them over and changing the plan. The recipe hides that, because it hands you the shape before you have anything to say.

So the honest line: the recipe is fine for a timed exam and thin for a researched argument, and nobody should feel bad about having learned it. The eight steps below keep its one real discipline, one job per paragraph, and replace the count with a plan. Throughout, the example essay answers a question we made up for this page: To what extent should Ontario schools move the first bell to 9 am? Its facts are invented to show the form; nothing in it is a researched claim.

Step 1: Read the question before you write a word

Underline the task word. Every essay question carries a verb that tells you the kind of answer it wants, and most weak essays answer a different question from the one set. Analyse asks you to take the thing apart and say what the parts add up to. Evaluate asks for a verdict against a standard you name. Compare asks what putting two things side by side shows. To what extent asks you to agree partly and say where the limit is. Discuss still wants a position at the end of the tour. Our question says to what extent, which forbids a plain yes or no: "move it for the senior grades, because the bus savings only appear there" answers it, and "yes" does not. In the Academic Writing course this is the idea reading the assignment: task words and the question, and it takes two minutes that save the whole essay.

Step 2: The thesis, a claim a reader could disagree with

A topic names what the essay is about; a thesis says what you think and why. This essay will discuss school start times is a topic with a promise attached; nobody could disagree with it, so nothing in the essay has to defend it. The fix is to answer the question in one sentence and add the reason: Moving the first bell to 9 am would raise attendance more than it would disrupt bus schedules, so Ontario boards should pilot it. A reader could now say "no, the bus costs are larger", and the essay has a job. Say the claim aloud to someone in one breath; if you cannot, it is not yet a claim, which is chapter 5 of the free playbook. The three-question test and six weak theses fixed are in the thesis test and the fixes.

Step 3: Plan the paragraphs before you draft them

One reason per paragraph, in an order you chose. Write the reasons as a list before you write a sentence of the body, decide whether the strongest goes first or last and why, and give the strongest objection a paragraph of its own (the course calls it counter-argument and rebuttal). The outline for our example essay:

1. Attendance: late starts cut first-period absence, which is where the marks are lost.
2. Sleep: the hour moves to the morning, when teenagers can use it.
3. The objection: bus schedules and after-school jobs shift, and that costs real money.
4. The rebuttal and the limit: the second bus loop already exists, so pilot it in the senior grades first.

Four lines, ten minutes. Kellogg (2008) describes writing as a task that overloads working memory when the writer plans, phrases and judges at once; a plan on paper takes the planning out of your head while you write. The ten minutes save an hour of rewriting.

Step 4: Paragraphs that hold together

A topic sentence gives the paragraph one job, then the evidence, then the sentence that says what the evidence shows, then a transition that names the move to the next paragraph. Here is our paragraph without a topic sentence: The 7:05 bus serves the north routes. The 8:40 loop runs the same roads with half the seats filled. Drivers are paid for a split shift either way. Three facts about bus timetables, and the reader asks "so what?" One sentence at the top repairs it: A 9 am bell would not need new buses, because the existing routes already run a second loop. Now the facts are evidence for a claim. The words that name a move, and a paragraph repaired in full, are in topic sentences and transitions, worked.

Step 5: Make the argument persuade honestly

Three appeals, and one carries the weight. A text persuades through the writer's character (ethos), the reader's feelings (pathos) and the reasoning (logos); in a school essay logos does the work, because the marker is checking whether each step follows. The three with examples are in ethos, pathos and logos with examples. Then check the reasoning. A sentence we committed on purpose: Everyone knows teenagers are lazy, so a later bell just rewards them. It attacks the people instead of the claim and treats "everyone knows" as evidence. The honest version states the point with the evidence it would need: If attendance did not rise in the pilot, the later bell would be rewarding sleep without buying anything, so the pilot's figures decide the question. Fifteen such sentences, each committed and fixed, are in the fifteen fallacies, each with its fix.

Step 6: Cite every borrowed idea

If it is not yours and not common knowledge, it carries a citation. A quotation, a paraphrase, a statistic, a line of reasoning you read somewhere: all of these point to their source; your own analysis and facts everyone knows do not. In school, plagiarism is mostly notes with no page numbers and a deadline, and the cure is a note-taking habit rather than fear. MLA cites by author and page, (Nakamura 42), under Works Cited; APA cites by author and year, (Nakamura, 2021, p. 42), under References. One invented book, article and web page in both styles are in MLA vs APA side by side.

Step 7: The introduction and the conclusion, written last

The introduction has three jobs; the conclusion has two. Write both after the body, because then you know what you are introducing and what you have shown. The introduction gives two sentences of context, the thesis and the route. Ours:

Ontario secondary schools ring their first bell between 8:00 and 8:30, a time set decades ago around bus contracts and farm hours. Attendance in first period has slipped in every board that reports it. Moving the first bell to 9 am would raise attendance more than it would disrupt bus schedules, so boards should pilot it. This essay weighs the attendance and sleep gains against the transport costs and argues for a pilot in the senior grades.

The conclusion answers the question in its own terms, then says what follows. Ours:

To a large extent, yes: the attendance gain is the kind of change a board can measure in one term, and the bus objection is smaller than it looks because the second loop already runs. The limit is the junior grades, where after-school care depends on the early finish. A pilot in Grades 11 and 12 would settle the question with data instead of opinion. If it fails, the cost is one term; if it works, the case for the rest of the school writes itself.

Two habits to drop: restating every paragraph, and opening with "In conclusion".

Step 8: Fix the sentences last

Sentence editing comes last because it is cheap to redo and the ideas are not. Sommers (1980) compared student writers with experienced adult writers and found the students revising mostly at the level of the word, swapping one for another, while the experienced writers revised for the shape of the argument first and expected the piece to change. Fix the argument, then the paragraphs, then the sentences. The four sentence faults in one line each: a comma splice joins two complete sentences with a comma alone (The pilot raised attendance, the buses cost more); a run-on joins them with nothing; a fragment is a piece of a sentence standing alone; the passive voice is a fault only when it hides who did what. The splice is mended with a full stop, a semicolon or a joining word: The pilot raised attendance, but the buses cost more. All four, broken and mended, are in the four sentence faults and their repairs. A grammar checker flags the splice and misses the argument; what essay checkers catch and miss says where that line is.

The lab report: the essay's cousin in the sciences

If you are in SPH4U, SCH4U or SBI4U, the essay's cousin is the lab report: the sections are fixed, the voice is different (past tense, the passive accepted in the method) and the marker's checklist is public. One pendulum experiment written through all eight sections, every number computed, is how to write a lab report.

The posts in this section, in the order of the writing process

• Thesis statements: for the student whose margin says "this is a topic, not a thesis"; the three-question test and six weak theses fixed.
• Ethos, pathos and logos: for the vocabulary quiz and for the rhetorical analysis essay that uses the three words without just labelling.
• Logical fallacies: fifteen a student meets, each in a sentence that commits it and the honest version, plus the counter-argument paragraph.
• Transition words and topic sentences: the list grouped by the move each word makes, and a paragraph with no topic sentence repaired.
• MLA vs APA and the annotated bibliography: a book, an article and a web page in both styles, in-text citations, one annotation worked, and where plagiarism begins.
• Comma splices, run-ons, fragments and the passive: the four sentence faults, each broken and mended, with a whole paragraph before and after.
• How to write a lab report: the eight sections, what the marker checks in each, and a pendulum experiment worked from the raw times to g.

The essay on one screen

1. Read the question. Underline the task word; it decides the kind of thesis.
2. Write the thesis. One sentence a reader could disagree with, with its reason.
3. Plan the paragraphs. One reason each, in an order you chose, the objection given its own.
4. Build each paragraph. Topic sentence, evidence, what it shows, the move to the next.
5. Persuade honestly. Logos carries the weight; check every step follows.
6. Cite. Every borrowed idea, in the style the assignment names.
7. Introduction and conclusion last. Context, thesis, route; answer, then what follows.
8. Fix the sentences last. Splices, run-ons, fragments, a hiding passive.

Where the bookkeeping is done

The eight steps above walk the twenty-four ideas of the Academic Writing course, from the rhetorical situation to the research paper, and the YSR Studies course map shows each one as Learned, Shaky or Not shown yet, with a card's answer kept on the server until you have tried and a tutor that coaches before it reveals the course's verified answer. Nothing on this page marks an essay for you; the method works on paper, and the map only keeps the score.