Learning English

It's not always easy to know where to begin with an academic essay – that's why understanding the structure of written assignments is so important. Scroll down to try our activities and you'll be well on the way to writing well-structured essays!

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Get the introduction right

Getting your essay structure right starts with a well-thought-out introduction – but what should you include?

To do

Read this guide to the structure of an essay introduction and fill each gap with a word from this list: question / interest / argue / answer / after / essay / structure / will / analyse / exactly / disagree / signposting

Writing an effective essay introduction: a brief guide.
Good introductions to essays in the British academic context often have a four-part structure:

Introduction part 1: background statement
This is a general statement, to introduce the topic of the essay and to ______ the reader.

Introduction part 2: focus on the question
Every ______ is an answer to a question. Here, your task is to convince the reader that your essay ______ – and its answer – really is important or interesting. One useful way to do this is to show that academics ______ about the answer to the question.

Introduction part 3: thesis statement
In the thesis statement, you tell the reader clearly and directly what your ______ to the essay question will be. The thesis statement often uses phrases like, "This essay will ______ that…".

Introduction part 4: signposting
In the last part of your introduction, you should explain the ______ of your essay to your reader. We call this 'signposting'. In this part of the introduction, we often see phrases such as, "Firstly, this essay ______ examine…", "The second section will consider…", "Finally, I will ______…", and so on.

As you can see, in order to write the thesis statement and the ______ correctly, you need to know ______ what you are going to say in your essay, and how you are going to say it. For this reason, many successful essay writers prefer to write the introduction ______ they have written the main body of the essay.

Next

Now the introduction is sorted, it's time to take a look at structuring your essays well. Go to the next activity to find out more!