Academic writing an English

Essay Format

Introduction  Hook

 General Topic

 Background Information

 Thought provoking question, surprising statistic, brief story related to topic, or a powerful quote about your topic

 Introduce the broader topic

 Give context/background information

 Thesis Statement  Indirect  Direct

 Narrowed Topic +  Point  Controlling Ideas (Subtopics)

Body Paragraphs  Topic Sentence for each paragraph

 Introduces one Controlling Idea for each paragraph

 Primary Support –  Explains the controlling idea or its importance

 Can define your sub-topic

 Secondary Support  Specific Evidence to prove or show your point (introduced and developed with detail)

o Quotes, o Statistics, o Examples, and/or o Vivid Description

Conclusion  Restates Thesis

 Summarizes main ideas (Controlling Ideas)

 Leaves reader with a final thought that reminds the reader of the POINT of the essay

 States the thesis in a different way  Reminds the reader of your key ideas

 A suggestion,  opinion statement,  prediction,  solution,  call to action