Essay Paragraph Layout

Active voice, wherein the subjects direct actions rather than let the actions "happen to" them – "he scored a 97%" instead of "he was given a 97%" – is a much more powerful and attention-grabbing way to write.

A one sentence body paragraph that simply cites the example of "George Washington" or "Le Bron James" is not enough, however.

No, following this an effective essay will follow up on this topic sentence by explaining to the reader, in detail, who or what an example is and, more importantly, why that example is relevant. For example, George Washington’s life was extremely complex – by using him as an example, do you intend to refer to his honesty, bravery, or maybe even his wooden teeth?

In fact, it took him more than 1,000 attempts to make the first incandescent bulb but, along the way, he learned quite a deal.

As he himself said, "I did not fail a thousand times but instead succeeded in finding a thousand ways it would not work." Thus Edison demonstrated both in thought and action how instructive mistakes can be.

Despite the fact that, as Shakespeare said, "the pen is mightier than the sword," the pen itself is not enough to make an effective writer.

In fact, though we may all like to think of ourselves as the next Shakespeare, inspiration alone is not the key to effective essay writing.

Finally, designing the last sentence in this way has the added benefit of seamlessly moving the reader to the first paragraph of the body of the paper.

In this way we can see that the basic introduction does not need to be much more than three or four sentences in length.

You see, if your essay has the same structure as every other one, any reader should be able to quickly and easily find the information most relevant to them.

The principle purpose of the introduction is to present your position (this is also known as the "thesis" or "argument") on the issue at hand but effective introductory paragraphs are so much more than that.