3. Analysis of the essay sections

Let us analyse the essay in more detail, looking at the different sections and how the essay is organised.

The essay is made up of five different sections: the title, introduction, paragraph 1, paragraph 2 and the conclusion.

Watch as the writer examines these sections and explores the content that goes into each. These parts form the building blocks of any essay.

The first section is the title. The title is in many ways the most important part of the essay. You should always look for the hidden question in the title to help you plan your essay. What's the hidden question in my essay title? "Discuss the reasons why people choose to live in Reading." Well, the hidden question here is, "why do people choose to live in Reading?" It's a good habit to copy the title out at the top of your page when you write your essay, so that you and your reader are both clear about what you've been asked to do.

Let's look now at the introduction. The introduction to an essay is in two parts. The first part gives some background to the topic. The second part-- which has a narrower focus-- tells the reader exactly why you are writing the essay, in your own words. This has a special name. It's called the thesis statement.

Let's look now at the first paragraph. Paragraph one can also be broken down into two parts. The first part introduces the reader to the focus of the paragraph. It has a special name. It's called the paragraph leader. Some books call it the topic sentence. The second part is the paragraph body. It develops the idea as introduced in the first part.

Let's look now at paragraph two. Just like paragraph one, paragraph two is in two parts, the paragraph leader - which introduces the topic and focus of the paragraph - and then the paragraph body- which develops the ideas which have been introduced in the paragraph leader.

The final part of the essay is the conclusion. Again, we can divide the conclusion into two parts. The first part summarises the ideas in the essay. The second part has a wider focus. It gives a suggestion for the future. This could be a prediction, or a recommendation, or a solution to a problem.

4. Identify the different sections of the essay above. Mark the parts of the essay as

• Title

• Introduction (background)

• Introduction (thesis statement)

• Paragraph 1 (paragraph leader)

• Paragraph 1 (paragraph body)

• Paragraph 2 (paragraph leader)

• Paragraph 2 (paragraph body)

• Conclusion (summary)

• Conclusion (future suggestion: a prediction, recommendation or solution)

5. The links within an essay.

In an essay, the thesis statement, the paragraph leaders, and the summary, and the conclusion should all be closely linked so that the essay is coherent. If you look at the thesis statement in the introduction of the essay on Reading, you'll see that the key ideas for why people live in Reading are family life and opportunities to study.

If we then look at the paragraph leader of the first paragraph - "Reading offers the opportunity for a good work-life balance" - good work-life balance relates back to the idea of family life. If we then look at a paragraph leader of the second paragraph - "many people also come to Reading to study at a language school or at the University"- the idea of study links back to the idea of study in the thesis statement.

If we then look at the conclusion to the essay, the summary reads, "in conclusion, people live in Reading for their own individual reasons. For some people, Reading represents a lifestyle choice, and for others, it offers opportunities to study." So the idea of lifestyle choice links back to the idea of family life, and study links back to the idea of opportunities to study.