Typically, an essay has five paragraphs: an introduction, a conclusion, and three body paragraphs. However, there is no set rule about the number of paragraphs in an essay.
The number of paragraphs can vary depending on the type and scope of your essay. An expository or argumentative essay may require more body paragraphs to include all the necessary information, whereas a narrative essay may need fewer.
To enhance the coherence and readability of your essay, it’s important to follow certain rules regarding the structure. Take a look:
1. Arrange your information from the most simple to the most complex bits. You can start the body paragraph off with a general statement and then move on to specifics.
2. Provide the necessary background information at the beginning of your essay to give the reader the context behind your thesis statement.
3. Select topic statements that provide value, more information, or evidence for your thesis statement.
There are also various essay structures , such as the compare and contrast structure, chronological structure, problem method solution structure, and signposting structure that you can follow to create an organized and impactful essay.
An impactful, well-structured essay comes down to three important parts: the introduction, body, and conclusion.
1. The introduction sets the stage for your essay and is typically a paragraph long. It should grab the reader’s attention and give them a clear idea of what your essay will be about.
2. The body is where you dive deeper into your topic and present your arguments and evidence. It usually consists of two paragraphs, but this can vary depending on the type of essay you’re writing.
3. The conclusion brings your essay to a close and is typically one paragraph long. It should summarize the main points of the essay and leave the reader with something to think about.
The length of your paragraphs can vary depending on the type of essay you’re writing. So, make sure you take the time to plan out your essay structure so each section flows smoothly into the next.
When it comes to writing an essay, the introduction is a critical component that sets the tone for the entire piece. A well-crafted introduction not only grabs the reader’s attention but also provides them with a clear understanding of what the essay is all about. An essay editor can help you achieve this, but it’s best to know the brief yourself!
Let’s take a look at how to write an attractive and informative introductory paragraph.
1. Construct an attractive hook
To grab the reader’s attention, an opening statement or hook is crucial. This can be achieved by incorporating a surprising statistic, a shocking fact, or an interesting anecdote into the beginning of your piece.
For example, if you’re writing an essay about water conservation you can begin your essay with, “Clean drinking water, a fundamental human need, remains out of reach for more than one billion people worldwide. It deprives them of a basic human right and jeopardizes their health and wellbeing.”
2. Provide sufficient context or background information
An effective introduction should begin with a brief description or background of your topic. This will help provide context and set the stage for your discussion.
For example, if you’re writing an essay about climate change, you start by describing the current state of the planet and the impact that human activity is having on it.
3. Construct a well-rounded and comprehensive thesis statement
A good introduction should also include the main message or thesis statement of your essay. This is the central argument that you’ll be making throughout the piece. It should be clear, concise, and ideally placed toward the end of the introduction.
By including these elements in your introduction, you’ll be setting yourself up for success in the rest of your essay.
Let’s take a look at an example.
The Wright Brothers’ invention of the airplane in 1903 revolutionized the way humans travel and explore the world. Prior to this invention, transportation relied on trains, boats, and cars, which limited the distance and speed of travel. However, the airplane made air travel a reality, allowing people to reach far-off destinations in mere hours. This breakthrough paved the way for modern-day air travel, transforming the world into a smaller, more connected place. In this essay, we will explore the impact of the Wright Brothers’ invention on modern-day travel, including the growth of the aviation industry, increased accessibility of air travel to the general public, and the economic and cultural benefits of air travel.
You can persuade your readers and make your thesis statement compelling by providing evidence, examples, and logical reasoning. To write a fool-proof and authoritative essay, you need to provide multiple well-structured, substantial arguments.
Let’s take a look at how this can be done:
1. Write a topic sentence for each paragraph
The beginning of each of your body paragraphs should contain the main arguments that you’d like to address. They should provide ground for your thesis statement and make it well-rounded. You can arrange these arguments in several formats depending on the type of essay you’re writing.
2. Provide the supporting information
The next point of your body paragraph should provide supporting information to back up your main argument. Depending on the type of essay, you can elaborate on your main argument with the help of relevant statistics, key information, examples, or even personal anecdotes.
3. Analyze the supporting information
After providing relevant details and supporting information, it is important to analyze it and link it back to your main argument.
End one body paragraph with a smooth transition to the next. There are many ways in which this can be done, but the most common way is to give a gist of your main argument along with the supporting information with transitory words such as “however” “in addition to” “therefore”.
Here’s an example of a body paragraph.
The Wright Brothers’ invention of the airplane revolutionized air travel. They achieved the first-ever successful powered flight with the Wright Flyer in 1903, after years of conducting experiments and studying flight principles. Despite their first flight lasting only 12 seconds, it was a significant milestone that paved the way for modern aviation. The Wright Brothers’ success can be attributed to their systematic approach to problem-solving, which included numerous experiments with gliders, the development of a wind tunnel to test their designs, and meticulous analysis and recording of their results. Their dedication and ingenuity forever changed the way we travel, making modern aviation possible.
A powerful concluding statement separates a good essay from a brilliant one. To create a powerful conclusion, you need to start with a strong foundation.
Let’s take a look at how to construct an impactful concluding statement.
1. Restructure your thesis statement
To conclude your essay effectively, don’t just restate your thesis statement. Instead, use what you’ve learned throughout your essay and modify your thesis statement accordingly. This will help you create a conclusion that ties together all of the arguments you’ve presented.
2. Summarize the main points of your essay
The next point of your conclusion consists of a summary of the main arguments of your essay. It is crucial to effectively summarize the gist of your essay into one, well-structured paragraph.
3. Create a lasting impression with your concluding statement
Conclude your essay by including a key takeaway, or a powerful statement that creates a lasting impression on the reader. This can include the broader implications or consequences of your essay topic.
Here’s an example of a concluding paragraph.
The Wright Brothers’ invention of the airplane forever changed history by paving the way for modern aviation and countless aerospace advancements. Their persistence, innovation, and dedication to problem-solving led to the first successful powered flight in 1903, sparking a revolution in transportation that transformed the world. Today, air travel remains an integral part of our globalized society, highlighting the undeniable impact of the Wright Brothers’ contribution to human civilization.
Most essays are derived from the combination or variation of these four main types of essays . let’s take a closer look at these types.
1. Narrative essay
A narrative essay is a type of writing that involves telling a story, often based on personal experiences. It is a form of creative nonfiction that allows you to use storytelling techniques to convey a message or a theme.
2. Descriptive essay
A descriptive essay aims to provide an immersive experience for the reader by using sensory descriptors. Unlike a narrative essay, which tells a story, a descriptive essay has a narrower scope and focuses on one particular aspect of a story.
3. Argumentative essays
An argumentative essay is a type of essay that aims to persuade the reader to adopt a particular stance based on factual evidence and is one of the most common forms of college essays.
4. Expository essays
An expository essay is a common format used in school and college exams to assess your understanding of a specific topic. The purpose of an expository essay is to present and explore a topic thoroughly without taking any particular stance or expressing personal opinions.
While this article demonstrates what is an essay and describes its types, you may also have other doubts. As experts who provide essay editing and proofreading services , we’re here to help.
Our team has created a list of resources to clarify any doubts about writing essays. Keep reading to write engaging and well-organized essays!
What is the difference between an argumentative and an expository essay, what is the difference between a narrative and a descriptive essay, what is an essay format, what is the meaning of essay, what is the purpose of writing an essay.
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“An appropriate use of paragraphs is an essential part of writing coherent and well-structured essays.” Don Shiach, How to write essays
The main body of your essay is where you deliver your argument . Its building blocks are well structured, academic paragraphs. Each paragraph is in itself an individual argument and when put together they should form a clear narrative that leads the reader to the inevitability of your conclusion.
A good academic paragraph is a special thing. It makes a clear point, backed up by good quality academic evidence, with a clear explanation of how the evidence supports the point and why the point is relevant to your overall argument which supports your position . When these paragraphs are put together with appropriate links, there is a logical flow that takes the reader naturally to your essay's conclusion.
As a general rule there should be one clear key point per paragraph , otherwise your reader could become overwhelmed with evidence that supports different points and makes your argument harder to follow. If you follow the basic structure below, you will be able to build effective paragraphs and so make the main body of your essay deliver on what you say it will do in your introduction.
This is a good order to use when you are new to writing academic essays - but as you get more accomplished you can adapt it as necessary. The important thing is to make sure all of these elements are present within the paragraph.
The sections below explain more about each of these elements.
This should appear early in the paragraph and is often, but not always, the first sentence. It should clearly state the main point that you are making in the paragraph. When you are planning essays, writing down a list of your topic sentences is an excellent way to check that your argument flows well from one point to the next.
This is the evidence that backs up your topic sentence. Why do you believe what you have written in your topic sentence? The evidence is usually paraphrased or quoted material from your reading . Depending on the nature of the assignment, it could also include:
Any evidence from external sources should, of course, be referenced.
This is the part of your paragraph where you explain to your reader why the evidence supports the point and why that point is relevant to your overall argument. It is where you answer the question 'So what?'. Tell the reader how the information in the paragraph helps you answer the question and how it leads to your conclusion. Your analysis should attempt to persuade the reader that your conclusion is the correct one.
These are the parts of your paragraphs that will get you the higher marks in any marking scheme.
Links are optional but it will help your argument flow if you include them. They are sentences that help the reader understand how the parts of your argument are connected . Most commonly they come at the end of the paragraph but they can be equally effective at the beginning of the next one. Sometimes a link is split between the end of one paragraph and the beginning of the next (see the example paragraph below).
Academic paragraphs are usually between 200 and 300 words long (they vary more than this but it is a useful guide). The important thing is that they should be long enough to contain all the above material. Only move onto a new paragraph if you are making a new point.
Many students make their paragraphs too short (because they are not including enough or any analysis) or too long (they are made up of several different points).
Using storytelling in educational settings can enable educators to connect with their students because of inborn tendencies for humans to listen to stories. Written languages have only existed for between 6,000 and 7,000 years (Daniels & Bright, 1995) before then, and continually ever since in many cultures, important lessons for life were passed on using the oral tradition of storytelling. These varied from simple informative tales, to help us learn how to find food or avoid danger, to more magical and miraculous stories designed to help us see how we can resolve conflict and find our place in society (Zipes, 2012). Oral storytelling traditions are still fundamental to native American culture and Rebecca Bishop, a native American public relations officer (quoted in Sorensen, 2012) believes that the physical act of storytelling is a special thing; children will automatically stop what they are doing and listen when a story is told. Professional communicators report that this continues to adulthood (Simmons, 2006; Stevenson, 2008). This means that storytelling can be a powerful tool for connecting with students of all ages in a way that a list of bullet points in a PowerPoint presentation cannot. The emotional connection and innate, almost hardwired, need to listen when someone tells a story means that educators can teach memorable lessons in a uniquely engaging manner that is common to all cultures.
The cross-cultural element of storytelling can be seen when reading or listening to wisdom tales from around the world...
Key: Topic sentence Evidence (includes some analysis) Analysis Link (crosses into next paragraph)
TOPIC SENTENCE/ In his numerous writings, Marx critiques capitalism by identifying its flaws. ANALYSIS OF EVIDENCE/ By critiquing the political economy and capitalism, Marx implores his reader to think critically about their position in society and restores awareness in the proletariat class. EVIDENCE/ To Marx, capitalism is a system characterized by the “exploitation of the many by the few,” in which workers accept the exploitation of their labor and receive only harm of “alienation,” rather than true benefits ( MER 487). He writes that “labour produces for the rich wonderful things – but for the worker it produces privation. It produces palaces—but for the worker, hovels. It produces beauty—but for the worker, deformity” (MER 73). Marx argues capitalism is a system in which the laborer is repeatedly harmed and estranged from himself, his labor, and other people, while the owner of his labor – the capitalist – receives the benefits ( MER 74). And while industry progresses, the worker “sinks deeper and deeper below the conditions of existence of his own class” ( MER 483). ANALYSIS OF EVIDENCE/ But while Marx critiques the political economy, he does not explicitly say “capitalism is wrong.” Rather, his close examination of the system makes its flaws obvious. Only once the working class realizes the flaws of the system, Marx believes, will they - must they - rise up against their bourgeois masters and achieve the necessary and inevitable communist revolution.
Not every paragraph will be structured exactly like this one, of course. But as you draft your own paragraphs, look for all three of these elements: topic sentence, evidence, and analysis.
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Updated 12 Jun 2024
Most students struggling with essays on any topic may have the same questions about the structure, formatting, and methods to use when writing their work. All learners know that a typical essay includes an introduction, the middle part, and a conclusion. But most of them also need to remember that the middle section is the biggest part of any writing piece. This makes us pay a lot of attention to understanding the meaning of the body of an essay and the basic rules about how to create it. That's why some students choose to pay someone to write essay , so they can get expert help in grasping the significance of the essay body and learning the essential rules. Let’s clarify these questions.
It is any paragraph of an academic paper that comes after the introduction and before the conclusion. The main purpose of the essay body is to explain the essential author’s idea and disclose the topic from a new angle by providing convincing arguments. This paragraph is the longest part of the text and should be based on logical deduction, analyzing empirical data, using evidence, or persuasion.
The volume is not limited and depends on the essay structure and the number of pages in the paper. In academic works, the essential part of your writing shouldn’t be shorter than three sentences. Still, it may seldom be longer than one page. On average, an essay should have at least 6 sentences or about 200 words to support the essential idea presented in the introduction. You may use a transition at the beginning of the body paragraph to connect ideas between sentences and keep your readers engaged.
When speaking about the body paragraph structure, we should consider each paragraph as a separate element of an essay structure . Every paragraph has a miniature introduction, body, and conclusion, and they’re organized in sentences. A body paragraph should include the following four elements:
The combination of words at the beginning and end of a body paragraph links it to other text parts and provides a coherent flow throughout your paper. A transition sentence shouldn’t be complicated. Words like “moreover”, “otherwise”, or a simple phrase “on the other hand” will be sufficient to remove all distractions when moving from one thought to another.
This element is usually the first sentence that introduces the topic and tells what the paragraph will be about. Let’s see an example: “Online education has many advantages”. When we read this, we understand that the author will provide arguments to explain and expand this idea further.
These are the basis of your body paragraph and the most important part of your essay. In an academic paper, one to three sentences support the assertion exposed in the topic sentence with logical statements, evidence, or expert opinion.
It is a concluding sentence that summarizes the author’s viewpoint and is based on the supporting evidence. It’s a good idea to end your essay with an emotional appeal to encourage the audience to ponder what was discussed.
Before describing the main tips for completing a perfect exemplification essay , it’s necessary to understand and follow the algorithm we provide below. There are three essential stages of body writing:
Let’s see how to approach every stage and make your writing process easier and faster.
Think about your paper structure and sketch the essential points you want to present to your audience. This step is important as it helps you understand how every paragraph of your essay relates to other elements. If necessary, you can always change the order of arguments you present. The way you organize your paper may also be changed during the writing process. Don’t hesitate to make improvements and add fresh ideas to your outline, even if you’ve got started with your first draft.
During this stage, you should transform your general ideas into well-thought-out supporting arguments and supplement them with essential details and useful examples. It’s crucial to keep in mind how you want your final paper to look. And knowledge about how to format an essay correctly is important. At this stage, take a look at our valuable recommendations on how to complete an outstanding essay.
Compelling body paragraphs are an essay’s basis. And one of the hardest things to write is the first phrase of your body paragraph. It is crucial to understand how to start the body of an essay, as it usually includes the strongest argument of the whole paper. The first paragraph is also called the “paragraph leader” and should act as a topic phrase and introduce the essential idea of the entire part of an essay. We recommend writing the first sentence to open the discussion and contain a key question that will be solved in the next part of your paper.
You must evaluate what you’ve done and rewrite some phrases if necessary. You may also cut some parts of your work and add improvements. Then, before submitting your paper, revise it to exclude grammar and stylistic errors and repetitions. You may read your writing piece aloud to make sure it conveys your intended meaning. Ask yourself the following questions:
Most authors begin their work by writing an introduction. But you may start with whatever element you want. You’re free to choose the easiest section first or vice versa ─ write the most challenging part of your essay at the beginning.
Every paragraph in the body of an essay should be focused on one thought, delivering evidence, supporting arguments, and explanation. At the beginning of every paragraph, present a topic sentence expressing the essential point. Then, give the details and expand your idea in the rest of the paragraph. Only when you’ve disclosed all the arguments, move to another paragraph.
Don’t be afraid to eliminate sections if you feel they don’t make sense. You may come up with new thoughts which you can insert into your essay if you see a suitable place for them.
When you don’t like the result, you may save some sections or even the whole text in a separate document. Even if you don’t plan to use it, you may find new ideas to implement in your essay later.
Remember to write down the sources when completing drafts. It’ll save you a lot of time and prevent plagiarism issues. Indicate the author’s name, title, year, and page number each time you paraphrase from a source or use quotations.
Avoid delving into minor details while creating the first draft. Note your thoughts instantly and polish them later. If you’re unsatisfied with a sentence or word, indicate it in the draft to improve it later. You may struggle with one phrase and not see how to formulate it. In this case, switch to another section and think about it later. No need to spend time changing fragments you might delete or revise in the future.
Check whether your ideas fit together between paragraphs and within a separate paragraph. They should be organized logically and easy to understand for your readers. Use transition words to relate every next sentence to the previous one.
Writing the body of an essay may be challenging, especially if you only take your first steps in academic research and learn the fundamentals of completing an essay. Keep in mind that other students are struggling with the same complicated things too. That's where an essay helper comes in, offering valuable guidance and support to make the process easier for you. Our specialists are always ready to give you a helping hand. We can provide the best body paragraph example and give useful recommendations on creating a well-structured essay with the proper formatting and style. With Edubirdie, your writing will always be engaging, clear, and polished, no matter the topic you investigate.
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Meredith, a dedicated editor at EduBirdie, specializes in academic writing. Her keen eye for grammar and structure ensures flawless papers, while her insightful feedback helps students improve their writing skills and achieve higher grades.
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The body paragraphs are the part of an essay , report , or speech that explains and develops the main idea (or thesis ). They come after the introduction and before the conclusion . The body is usually the longest part of an essay, and each body paragraph may begin with a topic sentence to introduce what the paragraph will be about.
Taken together, they form the support for your thesis, stated in your introduction. They represent the development of your idea, where you present your evidence.
"The following acronym will help you achieve the hourglass structure of a well-developed body paragraph:
TAXES gives you a formula for building the supporting paragraphs in a thesis-driven essay." (Kathleen Muller Moore and Susie Lan Cassel, Techniques for College Writing: The Thesis Statement and Beyond . Wadsworth, 2011)
Aim for coherence to your paragraphs. They should be cohesive around one point. Don't try to do too much and cram all your ideas in one place. Pace your information for your readers, so that they can understand your points individually and follow how they collectively relate to your main thesis or topic.
Watch for overly long paragraphs in your piece. If, after drafting, you realize that you have a paragraph that extends for most of a page, examine each sentence's topic, and see if there is a place where you can make a natural break, where you can group the sentences into two or more paragraphs. Examine your sentences to see if you're repeating yourself, making the same point in two different ways. Do you need both examples or explanations?
A body paragraph doesn't always have to have a topic sentence. A formal report or paper is more likely to be structured more rigidly than, say, a narrative or creative essay, because you're out to make a point, persuade, show evidence backing up an idea, or report findings.
Next, a body paragraph will differ from a transitional paragraph , which serves as a short bridge between sections. When you just go from paragraph to paragraph within a section, you likely will just need a sentence at the end of one to lead the reader to the next, which will be the next point that you need to make to support the main idea of the paper.
Completed examples are often useful to see, to give you a place to start analyzing and preparing for your own writing. Check these out:
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Writing body of an essay is difficult task. In many ways, it’s the most relevant section because all major points of your paper should be introduced and dissected there. This is your chance to study the topic in as much depth as needed, presenting your arguments, defending them, and supporting them with academic sources. Most essay points are awarded for this part, so college students should ensure that every paragraph is thought out, valid, and properly formatted.
But naturally, several questions occur. How to use evidence in an essay? What structure should typical body have? How long should it be? Body is the largest part of a written text, so while it gives you most opportunities for getting a great grade, there are also more risks of making mistakes. If you want to avoid them, you should know all standard rules and follow them while writing. We’ll be happy to help you meet professor’s requirements, so take a look at the tips we’ve devised.
Essay paragraph structure follows the same academic standards, no matter what kind of paper you’re writing or which subject you’re exploring. There are four main parts a body must have. Here are they are:
Now is the time to understand the specifics of opening sentences and see how they work on practical examples. So, like it became clear from the previous section, opening sentences are placed at the start of each body paragraph. They announce writer’s intentions and are in direct relation with thesis. Using the topic about reasons that motivate people to become doctors, we have a caring nature, communicativeness, and hunger for power as three attributes introduced in a thesis.
What is a topic sentence in an essay like this? For the first body paragraph, it could say the following: “One of the reasons that encourage young people to pursue nursing career is their caring nature.” The opening line for the second paragraph could be, “Being communicative is another big motivator that pushes individuals toward healthcare work.” These lines are connected with thesis and they disclose the main aim of the paragraphs themselves. Follow this example and your topic sentence will be flawless!
The next point is evidence. Like we explained, it should be present in any paper irrespective of topics, and the stronger it is, the more chances at success you gain. There are several models you could use for presenting and explaining your evidence, but we’re going to focus only on several of them. The first one requires using a quote. You could cite something directly from a book or an article or put this information in your own words. In both cases, watch out for essay format : some styles like APA need you to use an author’s name and date while formats like MLA demand the mention of pages in all instances. Clarify it with your university — they should provide template. It is vital since, without proper citations, you might be accused of plagiarism. After using this quote, explain its meaning. Elaborate a bit, adding some extra details. After that, present several points of your own, and if needed, support them with more sources.
Another effective model includes basing evidence directly on the first sentence of an essay paragraph. Start going from there: if you mentioned caring qualities, expand on that by pointing out what makes an individual caring and in what ways it is expressed. Slowly, lead toward some relevant quote or paraphrase, and then, again, offer an explanation. This gradual system is just as effective, so choose whichever option you prefer.
What about closing essay transition sentences? They are extremely important because they give a writer an opportunity to solidify the conclusion they need in the minds of their readers. Not every person is reading attentively enough, so they might skip over some crucial points. With a closing sentence, they are reminded of the goal this paragraph had. Writing this bit is more difficult than working with an opening line because it should be concise yet extremely informative. For example, this is how we close paragraph about caring nurses: “Thus, caring people are more predisposed to helping others, and many of them want to make it a part of their future career.” Here we used a concluding word “thus” and covered the core content from a paragraph. It goes back toward thesis, which is another plus. But there is also another way of concluding essay.
Remember! Use our conclusion sentence generator to create a great last paragraph.
They either conclude an essay or are added to the second half of a closing sentence. Our examples will help you make sense of them. In the first case, transition is a short ending to a paragraph that hints at what is coming next. When you take a reader from a paragraph about kindness toward a paragraph about communicativeness, it could sound like this: “However, being caring is not the only attribute people choosing nursing as career possess.” Pay attention to “however” — it works as a transitional word. There are several words like this, such as “nevertheless,” “but”, “in addition,” “nonetheless,” etc. If you want to incorporate transitions into a closing line, you could rely on them as well. For instance: “Caring people are more inclined to help others, but it is not the only attribute that future doctors tend to possess.” We combined both closing and transitional sentences into one here. Do the same if you like this option.
Before students start writing their paper, they should understand what they need to do. Body is an extremely complex section, so it’s always better to figure out the basics and create an outline. First of all, choose your topic. Determine what argument you’ll be making. Outline all main points, and then rely on these three steps.
Whether you’re writing 5 paragraph essay or a whole dissertation, the body of this work has to be flawless. Ensure this by taking all tips we provided above into account. Remember about four components each body should have (opening and closing sentences, evidence, and transitions) together with strategies for making them effective. You could write them down and tick them off whenever you compose another paragraph.
Trust us, if you cover all these moments, this largest section is bound to get you good grades. If you have issues with citing evidence or creating essay transitions, though, never hesitate to look for help . We have come to the assistance to many students before, and we’ll be glad to do it for you as well. Just explain your instructions and we’ll treat your body like we would our own, with all the care it deserves!
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An essay is a brief piece of writing that explains, analyzes, and interprets a topic; it’s also a summary of a particular subject in which the author expresses an opinion.
Does the essay need a title? How many paragraphs does an essay have? Does it have headings and a conclusion? Does the essay have a full stop? Are the introduction, body and conclusion on separate pages? How do you make the cover of an essay?
Here, we will address these frequent questions that come up when you need to write an essay.
The difference between an essay and informational text, like what you might find in an encyclopedia, is that an essay is freer, and its parts are not separated by headings.
The essay does have each of these parts but they are not identified as in a monographic work, but rather they are written one after another. An example of an essay can be seen at the end of this article.
Justified text, Justified text, Justified text, Justified text, Justified text, Justified text, Justified text, Justified text, Justified text. | Not Justified, Not Justified, Not Justified, Not Justified, Not Justified, Not Justified, Not Justified, Not Justified, Not Justified, Not Justified, Not Justified, Not Justified, Not Justified, Not Justified, |
Introduction , body of the essay, form and organization the body, conclusion .
Here goes the author’s personal opinion, (You, the person doing the essay, your opinion) an essay has, of course, personal opinions in its body, however, in the conclusion these must be emphatic.
Author(s) Last Name, First Initial. Middle Initial. (Year of Publication). Title of Book. Publisher. (Optional: Edition)
Author(s) Last Name, First Initial. Middle Initial. (Year of Publication, Month Day). Title of Webpage. Retrieved from Website URL
University (Name of the university, or college, school, as the case may be) Administration and Accounting Area (The subject can go here) The administrative process A process can be defined as a set of successive steps, phases or actions of a natural or artificial phenomenon. In the context of the study and practice of management, there are different approaches that have contributed to this discipline with a large number of theories, ideas or concepts from different points of view. Administration has been studied through experience, decision-making, human relations, it has been studied as a social system, also with a quantitative approach and through the tasks performed by the professionals in the field. Today, the concept of the administrative process is a fundamental part of management theory. Each one of the functions must be understood and carried out correctly by the management professional, and they have factors, principles, or aspects that, if not taken into account, the administrative process could not fulfill its objectives. Having said that, the process begins with its first phase, which is planning. Organizations seek to achieve a goal in the future, and there are questions such as: What actions should be taken? How to reach that goal? When? Where? Why? Planning is thinking before acting, it is a decision-making process that takes into account internal and external factors that can influence the achievement of the objective. External factors are not directly controlled and come from the environment, for example, the economy, government regulations and competition. On the other hand, internal factors are controllable, such as the human and technological factor. The body of the essay continues… When all the topics have been explained, you write the conclusion. To conclude, it highlights that the administrative process is related to each activity of the company and that the planning, organization, direction, and control are all part of the functions carried out there, such as marketing, finance, production, and personnel management and I can think it’s evident that none of its principles or factors can’t be ignored if the organization wants to be successful. The stages are not isolated actions, but they make up a whole, i consider that the process is very easy to understand and also, it is easy to adapt and apply in all areas of life, because beings Humans have objectives both inside and outside the organization, they use resources and need to give effectiveness and efficiency to their actions to accelerate their achievement and satisfy their needs, so it is important both as business professionals and as individuals to know the functions of management that constitute the basic and important process explained in this essay. |
How might you distinguish one from a human-composed counterpart? After analyzing dozens, Elizabeth Steere lists some key predictable features.
By Elizabeth Steere
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Since OpenAI launched ChatGPT in 2022, educators have been grappling with the problem of how to recognize and address AI-generated writing. The host of AI-detection tools that have emerged over the past year vary greatly in their capabilities and reliability. For example, mere months after OpenAI launched its own AI detector, the company shut it down due to its low accuracy rate.
Understandably, students have expressed concerns over the possibility of their work receiving false positives as AI-generated content. Some institutions have disabled Turnitin’s AI-detection feature due to concerns over potential false allegations of AI plagiarism that may disproportionately affect English-language learners . At the same time, tools that rephrase AI writing—such as text spinners, text inflators or text “humanizers”—can effectively disguise AI-generated text from detection. There are even tools that mimic human typing to conceal AI use in a document’s metadata.
While the capabilities of large language models such as ChatGPT are impressive, they are also limited, as they strongly adhere to specific formulas and phrasing . Turnitin’s website explains that its AI-detection tool relies on the fact that “GPT-3 and ChatGPT tend to generate the next word in a sequence of words in a consistent and highly probable fashion.” I am not a computer programmer or statistician, but I have noticed certain attributes in text that point to the probable involvement of AI, and in February, I collected and quantified some of those characteristics in hopes to better recognize AI essays and to share those characteristics with students and other faculty members.
I asked ChatGPT 3.5 and the generative AI tool included in the free version of Grammarly each to generate more than 50 analytical essays on early American literature, using texts and prompts from classes I have taught over the past decade. I took note of the characteristics of AI essays that differentiated them from what I have come to expect from their human-composed counterparts. Here are some of the key features I noticed.
AI essays tend to get straight to the point. Human-written work often gradually leads up to its topic, offering personal anecdotes, definitions or rhetorical questions before getting to the topic at hand.
AI-generated essays are often list-like. They may feature numbered body paragraphs or multiple headings and subheadings.
The paragraphs of AI-generated essays also often begin with formulaic transitional phrases. As an example, here are the first words of each paragraph in one essay that ChatGPT produced:
Notably, AI-generated essays were far more likely than human-written essays to begin paragraphs with “Furthermore,” “Moreover” and “Overall.”
AI-generated work is often banal. It does not break new ground or demonstrate originality; its assertions sound familiar.
AI-generated text tends to remain in the third person. That’s the case even when asked a reader response–style question. For example, when I asked ChatGPT what it personally found intriguing, meaningful or resonant about one of Edgar Allan Poe’s poems, it produced six paragraphs, but the pronoun “I” was included only once. The rest of the text described the poem’s atmosphere, themes and use of language in dispassionate prose. Grammarly prefaced its answer with “I’m sorry, but I cannot have preferences as I am an AI-powered assistant and do not have emotions or personal opinions,” followed by similarly clinical observations about the text.
AI-produced text tends to discuss “readers” being “challenged” to “confront” ideologies or being “invited” to “reflect” on key topics. In contrast, I have found that human-written text tends to focus on hypothetically what “the reader” might “see,” “feel” or “learn.”
AI-generated essays are often confidently wrong. Human writing is more prone to hedging, using phrases like “I think,” “I feel,” “this might mean …” or “this could be a symbol of …” and so on.
AI-generated essays are often repetitive. An essay that ChatGPT produced on the setting of Rebecca Harding Davis’s short story “Life in the Iron Mills” contained the following assertions among its five brief paragraphs: “The setting serves as a powerful symbol,” “the industrial town itself serves as a central aspect of the setting,” “the roar of furnaces serve as a constant reminder of the relentless pace of industrial production,” “the setting serves as a catalyst for the characters’ struggles and aspirations,” “the setting serves as a microcosm of the larger societal issues of the time,” and “the setting … serves as a powerful symbol of the dehumanizing effects of industrialization.”
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AI writing is often hyperbolic or overreaching. The quotes above describe a “powerful symbol,” for example. AI essays frequently describe even the most mundane topics as “groundbreaking,” “vital,” “esteemed,” “invaluable,” “indelible,” “essential,” “poignant” or “profound.”
AI-produced texts frequently use metaphors, sometimes awkwardly. ChatGPT produced several essays that compared writing to “weaving” a “rich” or “intricate tapestry” or “painting” a “vivid picture.”
AI-generated essays tend to overexplain. They often use appositives to define people or terms, as in “Margaret Fuller, a pioneering feminist and transcendentalist thinker, explored themes such as individualism, self-reliance and the search for meaning in her writings …”
AI-generated academic writing often employs certain verbs. They include “delve,” “shed light,” “highlight,” “illuminate,” “underscore,” “showcase,” “embody,” “transcend,” “navigate,” “foster,” “grapple,” “strive,” “intertwine,” “espouse” and “endeavor.”
AI-generated essays tend to end with a sweeping broad-scale statement. They talk about “the human condition,” “American society,” “the search for meaning” or “the resilience of the human spirit.” Texts are often described as a “testament to” variations on these concepts.
AI-generated writing often invents sources. ChatGPT can compose a “research paper” using MLA-style in-text parenthetical citations and Works Cited entries that look correct and convincing, but the supposed sources are often nonexistent. In my experiment, ChatGPT referenced a purported article titled “Poe, ‘The Fall of the House of Usher,’ and the Gothic’s Creation of the Unconscious,” which it claimed was published in PMLA , vol. 96, no. 5, 1981, pp. 900–908. The author cited was an actual Poe scholar, but this particular article does not appear on his CV, and while volume 96, number 5 of PMLA did appear in 1981, the pages cited in that issue of PMLA actually span two articles: one on Frankenstein and one on lyric poetry.
AI-generated essays include hallucinations. Ted Chiang’s article on this phenomenon offers a useful explanation for why large language models such as ChatGPT generate fabricated facts and incorrect assertions. My AI-generated essays included references to nonexistent events, characters and quotes. For example, ChatGPT attributed the dubious quote “Half invoked, half spontaneous, full of ill-concealed enthusiasms, her wild heart lay out there” to a lesser-known short story by Herman Melville, yet nothing resembling that quote appears in the actual text. More hallucinations were evident when AI was generating text about less canonical or more recently published literary texts.
This is not an exhaustive list, and I know that AI-generated text in other formats or relating to other fields probably features different patterns and tendencies . I also used only very basic prompts and did not delineate many specific parameters for the output beyond the topic and the format of an essay.
It is also important to remember that the attributes I’ve described are not exclusive to AI-generated texts. In fact, I noticed that the phrase “It is important to … [note/understand/consider]” was a frequent sentence starter in AI-generated work, but, as evidenced in the previous sentence, humans use these constructions, too. After all, large language models train on human-generated text.
And none of these characteristics alone definitively point to a text having been created by AI. Unless a text begins with the phrase “As an AI language model,” it can be difficult to say whether it was entirely or partially generated by AI. Thus, if the nature of a student submission suggests AI involvement, my first course of action is always to reach out to the student themselves for more information. I try to bear in mind that this is a new technology for both students and instructors, and we are all still working to adapt accordingly.
Students may have received mixed messages on what degree or type of AI use is considered acceptable. Since AI is also now integrated into tools their institutions or instructors have encouraged them to use—such as Grammarly , Microsoft Word or Google Docs —the boundaries of how they should use technology to augment human writing may be especially unclear. Students may turn to AI because they lack confidence in their own writing abilities. Ultimately, however, I hope that by discussing the limits and the predictability of AI-generated prose, we can encourage them to embrace and celebrate their unique writerly voices.
Elizabeth Steere is a lecturer in English at the University of North Georgia.
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At a recent mom-and-kids brunch, in the brief lull between naptime attempts for two babies and two toddlers, a friend asked, “What are you all listening to these days?”
We all stared back bleary-eyed, no doubt thinking: Babies shrieking, obviously. Is there any other sound in the world?
“I mean podcasts,” she clarified.
A couple women offered favorites: one for curing toddler tantrums, another for baby-led weaning. When it was my turn, I threw out some titles of my own, distracted by the blueberry smoothie my son was inching toward the edge of the table.
Then I noticed that my friends’ stares were now directed at me. “Why do you listen to those podcasts?” one of them asked.
And I saw, in a rush, what she meant: Here we were at a crowded table, two babies stuffed side by side into highchairs, big kids on their knees grabbing pancakes from the stack. Sticky syrup everywhere. How, my friends’ baffled faces asked, given our shared maternal condition, had I stumbled upon an obsession with podcasts about the choice to remain child-free ?
There are many true ways to answer that question, but the biggest is the pandemic. In March of 2020, I was finishing grad school and teaching online. My son was 2.5 years old and home indefinitely from day care. Motherhood had been plenty hard before that, but I had never felt trapped in exactly that way — utterly bound to my current circumstances, with no wiggle room in any direction.
Every morning, after breakfast and books and toys and games and watering the plants on the patio, after every possible household activity had been exhausted, I strapped my son in the stroller and plodded down the street to a nearby stream, where he played and I sat on a rock in grateful silence.
The day was not even half completed by that point. There was still lunch, and then wrestling him into a nap, trying to squeeze out two hours of work (unlikely) before he woke up, and then another long stint of play before dinner and bath and bed.
Still, on that rock, I took respite. My son splashed and laughed in the cold water. I plugged in my AirPods and scrolled through my podcasts , thinking for those brief minutes not of how to diagnose some obscure toddler illness, not of how to be a better mother — but of how to feel free. How to locate, within the crush of this day, one expansive moment for myself.
While my son tossed stones and drew in the sand, I listened to interviews with women who had decided not to have children.
You could call it envy. But it wasn’t that. Those interviews were like faint radio signals to the island where I was stranded, reminders of all the lives out there.
You could call it envy. But it wasn’t that. Those interviews were like faint radio signals to the island where I was stranded, reminders of all the lives out there. Even in the brutal isolation of quarantine, there were people sleeping late and savoring coffee in bed. There were people staying up past midnight watching movies. There were people backpacking, camping, climbing mountains. There were people working remote jobs without falling behind, because their children were not converting the living room into a blanket fort or knocking juice boxes off the coffee table or refusing to go to sleep.
It wasn’t that these facts did not occasionally infuriate me. Sometimes I felt crazed by the gulf between caretakers and non-caretakers, stunned at the other easier ways my life could have gone.
But usually, child-free podcasts didn’t send me into that raging place. Instead, they left me strangely calm, peaceful. These women had chosen something difficult, a path they would have to explain again and again. Out of that difficulty, they had discovered the beauty of lives lived on their own terms.
I could relate to this. When I had gotten pregnant as an unmarried 28-year-old, I’d chosen an equally stigmatized path — low-income single motherhood, to put it bluntly. From that path had come my greatest joy: my son.
What the child-free podcasts captured was the beauty of women living for themselves. Women in love with their careers. Women devoted to their art. Women who drew deep nourishment from travel and romance and food and literature and adventure and personal agency — or women who just liked hanging out in their gardens, without having to worry about toddlers rolling in poison ivy or crashing their trikes into the fence.
Our lives looked nothing alike, but I loved these women.
There were sticking points. Used to fielding criticism for their choices, some child-free women seemed a little too eager to criticize mothers in return. One woman scorned her friends who had let motherhood consume them — as though this were inherently a lesser way to live, or as if it were always a choice. Another, pushing back against the notion that being child-free was selfish, argued instead that having kids without financial stability was the selfish choice. Financially unstable mother that I was, I resented this argument, and I disputed it on philosophical grounds. I believe parenthood should be accessible for everyone, that not just the wealthy deserve to have families.
Sometimes, I wanted to slap these enlightened child-free women in the face.
But mostly what I heard in their words was care and thoughtfulness. Respect for mothers and motherhood. Gratitude toward their own parents. Love for women. And deep and generous love for themselves, too.
When the interviews ended, or when my son had had enough, I loaded his sopping body into the stroller and pushed him back up the hill to our house. By the time we got there, I was panting and sweaty and annoyed at myself for forgetting to take the chicken out of the freezer.
But these conditions were a little less all-consuming now. They were the setting of my life, the undeniable place I was in. But they no longer felt like the only place on Earth. Not an unreachable island — just a city where, sometimes, I felt I’d been hanging out for a little too long.
Other days, a place I couldn’t fathom leaving.
Eventually the pandemic restrictions eased. My son returned to day care. I returned to work. I stopped listening to podcasts as a coping mechanism for daily life. My son discovered Taylor Swift and we sang “Anti-Hero” at the top of our lungs while driving through town.
But still, when I feel constrained by the life I’m living — like I can’t access my full sense of creativity or freedom — I pull those podcasts out again. I did it recently when contemplating having a second baby, with all the professional and financial and emotional implications of having a newborn.
There’s an obvious irony here: Why should child-free moms be the ones to empower me in my choice to have, not one, but two kids?
But they do. Pushing my grocery cart through the aisles, loading up on the fruit my son loves best, I think: These women get it, what it means to make hard choices. What it means to value so deeply these one lives we each receive. How to make a decision and live that decision to its fullest potential.
That’s what I want for all of us. I’m grateful to the child-free women who remind me how it’s done.
Sara Heise Graybeal is a writer and journalist living in Greensboro, North Carolina. She is currently querying a memoir about motherhood and unconventional family-making. Learn more at www.saragraybeal.com .
We love to focus on personality types, attachment styles, and diagnoses. but we’re part of a herd too..
I like to talk to my therapy clients about anxious cows. Among a group of peacefully grazing cows, the mere whiff of a nervous herd member can get the other cows all stirred up. Ears perked and tails twitching, they’ll seek out a familiar cow friend, maybe one who seems a little more chill, and the pair will start licking each other’s heads, reducing heart rates with a nice, juicy tongue massage.
We are not so different from cows. We all have ways of stirring each other up and calming each other down. One member of a team at work worries about a deadline, and suddenly you’re all a little on edge (then headed for a soothing happy hour drink). Your partner is upset about a neighbor’s noisy renovation project, and before you know it, you are too.
I find that telling my clients about cows—or elephants, or even bugs—can help. I live and work on Capitol Hill in Washington, where you’ll find The Body Keeps the Score in every lending library, but I’ve never seen a copy of Frans de Waal’s Chimpanzee Politics . Maybe that book should be ubiquitous. In my experience, when you let the animal world loose into the therapy room, people relax a little. They begin to see how a dreaded trip home or conflict at the office is a brilliant opportunity to observe anxiety among a group of animals—to metaphorically pull out a naturalist’s notebook and record patterns.
Much of the therapy world is disconnected from the natural world. We are focused on personality types, attachment styles, and diagnoses backed by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (diagnoses we would never give a cow because they are just … all cows). But our emphasis on human uniqueness, while well intentioned, has backfired into a pattern of labeling a lot of adaptation as dysfunction. We turn to treatments that focus on the individual, instead of looking at how our behaviors are part of a group dynamic. We have become less concerned with our place in the grand story of life.
Humans are not unknowable unicorns. We are products of evolution. Our behavior is influenced by the processes that govern the natural world. Our families and communities are natural systems trying their best to survive and thrive. When I was writing my latest book, True to You , it was important to me to use examples from nature to help people think about human relationships. Because we can learn something about ourselves when we study other natural systems, whether it’s a prairie dog town, a termite mound, or a troop of mushrooms.
When a client shamed herself for getting too competitive with her colleagues, I suggested she read about elephant hierarchies at the watering hole. When a manager wondered why he couldn’t seem to inspire some of his team members, I pointed out that 25 percent of ants in a colony barely work at all. Maybe the answer to why you or your child is handling a situation in a particular way isn’t buried deep in a stack of psychology research or in a therapist’s TikTok dance. Maybe it’s that you are creatures trying your best to survive out there—just like every other creature on this planet.
I bring the natural world into the therapy room not to excuse behaviors but to help my clients get curious about how they, and the people in their herd, end up acting the way they do. When people see behaviors as adaptive, rather than dysfunctional, they have a better chance of shifting out of self-blame. They also stop trying to change others. Instead, they get interested in how the patterns play out, and in how they can change their part in the automatic functioning of the group. They start asking themselves, How can I learn to regulate my own anxiety when there’s not another person around to metaphorically lick my head? and How can I avoid letting my fellow cows stir me up so much?
Because that is what makes humans unique: the ability to step outside what’s automatic and activate our own best thinking. The capacity to not always have to go along with the group. To calmly speak into your phone, “Well, Mom, I think about that a little differently.”
Of course, learning to operate differently takes a lot of observation. We can learn something about how to observe our fellow humans (and ourselves) from researchers who study the natural world. Here are some books that I frequently recommend to my therapy clients.
If you’re overwhelmed by conflict and drama in your relationships, there’s no better book than de Waal’s Chimpanzee Politics . After you’ve met a 30-year-old chimp who acts like a child to get sympathy, and a female who tricks two warring males into grooming each other, you’ll never experience Thanksgiving with your family the same way again.
If you’re trying to build community or want to feel more connected to existing friends, Caitlin O’Connell’s Wild Rituals will have you stealing ideas from the elephant families she has studied for decades. When I learned that zebras greet each other with playful nips, it made me consider how my friendships might benefit from an elaborate handshake or a ridiculous curtsy.
I learned about the anxious cow-licking from Ashley Ward’s The Social Lives of Animals , a great read for those who tend to be too hard on themselves and need a comforting laugh. You’ll learn that cockroaches who live isolated childhoods often struggle to find love, and how locusts will chew the ass off the locust in front of them to keep the swarm moving in the same direction. (I’ll let you decide the area of your life in which this metaphor is most useful.)
If you’re lying awake at night worried about the future of America, Thomas Seeley’s Honeybee Democracy will teach you how honeybees wiggle their tiny bee butts to make important decisions about the future of the hive. Who doesn’t love a story with a dance-off?
No book can replace the value of getting out in nature. Even 10 minutes outside can be enough to reduce some stress and improve your mood. Feeling connected to the natural world also keeps us mindful of the global challenges we face and the part we can play in evolving ourselves out of these messes. So get outside. Notice which way a sunflower turns or what starts a squabble among the neighborhood birds. Head to the farm and watch the anxiety ebb and flow.
I like to ask my therapy clients, “What will keep you curious about your own functioning?” Although curiosity isn’t unique to humans, it is certainly our superpower. Getting interested in life in all forms, allowing ourselves to be delighted, inspired, and a little convicted, is a strategy I’d encourage you to try. Chances are you’ll teach your therapist something in return.
Trainer Kelsey Wells shares her honest thoughts on postpartum fitness
That time in my life was incredibly challenging. I had anticipated feeling pure, unadulterated joy after the birth of my baby. And while I did experience moments of that joy, there were darker feelings there, too. I felt inadequate caring for my son and was haunted by the fear of failing him. I went through moments of detachment from him, each accompanied by an overwhelming sense of shame.
My personal body image struggles were also worse than ever. I couldn't recognise my own postpartum body in the mirror, and I continuously picked myself apart, tearing myself down. I knew there was nothing inherently wrong with my body–I had just given birth to a baby–but when I looked in the mirror, I just felt shame. And I was desperate not to feel that way.
I started getting debilitating panic attacks. The first one struck the evening before my husband, Ryan, had to go back to work. Anderson was just five days old and I knew I would be on my own with our baby the next day. The sun started setting and with it, extreme panic set in. I felt a pressing weight on my chest, my stomach tied in knots, my palms started sweating, and before I knew it, I was hyperventilating and spiralling. It felt like I couldn’t breathe.
Many panic attacks followed that first one. They occurred randomly and frequently in the early months of motherhood, and I kept them hidden because I thought they meant I was failing at my role as a mum. My doctor ultimately referred me to see a therapist, but I refused because I was embarrassed (I felt a lot of stigma around my mental health at that time). My doctor also talked to me about trying medication for my anxiety, but I refused that too. As a last resort, she suggested exercise.
Mentally, I was trapped in a web of toxic, self-limiting beliefs, and physically, I felt weak and out of touch with my own body.
From the age of 16 until the birth of my son, I had lived a mostly sedentary lifestyle. I would enthusiastically sign up for a new workout program or routine, only to quit after a few days or weeks, telling myself that I couldn't stick with anything. Fitness for me had always been rooted in the belief that I needed to shrink and take up less space. Dealing with a newborn and a new, postpartum body only exacerbated these feelings. I was willing to try anything that could help me recognise myself again. So, when the doctor suggested exercising for my mental health, I decided to go for it.
When I first started working out, I was amazed at how quickly I started to see benefits— not in how I looked in the mirror, but in how I felt. I realised later, that this was the first time in my adult life that I had ever attempted to exercise out of an effort to help myself heal, rather than hate for my body.
This was my first attempt at regular exercise, with the goal of clearing my head and getting my body moving outside. After a month or two of walking, I googled “ home workouts ” and printed out some PDFs I found online. These 30-minute workouts included basic exercises like push-ups , lunges , and sit-ups , which I attempted to do in my basement apartment while Anderson napped. I would quietly roll out my yoga mat , borrowed from my mom, and give the workouts a try. I was met with exceeding frustration at first with my inability to physically do what I thought were basic exercises, but still I tried. Slowly, I began to get stronger.
Now, at 35-years-old, I share posts on social media where I'm lifting heavy weights , and people say it’s so boss and badass. But I can tell you that the most intense, gruelling, demanding, and boss-badass workouts I've ever experienced were those postpartum ones , when I could barely do anything. It took everything to get through what I could of those workouts.
But even as I built momentum, I still often felt like a stranger in my own body. I struggled to do a single sit-up, let alone a push-up.
One day, after hearing me take a jab at myself, my husband lovingly sat me down and said it hurt him to hear me speak about myself in such a negative way. He challenged me to say three kind things about myself for every negative thing I said to myself—either in my mind or out loud. He was so sincere, and I committed to him that I would try. It was very uncomfortable at first, but it helped me realise just how bad my negative self-talk was and how deeply I wanted to heal. (Over time, I have also incorporated other practices like meditation, journaling, and gratitude practices.)
I purchased personal trainer Kayla Itsines' BBG workout program (now called “Sweat”) , and kept doing my best—this time consciously challenging the negative commentary in my head. I followed the program as best as I could. After a few months, I joined a local gym and discovered the weight training area. Three times a week, I would wake up at 4:45 AM, so I could train before my husband left for school and work, and go to this mental sanctuary. It felt like a gift I was giving to myself.
That first year of my fitness journey was exceptionally personal and private. I fell in love with fitness. The changes I was trying to make in the way I spoke to myself, combined with the physical strength changes and newfound commitment to caring for my health made me feel empowered inside and out. And as I started to feel the mental and emotional benefits, my curiosity about the science behind it grew.
I completed a certified personal trainer course through the National Academy of Sports Medicine, and got my CPT certification. I then went on to get my prenatal fitness and postnatal fitness certifications because I felt there was a lack of information available for new mothers like me, and I wanted to fill that gap.
There was a lot going on in my life at that time. I was still struggling with my mental health and postpartum challenges while also going through a significant transition away from the church I grew up in. I needed a safe space where nobody cared about my religious beliefs, so I began a fitness Instagram account.
I vulnerably shared personal “ transformation” posts of my body at eight weeks postpartum to where I was then on my fitness journey, portraying both my physical transformation in the photos and describing in the caption the deeper changes you couldn’t physically see. The posts quickly began to trend and my account grew to over 50,000 followers within weeks.
I got a lot of negativity and judgment from people in my real life about my posts. I was told by women I considered friends at the time that people were gossiping about me and judging me, and that what I was posting was embarrassing. In hindsight, I understand that when you’re growing in a different direction and shifting away from the person you used to be, it can sometimes be alarming, threatening and uncomfortable for the people around you. But with the support of my husband, I drew a line in the sand for myself, saying, 'I'm going to stand behind this, and I'm not going to hide anymore. I'm going to be proud.'
I doubled down and began sharing more on social media. In January of 2017, I joined Sweat , the workout program co-founded by Kayla Itsines, and in May 2017 the Sweat app launched, debuting my first program. It was one that deeply resonated with me: a post-pregnancy strength training regimen.
I try to create an environment where they can remember their inner strength, rather than fixating on the idea of "getting their body back." I hate that phrase.
It's so important for women to remember that their body is art, that it’s their soul’s sacred home, and for them to reclaim movement as the empowering practice it was always meant to be. My entire Redefine Fitness method is based on this idea. In my program, I encourage women to heal their relationship with physical movement, by setting intentions, using affirmations and giving gratitude to their body.
For some, that empowerment means regaining their former strength, for others, they’re building it for the first time. The fact that a woman's body can bring a new life into the world is nothing short of miraculous. And in this delicate and unique phase, it's devastating to see women burdened with shame and unrealistic expectations–whether self-imposed or from society–to "bounce back" or reclaim their pre-baby body. It's crucial for women to be gentle with themselves.
I now have 13 training programs, hosted in Sweat, to help women in different phases of life. I have few regrets in life, but one of them is that I missed the miracle of growing a child and giving birth because I was too busy hating myself and my body throughout that process. Now, I can look back and recognise how my negative self-talk affected me. Over time, I began to realise that the more I cared for my body, and helped it get stronger, the more I learned to love myself and remember that it was worth caring for. That's why I'm so passionate about helping other women feel the same way.
Life is too short to waste time worrying about what you're putting in your mouth and what you think is wrong with your body. Nothing you consume is as detrimental to your well-being as shaming yourself for your dietary choices or your appearance.
Making a change doesn't have to be overwhelming. It's about adopting an abundance mindset. When I began my fitness journey, I was consuming more Dr. Pepper than water. So, I challenged myself to hydrate with two litres of water daily. I could have my soda if I wanted it, I would simply still drink my water. I stopped labelling certain foods as "bad" and instead focused on making small, incremental changes that could fit into my lifestyle.
It's not a matter of saying, "I can't have this," or "I won't do that." It's about giving yourself more—more compassion and grace. And more nutrients, protein and strength—because you deserve it.
I know that we have a long way to go, but I do feel like I'm seeing a shift happening: More women are recognising that their bodies are worth loving and caring for. And nothing has taught me that more than discovering my own strength after having a baby, and then helping other women do the same.
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Guest Essay
By Rachael Bedard
Dr. Bedard is a physician and writes about medicine and criminal justice.
Last week, President Biden tried to acknowledge and mitigate concerns about his capacity to stay on in the most important job in the world. “I know I’m not a young man, to state the obvious,” he said after a disastrous debate against Donald Trump. “I don’t walk as easy as I used to. I don’t speak as smoothly as I used to. I don’t debate as well as I used to.” But, the president went on, “I know, like millions of Americans know, when you get knocked down, you get back up.”
He was asking Americans to see themselves in him and to recognize his debate performance as both an aberration from and a continuation of who he has always been: a person who may suffer and stumble but whose ambition, commitment and confidence in himself have provided a backstop of resilience against insult and injury.
Reporters and Mr. Biden’s biographers have been reflecting over the past week about the severity and nature of his condition and on whether they missed signs or were duped. Americans are suddenly engaged in a speculative conversation about whether the president is physically and mentally fit to lead the country and whether they can trust his self-assessment. What would it mean for a person to “get back up” who also can’t walk, speak or debate with the ease he once did? And how to make sense of his appearance at the debate and the stories that have emerged since about lapses of memory, naps during the day and occasional bouts of confusion?
I’m a geriatrician, a physician whose specialty is the care of older adults. I watched the debate and saw what other viewers saw: a president valiantly trying to stand up for his record and for his nation but who seemed to have declined precipitously since the State of the Union address he gave only a few months earlier.
As a country, we are not having a complete or accurate discussion of age-related debility. I know no specifics — and won’t speculate here — about Mr. Biden’s clinical circumstances. But in the face of so much confused conjecture, I think it’s important to untangle some of the misunderstanding around what age-related decline may portend. Doing so requires understanding a well-characterized but underrecognized concept: clinical frailty.
As we age, everyone accumulates wear and tear, illness and stress. We can all expect to occasionally lose a night’s sleep, struggle with jet lag, catch a virus, trip and fall or experience side effects from medication. But for young and middle-aged people who are not chronically or seriously ill, these types of insults don’t usually change the way we function in the long term. This is not so for frail elders.
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Published on July 24, 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on July 23, 2023.
An argumentative essay expresses an extended argument for a particular thesis statement . The author takes a clearly defined stance on their subject and builds up an evidence-based case for it.
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When do you write an argumentative essay, approaches to argumentative essays, introducing your argument, the body: developing your argument, concluding your argument, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about argumentative essays.
You might be assigned an argumentative essay as a writing exercise in high school or in a composition class. The prompt will often ask you to argue for one of two positions, and may include terms like “argue” or “argument.” It will frequently take the form of a question.
The prompt may also be more open-ended in terms of the possible arguments you could make.
At university, the vast majority of essays or papers you write will involve some form of argumentation. For example, both rhetorical analysis and literary analysis essays involve making arguments about texts.
In this context, you won’t necessarily be told to write an argumentative essay—but making an evidence-based argument is an essential goal of most academic writing, and this should be your default approach unless you’re told otherwise.
At a university level, all the prompts below imply an argumentative essay as the appropriate response.
Your research should lead you to develop a specific position on the topic. The essay then argues for that position and aims to convince the reader by presenting your evidence, evaluation and analysis.
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An argumentative essay should be objective in its approach; your arguments should rely on logic and evidence, not on exaggeration or appeals to emotion.
There are many possible approaches to argumentative essays, but there are two common models that can help you start outlining your arguments: The Toulmin model and the Rogerian model.
The Toulmin model consists of four steps, which may be repeated as many times as necessary for the argument:
The Toulmin model is a common approach in academic essays. You don’t have to use these specific terms (grounds, warrants, rebuttals), but establishing a clear connection between your claims and the evidence supporting them is crucial in an argumentative essay.
Say you’re making an argument about the effectiveness of workplace anti-discrimination measures. You might:
The Rogerian model also consists of four steps you might repeat throughout your essay:
This model builds up a clear picture of both sides of an argument and seeks a compromise. It is particularly useful when people tend to disagree strongly on the issue discussed, allowing you to approach opposing arguments in good faith.
Say you want to argue that the internet has had a positive impact on education. You might:
You don’t necessarily have to pick one of these models—you may even use elements of both in different parts of your essay—but it’s worth considering them if you struggle to structure your arguments.
Regardless of which approach you take, your essay should always be structured using an introduction , a body , and a conclusion .
Like other academic essays, an argumentative essay begins with an introduction . The introduction serves to capture the reader’s interest, provide background information, present your thesis statement , and (in longer essays) to summarize the structure of the body.
Hover over different parts of the example below to see how a typical introduction works.
The spread of the internet has had a world-changing effect, not least on the world of education. The use of the internet in academic contexts is on the rise, and its role in learning is hotly debated. For many teachers who did not grow up with this technology, its effects seem alarming and potentially harmful. This concern, while understandable, is misguided. The negatives of internet use are outweighed by its critical benefits for students and educators—as a uniquely comprehensive and accessible information source; a means of exposure to and engagement with different perspectives; and a highly flexible learning environment.
The body of an argumentative essay is where you develop your arguments in detail. Here you’ll present evidence, analysis, and reasoning to convince the reader that your thesis statement is true.
In the standard five-paragraph format for short essays, the body takes up three of your five paragraphs. In longer essays, it will be more paragraphs, and might be divided into sections with headings.
Each paragraph covers its own topic, introduced with a topic sentence . Each of these topics must contribute to your overall argument; don’t include irrelevant information.
This example paragraph takes a Rogerian approach: It first acknowledges the merits of the opposing position and then highlights problems with that position.
Hover over different parts of the example to see how a body paragraph is constructed.
A common frustration for teachers is students’ use of Wikipedia as a source in their writing. Its prevalence among students is not exaggerated; a survey found that the vast majority of the students surveyed used Wikipedia (Head & Eisenberg, 2010). An article in The Guardian stresses a common objection to its use: “a reliance on Wikipedia can discourage students from engaging with genuine academic writing” (Coomer, 2013). Teachers are clearly not mistaken in viewing Wikipedia usage as ubiquitous among their students; but the claim that it discourages engagement with academic sources requires further investigation. This point is treated as self-evident by many teachers, but Wikipedia itself explicitly encourages students to look into other sources. Its articles often provide references to academic publications and include warning notes where citations are missing; the site’s own guidelines for research make clear that it should be used as a starting point, emphasizing that users should always “read the references and check whether they really do support what the article says” (“Wikipedia:Researching with Wikipedia,” 2020). Indeed, for many students, Wikipedia is their first encounter with the concepts of citation and referencing. The use of Wikipedia therefore has a positive side that merits deeper consideration than it often receives.
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An argumentative essay ends with a conclusion that summarizes and reflects on the arguments made in the body.
No new arguments or evidence appear here, but in longer essays you may discuss the strengths and weaknesses of your argument and suggest topics for future research. In all conclusions, you should stress the relevance and importance of your argument.
Hover over the following example to see the typical elements of a conclusion.
The internet has had a major positive impact on the world of education; occasional pitfalls aside, its value is evident in numerous applications. The future of teaching lies in the possibilities the internet opens up for communication, research, and interactivity. As the popularity of distance learning shows, students value the flexibility and accessibility offered by digital education, and educators should fully embrace these advantages. The internet’s dangers, real and imaginary, have been documented exhaustively by skeptics, but the internet is here to stay; it is time to focus seriously on its potential for good.
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An argumentative essay tends to be a longer essay involving independent research, and aims to make an original argument about a topic. Its thesis statement makes a contentious claim that must be supported in an objective, evidence-based way.
An expository essay also aims to be objective, but it doesn’t have to make an original argument. Rather, it aims to explain something (e.g., a process or idea) in a clear, concise way. Expository essays are often shorter assignments and rely less on research.
At college level, you must properly cite your sources in all essays , research papers , and other academic texts (except exams and in-class exercises).
Add a citation whenever you quote , paraphrase , or summarize information or ideas from a source. You should also give full source details in a bibliography or reference list at the end of your text.
The exact format of your citations depends on which citation style you are instructed to use. The most common styles are APA , MLA , and Chicago .
The majority of the essays written at university are some sort of argumentative essay . Unless otherwise specified, you can assume that the goal of any essay you’re asked to write is argumentative: To convince the reader of your position using evidence and reasoning.
In composition classes you might be given assignments that specifically test your ability to write an argumentative essay. Look out for prompts including instructions like “argue,” “assess,” or “discuss” to see if this is the goal.
If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.
Caulfield, J. (2023, July 23). How to Write an Argumentative Essay | Examples & Tips. Scribbr. Retrieved July 10, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/academic-essay/argumentative-essay/
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The body is always divided into paragraphs. You can work through the body in three main stages: Create an outline of what you want to say and in what order. Write a first draft to get your main ideas down on paper. Write a second draft to clarify your arguments and make sure everything fits together. This article gives you some practical tips ...
The basic structure of an essay always consists of an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. But for many students, the most difficult part of structuring an essay is deciding how to organize information within the body. This article provides useful templates and tips to help you outline your essay, make decisions about your structure, and ...
The essay body itself is organised into paragraphs, according to your plan. Remember that each paragraph focuses on one idea, or aspect of your topic, and should contain at least 4-5 sentences so you can deal with that idea properly. Each body paragraph has three sections. First is the topic sentence. This lets the reader know what the ...
What are the 5 parts of an essay? Explore how the introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion parts of an essay work together.
On average, the body comprises 60-80% of your essay. For a high school essay, this could be just three paragraphs, but for a graduate school essay of 6,000 words, the body could take up 8-10 pages. Paragraph structure. To give your essay a clear structure, it is important to organize it into paragraphs. Each paragraph should be centered ...
What is the main body of an essay? An essay has three distinct parts arranged in this order: an introduction, a main body, and a conclusion. The main body is the heart of the essay in which the ...
Basic Essay Structure. This handout goes over the basic parts of an essay: the title, introduction, thesis or guiding statement, body, and conclusion. Each part plays a different role in bringing ideas together to form a cohesive essay. Following this format will help organize an essay; however, essays should always be written with a specific ...
Body. Body paragraphs give proof for the thesis. They should have one proof point per paragraph expressed in a topic sentence. The topic sentence is usually found at the beginning of each body paragraph and, like a thesis, must be a complete sentence. Each topic sentence must be directly related to and support the argument made by the thesis.
Parts of an essay. An impactful, well-structured essay comes down to three important parts: the introduction, body, and conclusion. 1. The introduction sets the stage for your essay and is typically a paragraph long. It should grab the reader's attention and give them a clear idea of what your essay will be about.
Don Shiach, How to write essays. The main body of your essay is where you deliver your argument. Its building blocks are well structured, academic paragraphs. Each paragraph is in itself an individual argument and when put together they should form a clear narrative that leads the reader to the inevitability of your conclusion.
The body of the essay is where you fully develop your argument. Each body paragraph should contain one key idea or claim, which is supported by relevant examples and evidence from the body of scholarly work on your topic (i.e. academic books and journal articles). Together, the body paragraphs form the building blocks of your argument.
A strong paragraph in an academic essay will usually include these three elements: A topic sentence. The topic sentence does double duty for a paragraph. First, a strong topic sentence makes a claim or states a main idea that is then developed in the rest of the paragraph. Second, the topic sentence signals to readers how the paragraph is ...
The main purpose of the essay body is to explain the essential author's idea and disclose the topic from a new angle by providing convincing arguments. This paragraph is the longest part of the text and should be based on logical deduction, analyzing empirical data, using evidence, or persuasion. ...
The structure of an essay is divided into an introduction that presents your topic and thesis statement, a body containing your in-depth analysis and arguments, and a conclusion wrapping up your ideas. The structure of the body is flexible, but you should always spend some time thinking about how you can organize your essay to best serve your ...
Written by MasterClass. Last updated: Jun 7, 2021 • 2 min read. From magazines to academic essays, you can find body paragraphs across many forms of writing. Learn more about how to write engaging body paragraphs that support the central idea of your writing project.
The body paragraphs are the part of an essay, report, or speech that explains and develops the main idea (or thesis ). They come after the introduction and before the conclusion. The body is usually the longest part of an essay, and each body paragraph may begin with a topic sentence to introduce what the paragraph will be about.
If an essay should be 5 pages long, then it has about 1500 words. 10% will go for intro and the same amount will be given to conclusion (meaning that they'll have 150 words each). The rest should be good for body, so plan accordingly. This could help you understand how much information you need.
In expository essays, the most common type assigned to students, the fundamental idea (often the problem or question) is typically placed towards the end. The essay then develops this central idea through explanations, comparisons, and exemplifications. Body of the essay. The body consists of the points that develop the essay in depth.
The body of your essay is the main part of the essay where all your points, arguments, and examples are presented. It typically consists of about 70% of your Essay. Consequently, most of your score will depend on the quality of this segment of your essay.
The safe order to write an essay is: Introduce and present the topic, write the body of the essay (covering all the arguments and phrases necessary to develop the topic), conclude (show how your arguments reach an efficient and well-established ending) .
It's true that the trajectory of aging varies from person to person. Biden is 81, and former President Donald Trump is 78. Both have already lived longer than the average American male lifespan ...
The structure of an essay is divided into an introduction that presents your topic and thesis statement, a body containing your in-depth analysis and arguments, and a conclusion wrapping up your ideas. The structure of the body is flexible, but you should always spend some time thinking about how you can organize your essay to best serve your ...
AI essays tend to get straight to the point. Human-written work often gradually leads up to its topic, offering personal anecdotes, definitions or rhetorical questions before getting to the topic at hand. AI-generated essays are often list-like. They may feature numbered body paragraphs or multiple headings and subheadings.
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I like to talk to my therapy clients about anxious cows. Among a group of peacefully grazing cows, the mere whiff of a nervous herd member can get the other cows all stirred up. Ears perked and ...
Argumentative essays test your ability to research and present your own position on a topic. This is the most common type of essay at college level—most papers you write will involve some kind of argumentation. The essay is divided into an introduction, body, and conclusion: The introduction provides your topic and thesis statement
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Guest Essay. The Struggles of President Biden and the Truth About Aging. July 5, 2024. ... but signify how an aging body might become vulnerable, out of equilibrium and unable to overcome ...
The body of an argumentative essay is where you develop your arguments in detail. Here you'll present evidence, analysis, and reasoning to convince the reader that your thesis statement is true. In the standard five-paragraph format for short essays, the body takes up three of your five paragraphs. In longer essays, it will be more paragraphs ...