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The Nature of an Essay: Unity and Essay Form
Essays by definition develop one point. The focus on a single idea is what distinguishes essays from other types of writing like memos, reports, articles, or more literary writing like biographies or stories. The term used to refer to this "single-naturedness" of essays is "unity." An essay that keeps its focus on its single "idea" is said to be "unified." If an essay diverges from its main idea (or thesis), it is said to have a problem with unity.
Traditionally, essays have been considered to have an "hour glass" shape. In this view of an essay, the writer begins his or her introduction very broadly and generally and then narrows down to the point of the essay. The body of the essay stays at this narrow level of generality until the conclusion. In the conclusion, the writer reverses the movement of the introduction by restating the main point of the essay and then opening up again into more general comments.
Generally, for the typical short college essay of 2-5 pages, writers are well-served to have a single paragraph introduction and conclusion. As essays get longer (10-15 pages), writers might be ok with multi-paragraph introductions.
You don't necessarily need to start with the subject, but it is important that you at least include the essence of the question or issue the essay focuses on. The reader may also need background information to understand the context for your essay question. Also, the best place for your thesis or position is at the end of the introduction (since it is most specific). Some people start their introductions with the thesis first, which can work fine, but I disagree with this approach because it doesn't follow the movement of general to specific.
In short, your main purpose in the introduction is to introduce to the reader what the essay is all about (the question or issue) and what in particular you have to say (the thesis or position). Your goal in the introduction is to make your point, so you don't need to worry about proving or supporting your position at this point. If you find yourself including arguments in the introduction for why you believe your point, you can cut them out and move them into the body of the essay.
A writing teacher I had once
urged us to ask this question when we sat down to write our conclusion:
"What does it all add up to?" Whatever way you structure your
conclusion, be sure that it includes a restatement of you main idea or
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