Writing essays
The sentence, the paragraph, and the essay are three basic building blocks in communicating your ideas. A sentence expresses one or more complete thoughts. A paragraph, which is usually made up of three or more sentences, expresses one idea and explains or supports that idea. An essay, which consists of two or more paragraphs, expresses and explains a series of related ideas, all of which support a larger, broader idea.
The emphasis in this text is on writing effective sentences and paragraphs. However, in some of your courses, your instructors may ask you to write essays or take essay or take essay exams. Some writing instructors prefer their students to begin by writing single paragraphs and then to progress to essay writing. Regardless of when you begin writing essays, the following introduction to essay techniques will be useful to you. It will show you why good paragraph skills are absolutely necessary for good essays.
What is an Essay?
An essay is a group of paragraphs about one subject. It contains one key idea about the subject, which is called the thesis statement. Each paragraph in the essay supports or explains some aspect of the thesis statement.