Operating Definitions and Guidelines for Writing | Essay | Pattern and Essay

Sentence Essay Pattern

This information is designed to better help students reach the target of an essay whose content communicates effectively.

Each paragraph in an essay should have from 7 - 12 sentences in it with content that moves from general to specific. The indentation illustrates the movement from general to specific back out to general. The further to the right that the section is indented, the more specific its content. Therefore, the further left, the more general. The sentences found at the beginning and at the end of a paragraph are more general. The further into the paragraph a sentence is, the more specific it is.

The texts after the dots below isolate the elements of an essay. Read through the description of the pattern, and then click here to see the actual essay.

Introduction

• Catchy grabber beginning sentence or quotation

• Bridge sentences with a literary author’s full name, full title in one of them, and the date of publication or, in the case of a movie, the director, title, and year the film was released.

• Analytical thesis

Body paragraph 1

• Topic sentence

• Bridge sentence(s)

• Direct quotation/specific detail

• Analysis/interpretation sentence(s)

• Concluding sentence(s)

Body paragraph 2

• Topic sentence

• Bridge sentence(s)

• Direct quotation/specific detail

• Analysis/interpretation sentence(s)

• Concluding sentence(s)

Body paragraph 3

• Topic sentence

• Bridge sentence(s)

• Direct quotation/specific detail

• Analysis/interpretation sentence(s)

• Concluding sentence(s)

Conclusion

• Sentence that signals an ending

• Bridge sentences referring back to work(s)

• Paraphrase of thesis

• Ending sentence(s) that give a sense of closure

• Closing sentence that ends the essay with an impact