Many styles of writing exist and there are plenty of ways to format an essay. For example, academic writing and informal writing are two different types of styles that both require careful attention. One difference between the two essays is that academic writing tends to put more emphasis on how the essay is physically structured, such as in the format and layout, as well as on how the words are organized. In contrast, informal writing, such as speeches for political events, are not scrutinized as much since the only thing that's really looked at is the content of the essay speech.

Nevertheless, if you are just starting to write essays for college or you are putting one together for another reason, there are three basic parts to an essay that should go in every one. Each one will be broken down in detail, but first, one should start with an introduction. Second, the body of the paragraph should be laid out. Finally, the conclusion or recap of the essay should be written.

The Introduction: Introductions are one of the most important parts to any essay that you're writing. Not only do essays briefly cover the topics that one will be writing about throughout the whole paper, but it is also meant to capture the thesis statement of the entire paper. The thesis, which is only one or two sentences and is the claim for your paper, essentially lays out your whole paper's format. In other words, one's thesis should be their guide, being sure that each paragraph connects somehow to their claim.

The Body of an Essay: After the introduction has been written the body of the essay is written next. The body of one's essay is essentially the meat and potatoes or filling of the whole essay. Said another way, whoever is reading or listening to your essay actually wants to hear what you have to say in the body of your essay.

While writing it, it's very important that each paragraph has something to do with your thesis, as mentioned above. In addition, each paragraph of the body should begin with a topic sentence, which can be thought of as a little mini-thesis that gets backed up by everything that is written in the paragraph you're working on. The body of an essay usually has three paragraphs, but can contain more if you have more items or proofs to back up your thesis.

The Ending: Finally, the conclusion of the paragraph goes next and is the final step of writing an essay. In essence, the conclusion is perhaps one of the easier parts of writing an essay because all that has to be done is the summarization of the entire paper. After you have written your introduction and body of the essay you will want to provide a brief and concise summary of everything you have discussed and of all the major points, as well as connect it back to your original thesis statement. Since the items that many people remember about essays are the last, your conclusion should be powerful enough to reach out to any doubters of your audience.

Everything laid out here is very important to tackle when writing as essay for high school, college, or even if you're giving a speech in your adult life. Each part of the essay, the introduction, body, and conclusion, are all important to an essay and nothing in them should be left out. If followed, the steps to take while writing an essay can be easy and rewarding in the end!