The document provides guidance on writing the body of an essay. It emphasizes that the body is where the majority of marks are earned and where the argument outlined in the introduction is fully developed through evidence. It recommends organizing the body using topic sentences to introduce each main point, with paragraphs elaborating on one point and providing evidence to support it. Transitions between paragraphs and use of pronouns, cohesive devices, and various organizational methods can help ensure the body presents ideas in a clear, logical, and coherent manner. Proper structure of individual paragraphs with an introductory topic sentence, development with examples, and concluding sentence is also advised.

2. • Imagine you have started your essay with a
relevant, concise opening paragraph in which you
have indicated to your reader/assessor what
approach you are going to take in answering the
question that has been set.
• You have raised, therefore, certain expectations in
your reader.
• You have, in essence, mapped out the territory you
are going to cover in the body of your essay.

3. • Now you have to fulfil the promise you have made
to the reader.
• You have to come through with the goods in the
body of the essay.
• This is the section of the essay where you will earn
the bulk of your marks.
• It is all very well creating an effective opening
paragraph and a convincing concluding paragraph,
but these will count for little if the development
section of your essay is unsatisfactory.

4. • The body of the essay is, of course, where all the
really work is done.
• Essay body is the main part of your writing where
you present your thoughts and evidence.
• The function of the essay's body is to fully develop
the argument outlined in the introduction.

5. • An appropriate use of paragraphs is an essential
part of writing coherent and well-structured
essays.
• Paragraphs are the means by which you order the
material so that your reader can make sense of it
and follow the flow of ideas as you present them.

6. • Having gained the readers' attention in the introduction, the
writer must now hold their attention by offering substantial,
interesting, compelling ideas that support, illustrate,
exemplify, or expand the thesis of the essay.
• Each body paragraph introduces a new idea, for example if
you have developed five ideas in your thesis you should
present five paragraphs in the body.
• Each paragraph within the body of the essay elaborates on
one major point in the development of the overall
argument— although some points may consist of a number
of sub-points, each of which will need a paragraph.
• The main point in each paragraph needs to be clearly stated
in the form of a topic sentence, which is then supported with
evidence.

7. Introduction
Paragraph 1
Topic sentence
Supporting point A
Evidence and example for A
Transition
Paragraph 2
Topic sentence
Supporting point A
Evidence and example for A
Transition
Paragraph 3
Topic sentence
Supporting point A
Evidence and example for A
Transition
Conclusion

8. • Regardless of the topic, the bodies of all essays share
two common features: a plan of organization and a
means of moving between different levels of
abstraction— shifting from general ideas to specific
ideas.

9. • An appropriate use of paragraphs is an essential
part of writing coherent and well-structured essays.
• Paragraphs are the means by which you order the
material so that your reader can make sense of it
and follow the flow of ideas as you present them.

10. DEAL WITH ONE MAIN POINT PER PARAGRAPH
• As a general rule, try to deal with one key point or
aspect of the topic you are discussing in each
paragraph of the body of the essay.
• If you try to pack too many key points into one
paragraph, you will confuse your reader and be in
danger of being superficial in your treatment of the
question.
• Don’t try to pack everything essential you have to
say into one paragraph. You should aim to make one
key point per paragraph and then elaborate on it.

11. Celebrity culture, then, is a well-established feature
of our mass media. For example, programmes devoted to
celebrities appear daily in the television schedules. Celebrities
are dispatched to jungles or undergo various tests for our
entertainment and we, the viewing audience, are expected to be
fascinated by all of this simply because of the participation of
these so-called celebrities. Television producers have learnt the
lesson that attaching the word ‘celebrities’ to a programme can
produce dividends in terms of higher viewing figures. Thus, we,
the viewers, become complicit with this strategy because
we supply the programme-makers with the audience they
require to justify the making of the programme in the first
place. Basically, if we did not watch the programmes, then
they would soon cease to be made.

12. • The individual paragraphs of your essays must
have a coherent structure: a key sentence that
makes the key point of the paragraph, followed by
a development of that point using specific
examples.
• A closing sentence should round off the paragraph
acting as a summary of the paragraph’s content,
perhaps drawing an intermediate conclusion
and/or pointing the way to the next paragraph.

13. Methods of organizing the body of the essay
• Organization is important for two reasons:
• Not only does it help your readers understand the connection between the
details of the essay and your thesis, but also organization can help you write
the essay in the first place.
• Planning on a method of organizing your essay will help you determine
how to write it.
• A clear thesis will give your essay purpose and direction, but choosing a
pattern of organization before you draft will ensure that every part of your
essay works to support and develop that thesis.
• Ideas as we first conceive them may pour out of our minds in a seemingly
random fashion, but a reader needs the formality of organization to help
him put all of your ideas together into a coherent pattern.
• So organizing before you write gives your ideas a structure that you can
follow as you develop your draft; it allows you to articulate, analyze, and
clarify your thoughts.
• It will also allow your readers to follow the same line of thinking too.
• So, when you decide on a tentative plan of organization before you write it
can actually help you write the whole essay.

14. • As you begin to plan the organization of the body of
your essay, think about the methods you will use to
organize the evidence that will support your thesis.
• Often the method of organization for academic writing
is given to you in the assignment itself.
• For example, the essay topic might explicitly tell you to
"Compare and contrast the causes of the 100 Years’ War"
or "Define oligarchy, and give an example of one in
contemporary geo-political movements."
• You will have to choose methods which are most
suitable to your subject and the type of essay you have
been assigned.

15. Time (Chronological) Order It separates the subject of the essay into major stages presented in
natural time order.
Definition It explains the term, or the topic, to be defined by situating the term into
the class of objects or concepts to which the term belongs and then
enumerating all the differentiating characteristics that distinguish it from
all others of its class. Definitions are often extended in academic,
business, and technical writing by the use of illustrations, examples,
analogies, history, and citations.
Classification It divides the material into major categories and distinguishes between
the different categories by explaining the writer's logic in choosing his
categories.
Cause and effect It indicates causal relationships between things and events relevant to
the essay's subject.
Comparison & contrast It involves lining up related ideas for a detailed account of similarities and
differences. In this kind of essay it is important to decide whether you will
be concentrating on similarities or differences. In general, the more
similar things are, the more you concentrate on the differences, and vice
versa. If you are comparing two works by the same author, or two love
poems, for example, what will most interest you will be the differences
between them; if you are comparing an Anglo-Saxon riddle with a
science fiction novel the differences will be obvious enough that you will
want to focus on the similarities.
Order of Increasing (or Decreasing)
Importance
It arranges paragraphs so that the most important supporting evidence
should come last, thus building support for the essay's thesis. Writers
sometimes choose to present the evidence in a decreasing order of
importance, placing the most important supporting evidence first and

16. • You should also take into account that you have to keep unity and
coherence in developing the body of your essay.
• The former means the connection of all ideas to a single topic.
• So, in your essay, all ideas developed in the body should relate to the
thesis statement.
• The supporting ideas, on the other hand, in the body paragraphs
should relate to each topic sentence. The latter is related to unity.
• Coherence in an essay means that ideas are arranged in a clear and
logical way so that the reader can easily understand the main points
of the essay.
• To achieve coherence in your essay, you can rely on:
• The types of organization (i. e. the methods of body organization
seen above),
• Cohesive devices: these are the words and phrases that connect
sentences and paragraphs together, creating a smooth flow of ideas.

17. Transition words and phrases
Chronology Comparison Contrast Additional
information
Examples Cause and
effect
Conclusion
Before
After
Next
Since
First
Second
While
When
Likewise
Compared
to Similarly
As similar as
However
On one
hand
On the other
hand But
Yet
In spite of
Despite
In contrast
Although
Instead
And
Also
In addition
In fact
Moreover
Furthermore
For example
For instance
In general
Generally
In particular
Specifically
Therefore
So
Thus
As a result
Since
Because
In
conclusion
In summary
Finally
To conclude
To
summarize

18. Pronoun references
Barcelona, Spain’s second biggest city and the capital of Catalonia, is a
popular tourist attraction for several reasons. First, the city is ideally located for
both the mountains and the beach. Although it is on the coast, it is only a couple
of hours away from the Pyrenees. In addition, Barcelona is both modern and
historic. There are many stylish hotels. It has a clean and efficient underground
system, and visitors can find a variety of shops and restaurants, especially in
the Eixample area. The oldest area, the Barrio Gótico, or Bari Gótic in Catalan,
is very beautiful because many of its oldest buildings were protected as areas
of the city were rebuilt or developed. The most interesting thing about
Barcelona may be its Catalan heritage. Approximately 70% of the people living
in and around Barcelona speak Catalan, a Romance language related to
Spanish, and they speak Spanish as well. In addition to the strong Catalan
background, there are large groups of people who originally came from other
parts of Spain such as Andalucía and Murcia living there. All of this makes
Barcelona a great place to visit.

19. Repetition of key ideas
The liberal- conservative labels parallel the left-right
distinction that grew out of the French Revolution. In France’s
National Assembly of 1789, the conservatives sat to the right of
the speaker, and became known rightists, and the radicals sat at
the left and became known leftists. From then on, it was
commonly assumed that you could place ideological positions
somewhere on a list ranging from the left to the right. This system
of classifying political philosophies is attractive because it seems
so tidy. But it is woefully inadequate, since it is one one-
dimensional, whereas the world is three dimensional. The world
today is much too complex to hold still for the left versus right and
the liberal versus conservative classifications.