Essays  Paragraphs  Sentences (Simple and Complex)

Expository: essay as teacher; Persuasive: essay as lawyer; Research: essay as explorer.

Introduction	Body	Conclusion
often the last thing written  establishes topic of essay  tells how the topic will be developed  makes the main categories and logic of the argument visible  conventionally at the beginning of the article  awakens interest of reader  written at a high level of generality	presentation of ideas and data that support them  combines high-level abstraction, generalizations, paraphrased source material, quotations, details  a succession of paragraphs that explain, elaborate, develop and/or support the thesis  in social sciences and sciences may consist of specifically required sections  structure will depend on discipline because each has different sorts of results to present	like introductions; more general than the rest of the essay  the high levels of generality interpret the data found in the body  confirms the reader's understanding of the argument  doesn't repeat the introduction; relies on reader's new grasp of the ideas of the paper  conventionally located at the end of the paper

 

Topic Sentence	Elaboration, Development Amplification, Refining, Support	Rounding off statement, Transition Device, Summary, Link to Next Paragraph
may serve one or more paragraphs  can, for effect, be anywhere in the paragraph  contains indication of controlling idea/topic; what aspect of the topic will be discussed  may continue the idea from the previous paragraph	needs enough information to enlighten and convince the reader  all sentences should relate directly to the controlling idea	usually related to topic sentence  shows the advances made in the paragraph  provides a summary, establishes the point of departure for the next paragraph  rounds-off topic for use later

 

Initial Constituent (Beginning/Subject)	Core  (Middle/Verb)	Final Constituent  (End/Object)
usually links up with preceding sentence/context  is the starting point of what is to come  often the subject but can also include modifying adjectives	generally the main verb clause alone, but can be an entire clause	generally contains most important part of the sentence's message: the focus;  houses prominent information  can be a single adverb, usually the object of the sentence; can be a clause

Initial Subclause	Main Clause	Final Subclause
delineates the discourse domain; that is, it sets the stage and alerts the reader to the context that will be needed to read the rest of the sentence  provides orientation to the mess of words that follow	core message unit; this is usually the important part	presents information that elaborates on the core message; specifies or further narrows the new information