General essay structure Exact essay title 10 % Introduction (includes thesis statement) 80 % Body Explain the idea – amplify, clarify terms Present supporting evidence or examples – quotation, study, expert opinion or report Comment on the evidence – show how it relates to the main idea 10 % Conclusion (summary of the main idea/s) Not saying that all paragraphs should be structured like this, but… Is a useful tool for reviewing existing paragraphs Or helping you to get started on a paragraph if you’re stuck

A paragraph plan Introduce the main idea – topic sentence Explain the idea – amplify the topic sentence Present supporting evidence or examples – quotation, study, expert opinion or report Comment on the evidence – show how it relates to the main idea Conclude the main idea – link to the title or link to the next point Not saying that all paragraphs should be structured like this, but… Is a useful tool for reviewing existing paragraphs Or helping you to get started on a paragraph if you’re stuck

Writing as a dialogue Reader: ? Writer: This is my idea… Introduce I see. Tell me more Writer: Let me explain… Explain Reader: I see. What evidence do you base this on? Writer: Here’s my evidence… this study shows that… Present Reader: I see. How does this connect with your point? This is what paragraph structure does Writer: Like this... the evidence suggests... But this report shows… Comment Reader: OK. So where does this leave us? Writer: I’ve shown how the point I started with is important because... the next thing to consider is.... Conclude

Topic sentence and explanation Probably the key theoretical influence on the application of the notion of discourse within cultural studies generally over the last decade has been the French theorist Michel Foucault. The great benefit of Foucault’s work in this regard was its explicit reconnection of texts to history. Introduce the main idea in the topic sentence Explain the idea/ amplify the topic sentence Ask yourself what question the topic sentence may raise. Does the follow-up sentence answer it?

Presenting evidence/examples and comment In Discipline and Punish (1979), for example, Foucault examines the discourses which enabled the establishment of the prison and other prison-like institutions (the military, the hospital, the school) in late eighteenth-century France and which also structured the specific procedures and disciplines which determined how the inmates experienced their incarceration. Rather than focusing on the reproduction of ideologies, Foucault examined how these enabling discourses directed the operation of power: how these institutions established practices and routines which disciplined behaviour, defined space and regulated the experience of time for those placed within their control. Present supporting evidence or examples Comment on the evidence Supporting evidence can include a quotation, someone’s opinion, data, reference to someone’s work or to a study, etc. A paragraph can have more than one example, provided that they are presented to support the idea in the topic sentence.

Conclusion Foucault used the idea of discourse in adventurous, if not entirely methodologically consistent, ways which have been increasingly taken up in cultural studies and are evident in a widening of the range of texts and formations approached for analysis: institutions, cultural policies (such as for urban planning or heritage management), the cultural definition and regulation of the body and sexuality, and so on. Conclude the main idea This is a rather long conclusion; concluding sentences can vary in length.

Topic sentence A topic sentence gives the reader a clear idea of what the paragraph is going to be about. A good topic sentence should always contain a topic and a controlling idea. The topic is the main subject of the paragraph; the controlling idea states what you want to say about the topic. E.g.: Saussure argues that the meaning of a sign is arbitrary. This is usually the first sentence of a paragraph

Topic sentences and explanation A topic sentence may raise questions in the readers’ mind which will be answered in the following sentence or sentences of the paragraph. A supporting sentence usually explains or amplifies the topic sentence and leads to an answer. Q A

What is the paragraph about? Does the following topic sentence raise any questions? One of the most significant British Realist films of the 1960s is Alfie (1966)? Why is it the most significant film? Is it a British realist film?

What is the paragraph about? What would you expect to read in the supporting sentence following the topic sentence? One of the most significant British Realist films of the 1960s is Alfie (1966)? This is partly because it is the first British film to address the subject of abortion. Does the supporting sentence answer one of the questions raised after reading the topic sentence?