The main body paragraphs of an essay are the sections where you shape your ideas. Each paragraph should introduce one clear point, support it with evidence, and link smoothly to the next paragraph. Learning how to structure these paragraphs helps you write essays that are clear, logical, and persuasive.
A main body paragraph is a section of an essay that presents one key idea, supports it with evidence, and connects it to the essay’s main thesis statement.
Organising and structuring an essay’s main body is perhaps the most challenging facet of essay writing that most essayists struggle with. So what information needs to be placed in the main body? How much information will be sufficient? How do you structure the main body?
Here are some tips on writing an essay’s main body paragraphs to help you correctly plan and organise the most critical part of your academic essay.
How to Write a Body Paragraph?
There are many techniques to write a good paragraph in an essay. But the most common ones are PEEL or TEAL structures of paragraph writing. We’ll guide you through both to know how to best use them for drafting and transitioning paragraphs of an essay.
Steps to Write Body Paragraphs of an Essay Using PEEL/TEAL
- Point (Topic Sentence): State the main claim or argument of the paragraph in the first sentence to give the reader an idea about what to expect in the preceding sentences.
- Explain: Clarify the scope or context of the claim to make the reader connect the thesis statement to the discussion.
- Evidence: Use quotes or statistics from research papers or case studies for referencing within the text to increase the credibility of your discussion.
- Analyse: Interpret and analyse the supporting references used above to explain the connection between them and your ideas to show the strength and limitations of the key idea of your essay.
- Link/Conclude: Relate back the whole discussion to the thesis statement and use transitions to move to the next paragraph.
Different Paragraph Frameworks & Their Use Cases
| Framework | Use Case |
|---|---|
| PEEL: Point (Topic Sentence), Explain, Evidence, Link/Conclusion | Best for time-bound essays or exams where clarity matters and you need to focus on one point before moving to the next. |
| TEEL: Topic Sentence, Explain, Evidence, Link/Conclusion | Best for academic and argumentative essays that demand strong alignment with the thesis. It helps in staying relevant to the main argument. |
| TEAL: Topic Sentence, Evidence/Example, Analysis, Link | Best for subjects like literature, history, and social sciences, where analysis and interpretation are more important than simple description. |
| PIE: Point, Illustration, Explanation | Best for humanities or reflective essays where you want to illustrate a concept with examples before explaining the meaning or context. |
How Long Should an Essay Paragraph Be?
Easy-to-read and understand paragraphs in the main body of an essay are usually 4-6 sentences, which are usually no more than 100 words. Focusing on one idea without drifting to other points is necessary for the development of clear, unified, or proportional paragraphs, making the reader move to the next point without getting confused.
Plan, Organise and Reorganise
Your essay organisation starts even before the essay is written and continues even after it is written. This means that you will have to continue to work on your essay organisation throughout the process.
From the point where you imagine your essay’s main idea to the point where your essay is completely written, you must be willing to reorganise the paper if needed.
This doesn’t mean that you will need to change the sequence of things after writing every few sentences, but you must regularly check your paper’s order and organisation to see if the structure is coherent.
Develop an Essay Outline
This, by far, is the most helpful strategy to ensure your essay is well organised and follows the planned structure. Developing an essay outline will help with remembering the most important points that need to be covered in each paragraph of your essay and how they all relate to each other.
Make Notes
Be prepared to take notes to improve your essay’s organisation and add new points to your essay outline as you continue to write. You will likely come up with new ideas and might even need to refine the existing plan.
Use topic sentences to record your key ideas. This is particularly important if you already have a clear idea of what you would like to say in your essay.
However, make sure to use all the essential components of a topic sentence to remember your own ideas when you are done with the part of an essay you are working on.
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Importance of Thesis Statement
Like topic sentences, having a good thesis statement will help you a great deal in keeping track of everything as you write. It is always a good idea to check your topic sentences against the thesis statement to ensure each topic sentence is relevant to the topic subject.
Similarly, you will want to check your topic sentences against each other to avoid repetition of statements and ensure the correct sequence of the main body paragraphs and their relevance to the topic matter.
Making Sense of Topic Sentences and Thesis Statements
Reduce each paragraph of the essay to a simple topic statement. Reading them one at a time will help you compare them against the topic sentences you wrote and establish whether you have stayed on track.
Even if you recognise that your ideas have deviated slightly from the initial planning, it is still perfectly alright, but you must be aware of this transition.
If the transitions are logical, and at the end of reading all topic sentences, you can logically grasp the ideas without getting lost, you can move on.
Analysing topic sentences is a great way of making sure your essay paragraphs follow a logical structure/route from the beginning to the end.
Avoid Repetition
You don’t want to be repeating the same statements and words repeatedly. Each paragraph of your essay must convey a different point and offer something new to the readers.
If, upon evaluation, you discover that any two paragraphs of your essay are discussing something similar, then you need to either discard one or rewrite it to cover a different aspect of the topic.
Are Paragraphs Transitioning Smoothly From One Another?
After completing the draft essay paper, if you realise that your essay’s information doesn’t flow smoothly and the organisation is not logical, there is still no need to panic. Many students struggle with essay writing and start to question their essay writing skills.
If you find yourself stuck, you can take some time off and come back later with a fresh mind. You might even want to redo the essay outline if you are unhappy with the essay structure.
As suggested previously, there is nothing wrong with filling in structural gaps needed to improve the paper’s overall organisation.
Frequently Asked Questions
To write a main body paragraph:
- Start with a topic sentence.
- Provide evidence or examples.
- Explain the evidence’s relevance.
- Analyse and interpret the content.
- Connect ideas to the overall argument.
- Conclude the paragraph’s main point.
Usually, essays follow a 3-paragraph main body structure followed by an introduction and a conclusion. However, you can use as many body paragraphs as required to clear your point and inform the reader comprehensively.
A well-written paragraph has a clear topic sentence that introduces the thesis statement, followed by supporting details and evidence that develop the context. It should also include an analysis to explain why the evidence matters and a linking or concluding statement connecting smoothly to the next paragraph.
