Structuring essays is a scary aspect of English studies, and the process students most want instruction on. The main challenge lies in developing a strong, summarising argument and a clear set of points all at once, without being repetitive.

Structure is about organisation and planning.

When an essay is not well structured, it meanders and becomes muddled. That disorder in the mind of the student then interferes with the other elements of response writing: recalling knowledge and incorporating detail into their analysis.

English essays are challenging because they have multiple moving parts, and the key elements—knowledge, structure and analytical detail—need to be incorporated simultaneously. Of these three, structure can be most controlled and automated—fixed—in advance, when students have a clear method to follow.

Method for mastering English essay structure

NOTE: Individual tasks across English Literature and Language exam papers differ in their assessment objectives. They use specific command words (eg. analyse, evaluate, explore), and require students to showcase specific skills and knowledge. This method works across the tasks to provide a basic framework which can be built on and modified for the task at hand:

1. Respond to the question with a general statement, using the question language. This is your introduction.

Example 1: If the question asks, ‘How does the writer create a tense atmosphere in this passage?’, your introduction will begin, ‘The writer creates a tense atmosphere in the passage by describing the house as eerily abandoned.’

Example 2: If the question asks you to ‘Explore ways in which ambition is presented in Macbeth’, your introduction will begin, ‘In Macbeth, ambition is presented as violent and unnatural, and as having severe consequences for Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.’

TOP TIP: An introduction is a summary—an umbrella overview that all your points need to fit under.

2. Identify three distinct concepts that can be used to structure your points.

Example 1: Three distinct concepts to show the eerily abandoned house might be the darkness, emptiness and decay of the house. They might be its yard, façade and interior. They might be the senses being used to experience the house: sight, smell and sound. The main objective here is clear and distinct concepts.

Example 2: The ideas used in your Macbeth introduction can be your points: violence, strangeness, and consequence. When the summary words are used in different modes (changed from adjectives to nouns), they become concepts to explore in the analysis.

TOP TIP: Points should be ideas—ie. concepts, meanings, feelings, effects—NOT techniques. Save the technical features you’ve spotted for the evidence and explanation parts of your points—the analysis.