Answering Questions: The Parts of an Essay
A typical essay contains many different kinds of information, often located in specialized parts or sections.
Even short essays perform several different operations: introducing the argument, analyzing data, raising
counter-arguments, concluding. Introductions and conclusions have fixed places, but other parts don’t.
Counter-argument, for example, may appear within a paragraph, as a free-standing section, as part of the
beginning, or before the ending. Background material (historical context or biographical information, a
summary of relevant theory or criticism, the definition of a key term) often appears at the beginning of the
essay, between the introduction and the first analytical section, but might also appear near the beginning of
the specific section to which it’s relevant. It’s helpful to think of the different essay sections as answering a
series of questions your reader might ask when encountering your thesis. (Readers should have questions. If
they don’t, your thesis is most likely simply an observation of fact, not an arguable claim.)