I: Introduction
The topic
Its boundaries
Why it is interesting
Structure and/or Methodology
The essay’s main sections (structure)
Why they come in that order (structural principle)
How the author plans to draw the necessary conclusions from the information available (methodology)
The Thesis Statement (usually a single sentence)
Its premise (the general claim about the information available)
Its conclusion (the consequences of the first claim)
Not every essay contains every element in precisely this order, but most good essays cover all of them, either explicitly or implicitly. In longer and more scholarly essays, the structure/methodology section should be longer, or can even be its own paragraph. It should also include some mention of the essay’s position within the field as a whole.