The basic blueprint

Essays have a basic blueprint with three main parts: a beginning, a middle, and an ending. The beginning should engage the reader's attention, state the argument, and provide an essential context so the reader has a sense of "so what?" It should do more than say something like this: This essay will look at Amazon.com. A good introduction should pose a problem: Jeff Bezos became a billionaire after founding Amazon.com in 1995, but his company has yet to make a penny of profit. How did Amazon get so big so fast? Can it sustain its remarkable growth? And will Amazon and scores of other high-profile dot-coms ever become profitable—or are they built on a flawed business model?

　　After the beginning, the middle is where you actually make your argument—where you grapple with the problem you've introduced. Here's where you bring in background material, tell your story in detail, and work through the argument step by step. These logical steps typically unfold in paragraphs or clusters of paragraphs （whole chapters, in a book）.

　　Finally, the ending is where you remind your reader of what you argued, and make some larger point that sends him off with a satisfied feeling that he's learned something worth learning, that he hasn't wasted his time.

　　The simplicity of this structure is kind of reassuring: it means that you already know how to design good essays. But the simplicity of this standard design also poses a difficulty for you, because it means that to your reader there's nothing immediately distinctive about your essay. The frame—introduction, body, conclusion—is so general that your reader is going to need a lot more guidance to get through your particular argument.