How to Structure an English Literature Essay Correctly

Tips how to structure an English Literature Essay

It is sometimes difficult to understand how to structure an English Literature Essay. Let’s guide you through this long and complex process. Follow all these tips!


Start with introductory/tempting sentence in order to attract the readers and get their attention to the essay as much as possible. Such sentence “In this essay, I’m going to tell/project….”is so boring for this type of paper and here it is very inappropriate. It is not interesting to read the prognosis of the essay.

Be bold and brave in this introductory part. Try to follow the formal style and tone. To express your ideas that are connected with the text, you can use phrase or quote from the prose.

Also, use this paragraph for information the you would like to analyze or prove by showing your originality and individuality.

Briefly write down the author and the title of the text, a little explanation of its context, the date of the publication and also a small list of topics to the text.

Brevity, clarity and conciseness are integral in the introduction. Establish the main facts of the text using a clear critical voice. Create a logical chain of questions which you need to answer. Find out the specific writing goal.


In this section you note the clear intentions to do in the essay and also give your arguments in response to the title of the text.

Here you are going to show your own interpretation of the question in order to show the engagement with the text and express your imagination and creativity.

Keep the brevity and conciseness to give the reader a general idea of what will happen throughout the entire essay.

The main body paragraph

It is the integral part of most essays. Don’t forget that every paragraph has one significant idea which should be supported with evidence from the text which are then explained and explored in relation to the thesis. All the points which are made in each paragraph should be relevant to the arguments which
are given in thesis.
This following plan help you to structure each body paragraph in the proper way.

  1. Set the main point – open the paragraph with the point you are going to make. It has to be one of the idea which is related to the thesis.
  2. Enter the evidence from the text – it can be the example, quote or the short description of something that supports the chosen idea.
  3. Study evidence and idea – this element is decisive at it is necessary to prove the argument here to combine all the evidence together to explore the main idea. Explain how your chosen quote demonstrate the major idea and comment on it.

In general, in this section you do to observations and analysis and find arguments to write convincing and intelligence answers to questions. Be careful in choosing textual evidence and quotation. Follow the clear and concise style of writing.


Here you briefly summarize all the ideas and whether they correspond to the title question. It is the last paragraph where you can demonstrate the interaction with the with the text on the personal as well as intellectual level. It is the possibility to be inventive and creative in the essay. Make sure that you say about the text in the conclusion is what you didn’t write in the rest of the essay. Be original and use the imagination in full but keep the brevity. Comment on your personal point of view on the text. Leave the good impact on the mind of readers.  As a rule, the conclusion should be a summary of argument, but not only summarizing the main points.

Be responsible for your literature essay. Make it logical, creative and persuasive. The logical arguments, an individual response and a deep knowledge of the text will make the work stand out from the crowd.

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