In high school, you probably learned about the “five paragraph essay” in which three paragraphs (each with its own “point”) are sandwiched between your introduction and conclusion. In college, essay assignments are often longer and more complex and therefore require different types of structure.
The following are possible some outline structures for college-level persuasive research essays. These are not the only ways to structure a paper and you might find yourself combining them or coming up with your own organizational strategy. (As always, be sure to check with the assignment instructions to see if your instructor wants a specific organizational style).
- Background-Argument Structure. This is the most traditional way to structure a research essay and it can be adapted to suit many different subject and writing styles. The basic idea is that you give the reader all of the contextual information they need to understand your argument before you try to convince them to believe you. The background section can be anywhere from one paragraph to several pages long and should cover the facts, history, and current debates about your topic. The argument section develops your argument about the topic and shows the reader how it fits into the debate described in your background section.
- Problem-Solution Structure. This is a more specific form of the background-argument structure in which the first section of your paper establishes a problem and the need to fix it, and the second half argues for a specific solution.
- Response-Counterargument Structure. This structure uses a response to someone else’s argument as a starting point for your own ideas. In this type of essay, you would begin by showing why another viewpoint is wrong or incomplete and then present your own argument as an alternative to it.
Which type of structure you choose will depend on the purpose of your paper, your topic, and the research you have done.
