The formal essay
English · Key Stage 3 · The School
An essay argues something
An essay is not everything you know about a topic arranged tidily. It answers a question with a POSITION, stated in the introduction, and every paragraph after that does work for it. If a paragraph could be deleted without weakening the answer, it was description rather than argument and it belongs out.
Point, evidence, explanation
Each paragraph makes one POINT, gives EVIDENCE — a quotation, a fact, an example — and then EXPLAINS how the evidence supports the point. The explanation is the part most often missing: evidence dropped in without it asks the reader to make your argument for you, and readers marking work will not.
Taking the other side seriously
A strong essay names the best objection to its own case and answers it. Doing so makes your position more convincing, not less, because it shows you have tested it. Choosing a weak version of the objection to knock down is obvious to any reader and costs more credit than leaving it out entirely.
POINT: "Homework of the traditional kind does little for primary-age children." EVIDENCE: a named study showing no measurable gain below age eleven. EXPLANATION: why — young children's gains come from reading and sleep, both of which homework competes with. COUNTER: "It is argued that homework builds habits for secondary school." RESPONSE: "but the same habits can be built by daily reading, which does show a gain." The counter-argument makes the paragraph stronger, not weaker.