Now that you have a great introduction written, you’re ready to take on the biggest and most important part of the paper: the body. The body is essentially everything between the first paragraph (the introduction) and the last (the conclusion). You can have more than one paragraph in either of these two parts, but that’s beside the point. If your paper is two pages long or twenty pages long, the vast majority of the writing will be the body.

Because the body is the most significant part of the paper, you might think that it’s also the most difficult to write. This usually isn’t the case, however. The body, for the most part, is pretty easy (at least to start). If you’ve done your research (or read your textbook, talked with your classmates, watched a production, or whatever you had to do to get ready for this assignment), you’ll be well-prepared to write a body that supports your point, whatever that may be. So make sure that you do whatever you have to do to be prepared. If not, you’ll have a really tough time, and you’ll end up spending many more hours than you need to on this assignment.

One thing I’d like to point out right away is that you should avoid limiting yourself when you’re writing. The five-paragraph essay is something that is taught in many secondary schools around the country, and people get used to writing it. You can, however, write more than one introduction and conclusion paragraph, and more than three body paragraphs. In fact, you’ll have to at some point. Get used to it. You can even use different structures; your introduction may come first, but you maybe you find it more effective to break out your points between all of the paragraphs, leading up to one final killer one before the conclusion, instead of addressing your first point in your first paragraph, the second point in the second, and so on.

Writing the body is pretty simple: support your thesis. Write whatever you told your audience that you were going to write about. If you’ve created a thesis statement that’s an argument, lay out your points, a couple of the opposition’s, and show why your view is better. If it’s an exploratory paper, talk about the things that you’ve learned and how they’ve changed the way you think. If it’s a compare-and-contrast, show the similarities between the two subjects, and then the differences.

There isn’t a whole lot else to say about the body. Make sure your writing is clear, the structure of the paper makes sense, and that the transitions between your points are smooth. That’s about it. Now, on to the conclusion!

As always, if you have any questions, comments or funny stories you'd like me to share about college or the blog, email me at stu@stuvu.com