NOTES ON THE STRUCTURE OF AN ESSAY STRUCTURING THE ESSAY Essays must have an introduction, a body and a conclusion. 1. The Introduction KEY FEATURES OF AN INTRODUCTION Purpose To introduce the subject matter and your claim or position. Parts • a general statement – gives background information. • a specific statement (known as the thesis statement) – often one sentence – that outlines the writer’s plan, purpose, and claim. • a linking statement that connects the general statement to the specific or thesis statement – it can also provide a theoretical framework for the thesis statement. Features • answers/responds to the essay question (the thesis statement). • outlines the sequence of stages or issues for discussion in the body of the essay. • establishes the limits or ‘scope’ of the essay (i.e., what the essay will not cover). Examine the key features of the introduction in the sample essay below. Of course this is not the same as either of the topics you have been set. It is merely an example to illustrate essay parts etc. Question: The approach of governments and industry to the global population explosion has led to short term wealth for the few and long term poverty for the many. Critically assess the leading perspectives on global population growth to argue a position on this claim. In your answer consider the impact of policy decisions on environmental sustainability. Introduction With the world’s population having doubled from three to six billion in the last forty years, it is no exaggeration to speak of a population ‘explosion’. However, the existence and extent of a population ‘problem’ is highly contested. Despite this range of opinion in the field of population study, the policy responses of political parties or, more particularly, governments and industries worldwide have, since the 1980’s, largely been shaped by a dominant neo-liberal agenda. This essay will argue that the effect of these policies has been to produce plenty or wealth in the short term and for the few, at the expense of the many caught in the web of poverty. It will further be shown that such policies have delivered a legacy of environmental degradation. In an attempt to navigate the mire of the population debate, I will first examine the opposing sides, characterised as populationism and developmentalism (1), discuss the arguments mounted by each and evaluate their evidence. This review of key schools of thought will be followed by a brief history of the dominant policy approaches to population management since the 1950’s and an analysis of the effects of each on the people subjected to them. Finally I will demonstrate ways in which the current economic rationalist approach has served only to widen the gap between the rich and poor, both within and between countries, at considerable cost to the environment. 2. The Body of the Essay KEY FEATURES OF A PARAGRAPH INCLUDING SUPPORTING EVIDENCE TO BACK UP ARGUMENT Each paragraph should contain evidence to support your argument. Paragraph structure Topic sentence Claim (your voice) Supporting sentences Evidence Elaboration Examples Explanation (your voice) Interpretation Paragraph structure . . The inequity in the distribution of wealth in Australia is yet another indicator of Australia’s lack of egalitarianism. In 1995, 20% of the Australian population owned 72.2% of Australia's wealth with the top 50% owning 92.1% (1). Such a significant skew in the distribution of wealth indicates that, at least in terms of economics, there is an established class system in Australia. Mcintyre(2) argues that Australian society can be categorised into three levels: the Upper, Middle and Working classes. In addition, it has been shown that most Australians continue to remain in the class into which they were born (3) despite arguments about the ease of social mobility in Australian society. (4) The issue of class and its inherent inequity, however, is further compounded by factors such as race and gender within and across these class divisions. The relative disadvantage of women with regard to their earnings and levels of asset ownership indicates that within classes there is further economic inequity based on gender... These features of an argument are illustrated in these 3 paragraphs of the sample essay: The thesis of the populationists is that population growth is the key cause of poverty and destruction of the natural environment. Malthus (2), considered the father of this movement, posited that the exponential expansion of population would inevitably exhaust the food supply and the earth’s resources. His views were taken up and given new prominence by Hardin 3, who put it thus: ‘...the quality of life and the quantity of it are inversely related’. By contrast, the developmentalist school ascribes to the view that ‘development is the best contraceptive’.4 Within this discourse are two sometimes opposing camps. One promotes social development, in the form of health and education for women in the South, or developing countries, in particular, as the key to curbing population growth.5 Most subscribers to this school also regard consumption levels in the rich countries of the North, rather than population levels in the South, as the main contributor to environmental degradation.6 The other camp puts its faith in economic development, relying on a ‘trickle-down’ effect of economic benefit from rich to poor. Proponents of this view often play down the significance of environmental damage and resource depletion, thereby dismissing the need for reduced consumption of energy and resources (see for example Decter, 7). Rejecting neo-Malthusian concerns about food scarcity, Sen8 cites oft-quoted statistics from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), which show continuous increases in world food production relative to population growth.9 However, like Hardin, Brown and Kane are not so sanguine.10 They use these same FAO figures over a longer period to show the rate of increase of production to be in decline. The populationists are justified in their alarm about the problems besetting the natural environment and the pressures they place on food security. As Brown and Kane point out, enough constraints are now being placed on food production to cause serious alarm.11 These constraints include the overuse of natural systems evident in declining seafood catches worldwide. The loss of cropland to industrialisation is also a major concern as the situation in China exemplifies. Sales of cars and tracks in China are now approaching three million per year. Simply supplying land to park one hundred cars represents a loss in grain productivity of one tonne per year, or enough to feed five people. If China continues to industrialise at the current rate, by 2030 it will need to import 400 million tones of grain per year, more than the entire output of the United States.12 ___ 2. Malthus, Essay on the Principle of Population, 17. 3. Hardin, Living within the limits, 213. 4. Weigel, “What really happened in Cairo,”131. 5. Knowles, “Independent Study,” 37. 6. Sen, “Population, Gender and Development,” 88. 7. Gosper, Population Growth, 134. 3. The Conclusion KEY FEATURES OF A CONCLUSION Purpose The purpose of the conclusion is to bring the arguments and concepts of your essay to a logical finishing point – to fit everything together, not just to summarise. If you stop at the summary, you have not actually written a conclusion. Parts The conclusion often has several parts: • a summary: restates the main issues or ideas covered in the essay in a condensed form. • a thesis restatement: shows how the main elements of the essay combine to confirm the essay thesis. • a final statement: this is the actual conclusion of the essay, and the most important part of the final paragraph. This statement can make a recommendation, prediction, or warning, or it may indicate the direction of future research. Features A well-written conclusion has the following characteristics: • It includes your subjective perspective, based on the objective facts and evidence presented in the body of the essay. A good conclusion is logical and valid. • It does not introduce any new ideas (i.e. no afterthoughts) offer any apologies, or make qualifying remarks that are not supported in the body of the essay. Key features of a conclusion illustrated in the sample essay: It is obvious no easy solutions exist to the complex problems of poverty, social inequality and destruction of the natural environment. However, there is mounting evidence that this coalition of interests between governments and private enterprise worldwide may be delivering short-term benefits to the few, but at the expense of long-term social and environmental stability. Despite this gloomy scenario, there is some cause for optimism. Recent riots in Seattle at the World Trade Organisation’s Third Ministerial Meeting received considerable media coverage, suggesting growing popular awareness, which many attribute to the communications revolution embodied in the Internet. The Jubilee 2000 Campaign calling for cancellation of Third World debt is gaining momentum, demonstrating that at the popular level there is increasing disenchantment with neo-liberalism and corporate greed. It seems inevitable that if beneficial change is to come it must be driven by enlightened voices in the developed as well as the developing world. Bibliography Hardin, Gerard. Living within the limits. London: Oxford University Press, 1993. Knowles, Malcolm S. 1986. “Independent Study.” In Using Population Controls. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1986. Malthus, Thomas. Essay on the Principle of Population. London: Penguin Classics, 1982. Weigel, Gerard. “What really happened in Cairo.” In The Nine Lives of Population Control, ed Malcolm Cromartie. Washington: Ethics and Public Policy Centre, 1995.