While a well-formulated, sharpened thesis will give your essay purpose and direction, careful structuring and organization will ensure that every part of your essay works to support and develop that thesis. Ideas as we first conceive them may tumble in an improvised dance, but an essay needs the formality of a beginning, a middle and an end. If you devise some structure for your essay before you begin to search for supporting evidence, you will be able to conduct a more effective and directed search. As you begin to plan your essay, give some thought to the methods you will use to organize the evidence that will support your thesis. You will want to choose methods which are most suitable to your subject and the type of essay you have been assigned.
Paragraphs separate the process or series of events into major stages.
Paragraphs divide the material into major categories and distinguish between them. Cause and effect Indicates causal relationships between things and events. Be careful, however, not to mistake coincidence with causality, nor to disregard other possible causes. See the various pages that deal with logic. Comparison and contrast Involves lining up related ideas for a detailed account of similarities and differences.