Key Concept
Congratulations! You captured the attention of your audience. You wrote an introductory paragraph that gets your audience interested in your topic. Now that you have your audience’s attention, what are you going to do next? You are ready to explain your topic in the body of the essay.

The body is the main content of the essay—the place where you use all the information you gathered and the knowledge you gained. Your topic must be explained thoroughly in the body to make your essay interesting and informative.

How can you explain your topic thoroughly? You can use your outline to make sure that the body of your essay is well organized and includes all the important information needed to explain your topic. Each of the main points of your outline can become a paragraph in the body of your essay. You can use the supporting points from your outline to write the paragraphs.

Suppose you include all the important information needed to explain your topic. Are you finished with the body of your essay? Not yet! You need to make sure that main points are presented in a logical order and connected with smooth transitions. All the information you included will be useless if your readers get lost before they reach the conclusion. 

Next to Vocabulary >