41 Writing class, the students have started to discuss the concept of topic sentences,
supporting sentences, concluding sentences, and essentially the concept of unity and coherence in a paragraph. In other words, the students who are in this
Academic Essay Writing class are those who have been equipped with the concept of coherence in their former semesters.
3. Essay
Smalley and Ruetten 1986 point out that because a paragraph only develops one idea, topics being explored in a paragraph have been quite limited.
In addition, it is too complex or broad when writers develop topics in a single paragraph. In this case, an essay is necessary to be written. In relation to an essay,
this section, therefore, discusses definition of essay, components of essay, as well as argumentative essay.
a. Definition of Essay
An essay can be defined into some ideas. An essay is an organized discussion toward a particular subject in a series of paragraphs, but is not simply a
longer version of paragraphs Meyers, 2005. An essay is also “group of
paragraphs that develops one central idea” Smalley Ruetten, 1986: 139. It is also important to state that how many paragraphs in an essay depends
entirely on the complexity of the topic. Therefore, some essays possibly have only two or three paragraphs, while others can have more than twenty or thirty
Smalley Ruetten, 1986. Clearly, in this research, an essay is a group of PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
42 paragraphs that aims to develop one central idea, through an organized discussion,
toward a particular subject.
b. Components of Essay
Besides clarifying the definition of an essay, this research also reviews some key components of an essay. Essentially, Meyers 2005 clarifies those key
components by stating that an essay contains three main parts. They are introduction, body, and conclusion.
The first part, introduction, becomes the first paragraph of the essay which attracts readers’ interest, makes a primary claim of the essay in a thesis statement,
as well as introduces the ideas of the body paragraphs Meyers, 2005. Similarly, Langan 2011 believes that in the introductory paragraph in an essay, writers
should start with several sentences that can attract readers’ interest. Smalley and Ruetten 1986 add that introduction is used to introduce the topic to be discussed
and the central idea, which is also called as thesis statement, in an essay. In relation to the thesis statement, McMurrey and Campman 1983;
Smalley and Ruetten 1986 propose their point of view. The thesis is a sentence that states the main point, idea for the whole essay and is usually found
somewhere in the first paragraph in an essay McMurrey Campman, 1983. The thesis statement also contains an expression of attitude, opinions, ideas as well as
expresses the controlling idea for the entire essay Smalley Ruetten, 1986. Further, Smalley and Ruetten 1986: 140 mention some essential points
about a thesis statement. First, it should be expressed in a complete sentence. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
43 Second, a thesis statement expresses an opinion, attitude, or idea. Nevertheless, it
does not simply express a particular topic that an essay will develop. Third, in a thesis statement, a writer should express an opinion not a fact. It is because the
thesis statement, as stated previously, deals with an opinion, attitude, or idea about a particular topic. Accordingly, a thesis statement should be in a form of
statements that someone could disagree with and that needs to be explained or proven. Last, a thesis statement should only express one idea about a particular
topic. If it consists of two or more ideas, the essay will possibly lack of coherence. The second part of the essay is called body. It usually consists of three
paragraphs. According to Meyers 2005, this part also aims to develop and to support the thesis by breaking down it into smaller ideas. Meyers 2005: 38
points out that in a well- organized essay, each body paragraph “introduces its
supporting idea in a topic sentence, develops the idea in the body, and then concludes with a transition to the next paragraph. Identically, Langan 2011
asserts that every supporting paragraph in the body of the essay should start with a topic sentence. Bram 1995:
20 also believes that “it would be wiser for us to place the topic sentence at the very beginning of the paragraph.
” This topic sentence clarifies the point that needs to be elaborated in the paragraph and
provides a focus toward a supporting paragraph Langan, 2011. The topic sentence also tells readers “what they are going to read about” Hogue, 2008: 38.
Conclusion becomes the last part in an essay. It becomes the last paragraph in an essay. Then, it usually restates the thesis statement and
summarizes the main idea. Langan 2011 confirms it by stating that in the PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
44 concluding paragraph, we summarize the essay by briefly restating the thesis and
the main supporting points in an essay. Additionally, Smalley and Ruetten 1986 state that conclusion becomes a paragraph that concludes the thought developed in
an essay. Overall, those three parts in an essay can be summarized into a diagram shown in Figure 2.11.
Figure 2.11 A Diagram of Three Essential Parts in an Essay Meyers, 2005: 39
c. Argumentative Essay
