In this discourse, the paper is going to discuss the components of an essay, the importance of

intext-citation and bibliography, and then a conclusion shall be drawn to sum up the up the
entire discussion.

To start with, the paper is going to define the three most important key terms in this essay
which are; (a) discourse, (b) essay, (c) intext-citation, and (d) bibliography.

Discourse means a spoken or written communication between people; especially a serious

discussion of a particular subject.

An essay is a piece of writing; normally short, on a particular subject written by a student or

scholar.

Intext citation is when citing of books or sources used during data collection about a
particular subject to be discussed in an essay is done in the body of the essay and not after or
at the end.

A bibliography is a list of books and their authors normally put at the end of an essay or
article as sources of information used in the argument or discourse.

Though the essay has about eight (8) parts: namely; the abstract, the introduction, the main
body, the conclusion, the appendix, the end-notes and bibliography, basically the
introduction, body and conclusion are the three main parts of an essay.

The title should be as brief as possible but not too vague. It should be able to give the reader
an insight of what the essay is all about.

Though not mandatory in essays done as assignments, an abstract is the second part of an
essay. It summarises the contents of the report by indicating exactly what is going to be
covered in a particular document and the conclusions that will be drawn out of the same
discourse. Normally it written in much smaller font at the beginning of an essay or article.
The article or essay content only follows after many skipped lines. And its content is always
not more than ten percent of the entire essay or article size and it is always written after the
whole body has been laid down.

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The introduction has three goals: a) to introduce the topic of the essay; b) to present your
thesis (which is to say the particular approach or argument the essay will make); and c) to
tell the reader how the essay will be structured.

The introductory paragraph accomplishes three purposes: it captures the reader’s interest, it
suggests the importance of the essay’s topic, and it ends with a thesis sentence. Often, the
thesis sentence states a claim that consists of two or more related points. This tells the reader
what the writer thinks are the most important points which need to be addressed in your
essay. For this reason, you need to relate the introduction directly to the question or topic. A
strong thesis is essential to a good essay, as each paragraph of your essay should be related
back to your thesis. Thus, the thesis establishes the key foundation for your essay. A strong
thesis not only states an idea, but also uses solid examples to back it up. A thesis, in contrast,
is an argument, generally reduced down to one or more sentences.

You should end your introduction by giving your readers a preview of the main points you
will make to substantiate the claims made in your thesis.

Each body paragraph begins with a topic sentence. If the thesis contains multiple points or
assertions, each body paragraph should support or justify them, preferably in the order the
assertions originally stated in the thesis. Thus, the topic sentence for the first body paragraph
will refer to the first point in the thesis sentence and the topic sentence for the second body
paragraph will refer to the second point in the thesis sentence. Generally, if the thesis
sentence contains three related points, there should be three body paragraphs, though you
should base the number of paragraphs on the number of supporting points needed.

In the body of the essay you will present the evidence and analysis that will substantiate
your thesis. It is essential that the body of the essay be developed in a logical and orderly
fashion following the preview that you presented in the introduction. The overall goal of
this section is to develop your analysis and defend your argument – it is the main part of
the essay.This logically ordered body of the essay will consist of a series of paragraphs.
Each paragraph should develop one central theme that helps you further your argument.
Introduce this theme in a topic sentence; expand on the theme through the use of evidence

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or examples; and analyze the evidence to show how it contributes to the specific point you
are making in the paragraph and to the thesis as a whole. Paragraphs should consist of
several sentences rather than one, long sentence.

The conclusion is designed to bring together your essay’s main points and to reassert or
emphasize the strength of the thesis or argument. A conclusion is more than a summary, in
that it is important to indicate why there is merit to your thesis or argument – what has
been shown as a result of your investigation or exploration of the topic. The concluding
paragraph usually restates the thesis and leaves the reader something about the topic to
think about. If appropriate, it may also issue a call to act, inviting the reader to take a
specific course of action with regard to the points that the essay presented.

All academic essays will use information found in books, scholarly articles, electronic
sources, or other sources. All academic essays must also inform the reader of which
specific sources this information came from. This source of this information is “cited” in
“notes” – either “footnotes” (which appear at the bottom of the page) or “endnotes” (which
appear on a separate page near the end of the essay).

Most academic essays require a bibliography at the end of the paper that includes all sources
(written or otherwise) used in the composition of your essay. Bibliography should do two
things: one is to gather together in alphabetical order by author's name the works cited
(surname followed by first names/initials); and, secondly, list other material used in the
writing of your essay. It should come at the end of your essay, preferably on a separate sheet.
It should be arranged in alphabetical order of the author’s surnames. In any alphabetical
listing, give the (first) author's surname first, followed by given names/initials.
In text citation is important for three reasons. To start with, it gives credit to the source you
are citing—if you do not use in text citation, you may be guilty of plagiarism. Secondly, it
allows your reader to find your research. Thirdly, it gives you authority, making it clear your
ideas are built on careful research and analysis.

In a summary or paraphrase, you restate another author’s ideas in your own words. The
year that the article or book was published goes in parenthesis following the author’s
name. For instance, Sweeny (2010, p. 125) argues that both teachers and students can
use guides from the internet to help with their writing.

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In a direct quote, you use the actual language of the author. You put the author’s words
in quotation marks, the way you would with any direct quotation. However, the
parenthetical citation works the same way as in a summary or paraphrase. The
quotation marks close before the parenthetical citation, and the period comes after the
parenthetical citation. For example, in considering the use of new media for writing
instruction, Sweeny (2002) writes, “One example is when a teacher created a blog and
sent text messages about a Shakespeare assignment to groups of students in her class”
(pp. 127-8).

In conclusion, a good academic essay will never be one not until it has the five most crucial
components, namely; the title, the introduction, the main body, intext citation, the
conclusion and bibliography.