A well-organized essay has a beginning, middle, and an end. The beginning, or introduction, should include an opening sentence to grab your reader’s attention. Follow the opening sentence with a brief background on the topic or situation. In this case, it might be the state of education today. The last sentence of the introduction is the thesis statement. The thesis states the main point of the essay, which in this case, would be what impacts/influences student learning.

A well-supported essay includes supporting points, details, and examples. For this essay, you must decide the best way to organize the body of the paper. Will you have a paragraph for each impact or enhancement? Will you divide the body of your paper into three paragraphs, one for each impact? In any case, each body paragraph must support (explain) your reasoning (rationale) using specific details. Each body paragraph must begin with a topic sentence that states the main point of the paragraph.