What is the best way to structure a paragraph/essay?

Question

For the past year, I have been teaching all of my students the importance of structuring paragraphs and essays in a way that provides a Main Idea, Evidence to support the main idea, Analysis of the connections between the main idea and evidence, and a Link back statement to tie everything back together. This is known as M.E.A.L. and can be used for short essay responses, writing essays for standardized tests like the SAT or ACT, or even structuring longer essays and research papers. If you would like more support in structuring your essays using MEAL, I can provide you with that assistance.

Answer 1

While I do ascribe to the M.E.A.L. format, there is an additional question I ask: what is the purpose of the first sentence?

The base purpose of the first sentence, past introducing the main idea, theme, or thesis statement, etc. is to make the reader read the second sentence.

And what is the purpose of the second sentence? To make the reader read the first paragraph. What is the purpose of the first paragraph? To make the reader read the first page, and so on.

My favorite book, Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede, starts with a ridiculous and catching chapter title: "In which Cimorene refuses to be proper and has a conversation with a frog." After that, how can you not keep reading? The first paragraph, after describing a beautiful, lovely, and congenial country, thank you very much, ends with "Princess Cimorene hated it." How can you not read on?

Granted, this a young adult fiction fairy tale, but the premise is the same with any type of reading. What causes the reader continue reading will be different based on the type of writing, whether it be a novel, a textbook, a research paper, a journalistic article, etc. but those purposes always exist. Make the reader continue reading.

P.S. I highly recommend Wrede's entire Enchanted Forest Chronicles series, the first of which is Dealing with Dragons. It is a satirical meta fantasy about a feminist princess who gets sick and tired of curtsies and courtesy and runs off to have adventurous. It's fantastic and I reread the entire four-book series every year, despite now being in my thirties.