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A body paragraph in a literary essay is five to seven sentences that relate to and support the essay’s thesis statement by proving one main point.
A thesis statement is the main idea of an essay. The thesis statement makes a general statement about the essay’s topic. An example of a thesis statement for an essay about “Measuring” is:
“In the story “Measuring” by Kim Muncey, the mother’s slow death is made more realistic through the use of powerful visual, auditory, and olfactory imagery.”
The thesis statement would appear in the Introduction and Conclusion of the essay, but all body paragraphs should also connect to it.
This is shown in the following typical structure of a short literary essay:
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