Structure of the whole text
Academic texts, such as essays, can be structured in different ways, but a standard format for analytical and argumentative essays is the so-called three-part essay, which consists of an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. The introduction and conclusion sections serve to frame the body of the essay, which can consist of multiple sections.
In the introduction, the reader is introduced to the topic that will be discussed and to the argument that will be presented. The body is the main part of the text, where the discussion/analysis is carried out and the results are presented. In the last part of the essay, the conclusion, the argument is summed up and conclusions are drawn.
Read more about the three-part essay format here:
A more formalised text format is the IMRaD structure (Introduction - Method - Results - and Discussion), where the body part of the text consists of two sections referred to as Method and Results. The concluding part of research articles written according to the IMRaD format is called Discussion, and has a slightly different set-up from the Conclusion of the three-part essay. For more information on the IMRaD structure, see