For simple IELTS-style essays, a 3773 layout is probably the easiest. You can find a fuller explanation of what 3773 layout is here, but basically it’s like this:
3 sentences: Introduction
7 sentences: Body Paragraph 1 – you agree or you disagree
7 sentences: Body Paragraph 2 – you disagree or you agree
3 sentences: Conclusion
You don’t have to have exactly 3 or 7 sentences – you could have 4 or 8. But that’s the general idea.
So what’s in a body paragraph?
A body paragraph has about 7 sentences:
- Topic (the main idea of the paragraph)
- First idea
- More information or example
- Second idea
- More information or example
- Third idea
- More information or example
If you like, you could add a concluding or summary sentence. You can see an example of a summary sentence in the first body paragraph of this essay.