Essay Help: How To Write a Paragraph with the TEXAS Method

The clock reads 11:50 p.m. Ten minutes to midnight. Surrounded by piles of scribbled paper on my bed, and with a desk covered in empty coffee mugs sporting overstrained tea bags, I furiously type the last sentences of my term paper. 

I’ve spent the last four hours in a caffeine-induced writing fever. My heart races with each passing minute, but words are flowing through my fingers like ambrosia in a fountain made for gods. When the last words of the essay finally stare back at me, I rush to the classroom website and submit the file. 

Once the site confirms my submission, I breathe a sigh of relief and look back at the clock. I turned in my manic masterpiece with 30 seconds to spare. I did not proofread a single word, nor did I double-check any of my citations. Pure, unfiltered chaos would determine whether or not I passed. 

Two weeks later, the professor of the course asked if they could use my work as an example of what a strong essay should look like. 

Wait, What Just Happened?

Before I go any further, I want to make it clear that I didn’t tell that story to brag. In fact, I’m certain the score for the paper would have been much lower had it been for an English course and not an elective on criminal sociology. 

Looking back on it, however, I realized something. My paper didn’t do so well because of some stroke of good luck; it worked because I had a strategy — a strategy I used so often in writing that I’d almost forgotten I even had it.

Since that paper, I graduated college with a bachelor’s in English and over three years of experience as a writing tutor. I’ve written and edited more essays than I can count, and if there is one thing that all those essays have in common, it’s that they all have a strategy. Today, I want to share those strategies with others. 

Now, before you tell yourself something along the lines of “I couldn’t write 500 words to save my hands, I’ll never be able to write an essay!”, here’s a secret: Essays are just worksheets without the boring worksheet format; they’re a process of answering dozens of questions and putting the answers together like puzzle pieces to form a coherent argument.

Unless you were born yesterday — which, if this is the case, then welcome to the world and congrats on being proactive with your writing career — you’ve already answered enough questions in life to fill at least a dozen essays off the bat.

But someone reading this may already have a question: How do I know what questions to ask? 

Introducing: The TEXAS Method

My answer is an acronym: TEXAS. It stands for: 

• T: Topic
• E: Explain
• X: Example
• A: Analysis
• S: Summary

I’ve used the TEXAS format for every essay I’ve written since middle school. It’s helped me survive every class that grades on writing, and if you understand how it works, it can help you too!

To demonstrate, I’ll write a thesis and paragraph on a topic I’m most passionate about: Why coffee is an amazing drink. 

Thesis: “Coffee is one of the greatest drinks to have ever been made because it has a lot of health benefits, it connects people all over the world, and it helps people live more fulfilling lives.” 

For each of the points you make to support your position, you’ll need to make an argument for why those points are relevant to the argument you’re making. These will make up the body paragraphs of your essay, the stuff between your introduction and conclusion that tells your audience, “Hey! Here’s why you should believe all the stuff I’m saying!”

For this theoretical coffee essay, I’ve stated that coffee is a great drink because it has a lot of health benefits. Because “health benefits” is the first point I bring up for my argument, my first body paragraph should focus on proving two points: 

1. Coffee does, in fact, offer a multitude of health benefits; and 
2. The health benefits of coffee prove that coffee is a great drink.

The “T” of TEXAS: Topic

Questions you need to answer: 

• What are you talking about? 
• What point are you trying to make? 

It’s as simple as restating the point you made in your thesis. 

Topic: There are a multitude of health benefits that come with drinking coffee.

The first step is done! However, now you’ve got your audience asking another question: “Why should I believe that?” 

Here’s where you introduce your source that proves your point! Unless you’re a certified expert in coffee — if you are, know that you forever have my respect — you’ll need to find a reputable source, which will likely be either a book or an online article. For this, I’ll be using this article: 9 Reasons Why (the Right Amount of) Coffee Is Good for You | Johns Hopkins Medicine

But! You can’t just throw in a random fact! You’ve got to add some context to what you’re quoting, otherwise it’ll sound like you’re saying “This thing is true because trust me.” 

This is where we get the “E”. 

The “E” of TEXAS: Explain

Question you need to answer: 

• What does your reader need to know to understand what you’re talking about? 

Whenever I write essays on books, I like to think of this as the “context” section. If I use a specific quote, then I mention what’s going on in the scene and the events that lead up to said quote. In the case of online articles, my go-to rule is to mention the author, the main focus of the article, and any context that would be needed to understand what I’m quoting. 

Explain: According to the nutrition experts of John Hopkins Medicine, coffee contains high concentrations of caffeine, antioxidants, and other chemicals that, when taken in moderation, can provide several health benefits. These include living longer, reducing inflammation, and preventing life-altering conditions such as cancer. 

From this section, you’ll immediately go into “X”.

The “X” of TEXAS: eXample

Question you need to answer: 

• What is your proof? 

Nine times out of ten, you will not be writing this in your own words. Rather, you’ll be quoting and citing someone else. This adds to the ethos, or credibility, of your argument or to the logos, the facts and logic that support your point. For this, I’ll quote a segment that explains how coffee prevents life-altering conditions. 

Example: As stated by the John Hopkins Medicine website, “Dark roast coffee decreases breakage in DNA strands, which occur naturally but can lead to cancer or tumors if not repaired by your cells” (2026).

A quick note for citation: If there isn’t an author credited for the article and you haven’t already explained what website provides the article, then you would cite the quote with the name of the source and the year, like this: (John Hopkins Medicine, 2026). 

So far, this is looking to be a decent argument for why coffee is a great drink. However, when you’re writing for a general audience, do not ever assume that they will make the same assumptions as you. Unless it is undeniably and exceptionally redundant, you still need to make a connection between being healthy and coffee being a great drink. 

Thus comes the “A”.

The “A” of TEXAS: Analysis

Questions you need to answer: 

• Why does this example prove your point? 
• Why does this support your argument? 

For this, being able to a) further explain why your point matters or b) provide more reasoning for why your example supports your point will make your argument comprehensible to as many people that read your work as possible. 

Analysis: Because of this, coffee contributes to healthier lives by supporting the systems that prevent cancer. Furthermore, if illnesses such as these are prevented, then it also prevents other issues, such as crippling medical debt or the mental stress that may follow a diagnosis. 

Up to now, you’ve stated your point, provided a source to support your point, and explained why this source is relevant. 

Now, it’s time for the final part — the “S”.

The “S” of TEXAS: Summary

Questions you need to answer: 

• So what does this prove? 
• What should be the takeaway? 

This is where you’ll tie your paragraph together with a nice little bow. Keep this section short and sweet, and you’ll have an amazing final line to accentuate your argument.

Summary: While coffee by itself is no replacement for medical treatment, being able to prevent illnesses such as cancer can help some live a happier and more fulfilling life, hence why coffee is a great drink. 

Combining all the parts together, here’s what the paragraph looks like: 

There are a multitude of health benefits that come with drinking coffee. According to the nutrition experts of John Hopkins Medicine, coffee contains high concentrations of caffeine, antioxidants, and other chemicals that, when taken in moderation, can provide several health benefits. These include living longer, reducing inflammation, and preventing life-altering conditions such as cancer. As stated by the John Hopkins Medicine website, “Dark roast coffee decreases breakage in DNA strands, which occur naturally but can lead to cancer or tumors if not repaired by your cells” (2026). Because of this, coffee contributes to healthier lives by supporting the systems that prevent cancer. Furthermore, if illnesses such as these are prevented, then it also prevents other issues, such as crippling medical debt or the mental stress that may follow a diagnosis. While coffee by itself is no replacement for medical treatment, being able to prevent illnesses such as cancer can help some live a happier and more fulfilling life, hence why coffee is a great drink.

And Done, Just Like That!

This process started as a set of questions that could be answered in minutes, but if you use this with the typical college essay format — 12 pt font size, double spaced, Times New Roman — this paragraph takes up half a page. If you do this again with another point of your thesis, you’ll already have a page done! Rinse and repeat, and you’ve got an essay on your hands.

While this format might not work for every essay — I wouldn’t use this, for instance, on a personal narrative, as you don’t need to prove with academic sources that you exist — this is a great way to help build the foundations you need to be an effective writer. All that’s left to do is go out there and write an argument about whatever you want.

If there’s a voice in your head that’s still saying you can’t write anything worth a darn, then the best way to start is to ignore that voice and put your pencil on the page. In the words of an old Chinese proverb, “The person who says it cannot be done shouldn’t interrupt the person doing it”. 

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Did you find this article helpful? MockingOwl has plenty of other resources and recommendations to share with you!

• My Six Favorite Fantasy Books of All Time – A roundup of some of the best fantasy novels out there.
• Many Happy Returns – An essay on creative writing.
• Line and Sinker: A Review of Hooked – A review of a book intended to guide fiction authors to better “hook” their readers from the start.
• Worldbuilding 101: An Introduction – Start here to dive deep into the creative process of fictional worldbuilding.

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