A business essay should present a well-developed, well-defended analysis of a narrowly defined business topic. A business essay is not a business research paper, which requires the student to perform extensive research on a particular topic and report on his or her findings. Business essays will likely incorporate some element of research, but are intended to present the ideas of the writer on the particular topic at hand. To that end, business essays must present a thesis—a statement or group of statements asserting an argument or stance—and then defend that particular thesis using sound evidence.
A thesis should identify the writer’s position on the topic and briefly describe the points that he or she will make in defending that position. For instance, if the student wants to write about sustainability in business, a thesis topic might be as follows: “Business sustainability entails many aspects of a business, including the business’ affect on the environment, the business’ affect on its employees, and the business’ ability to be financially profitable. In order to fully address this holistic model of sustainability, businesses should have an internal sustainability committee to ensure that the various goals of sustainability are being achieved.” In this thesis, the argument is that “businesses should have an internal sustainability committee to ensure that the various goals of sustainability are being achieved.” The body of the essay should follow the plan outlined in the thesis by articulating how an internal sustainability committee would operate, and why it would be an effective measure. Each paragraph should begin with a topic sentence that defines the point being made, and then proceed to present examples of that point and how it supports the thesis.
Effective business essays will not simply employ evidence in support of the presented thesis, but will comment on that evidence in a critical way. For instance, if the above essay were to point to a...