When I write an essay, I learned a long time ago to break up my essay into parts. The normal essay should have an introduction, at least 3 body paragraphs, and a conclusion. But when you are not used to this, even writing the introduction can seem like an impossible task. That is where the SOAP method comes into play. This is an extremely helpful tool to anyone needing to write an essay. What the SOAP method does, is break down your essay so that you can figure out what your thesis is, because every essay needs a thesis. Once you have your thesis, the essay can be formed easily.

S-Subject
Think about the subject you are writing about. For example, let's pretend I was writing about the benefits of ballroom dancing. My subject would be the benefits of ballroom dancing.

O-Occasion
What is the occasion that you will be writing about? Why are you writing the essay in the first place? If I use my last example, I would say that the occasion of my essay is to inform readers the health benefits of ballroom dancing.

A-Audience
Who are you writing your essay to? Who do you want to read it? This plays a big part of your essay because if you don't know who you're writing to, it will be pretty hard to come up with what to write. In my example, my audience is anyone who is wondering how to lose weight, and also anyone who is interested in ballroom dancing. When you know who you are writing to, you can figure out what kind of tone to take with the essay.

P-Purpose
What is the purpose of your essay? Are you trying to persuade someone, simply inform someone, or describing something? If you don't know the purpose of your essay, you can easily get confused and lost. In my example, I am trying to persuade readers to use dancing to lose weight. That is my purpose.

Once you have these 5 things filled out, you have effectively figured out your thesis. With your thesis, you can start writing your essay. In my example, using this, I could do my introduction, and in the three body paragraphs I could explain three benefits of ballroom dancing and then write my conclusion. Pretty simple, right?