What's covered in the body?

As its name suggests, the body of a piece of writing is the main part, where you present and develop your main ideas; put crudely, it's all the stuff that appears between the introduction and the conclusion – the ‘middle bit’ . . . which is why, even in our early years of secondary school, we're taught that a piece of writing should consist of a beginning, a middle and an end. Remember that?

So, although, as we've seen, the introduction plays an important framing role in your writing, and the conclusion similarly serves a clear and necessary function, it's in the body that the great bulk of your discussion takes place.