The elements of an offence differ from charge to charge. They are the ingredients of a charge. For instance if you were making Apple pie and had no apples, well... you wouldn’t have apple pie. By the same token if you were defending a stop sign charge and there was no evidence of a stop sign, well...there wouldn’t be a stop sign charge.

There are common elements such as date, identification, etc but for the most part the actual charge or act is proven differently.

When you defend any charge, in addition to finding out the classification of offence, you should also learn the elements of it as well.