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Chapter 10: A TYPICAL BODY SECTION
What is the organization of one typical body
section? ---
When to Organize?
Description of a Basic Body Section
Example
Using These Parts
Conclusion: What You Gain
from Learning This
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Introduction
How should you organize a basic body section?
To start, don't worry about organizing right away if (a) you don't like it and
(b) you already have a sense of how the paper's major components--intro, body
sections, and conclusion--must be done. However, if you are (a) the kind
of person who really likes to start by organizing or (b) a student or employee
who has no idea at all how your paper should be arranged or ordered, then you
should pay attention to organizing at least a little from the very beginning.
When to Organize?
If you are a person who really likes organizing,
then knowing the final organization--the overall or major parts of it--can help
you rough draft your paper more easily. You would start by knowing--or
mapping, as if writing a very simple outline--the major parts of your paper, and
then you rough draft by starting to fill your thoughts and words into each part.
For example, if you know that you must examine three different arguments or
theories on a subject, then one way to organize your paper is to simply have
three major body sections--one for each argument or theory; and then you simply
start filling each separate body section with whatever thoughts, words, facts,
opinions, etc. that occur to you.
However, what if you dislike organizing?
That's fine, at least in the starting-to-rough-draft phase--except for one
problem. How do you know what direction to take your rough drafting if you
don't know the overall goal or type of paper to write? After all, if your
teacher gives you a reading and you then write a long, impassioned disagreement
with it, what if your teacher then says, "I only wanted a factual summary"?
Or what if you are given a potential work situation and you write a careful,
logical, and thorough rough draft analysis of it, taking it completely apart in
detail and showing what happened in the situation--and then your teacher says,
"I don't care about all these details; instead, I want an argument about the
situation with you taking a strong pro or con about it"? So, it helps to
pay attention to the goal.
There are two main ways to find out what the
goal--the finished paper--looks like in its major parts. One is to see
several sample papers of that kind as examples of what you should write.
Another way is to know what the basic organization of your paper should be.
The chapters in this "Organizing" section show you basic organizational patterns
or parts that exist in most medium to long college and professional papers.
Once you have written a first draft using
freewriting or some other method of starting, then you want to pay even closer
attention to the organizational methods shown here. This chapter in
particular shows the typical college and professional organization of a body
section. You likely already know or sense intuitively some of what is in
this chapter. However, reviewing and fixing it more consciously in your
mind will give you more power to control body sections and make them sing with
clarity, precision, and even grace.
One more note you should remember is that you always
want to complete as much of your major revising of body parts--what is called
"macro-organizing"--before you edit your paper sentence by sentence for grammar,
spelling, punctuation, and other small details. Why? The reason is
that if you do the small, line-by-line editing first and then, when you are
almost done, discover that you need to completely rearrange some of the
paragraphs or even body sections, you may have to rewrite a number of sentences
and lines. And that means you'll have to re-edit those. It also
means you may be deleting a number of sentences or lines that you already
carefully edited. To save time, energy, and efficiency, it's better to
complete your macro-organization first--get the major organization done--before
you work on the little details.
This chapter uses the pattern of body-section development that
was illustrated in the boxes in the previous chapter, "Basic
Layouts." What follows is the basics of one typical body section, also
sometimes called a "topic section." First, a typical body section is described.
Then an example is shown.
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Description of a Basic Body Section
What is a topic or body section? It usually is one of
the three to five main body parts that are between the paper's introduction and
conclusion. It is not a paragraph, nor is it just a list or graph.
Instead, each body section typically has several paragraphs, lists, or graphs
within it. For example, a nonfiction book has chapters: each chapter is a
body section. And the official manual for a car has many major sections
and sub-sections: these are major body sections and smaller body sections that
usually have several paragraphs within each.
In a typical college or professional paper, there are four main parts or
elements you should add to each body section:
-
a clear, brief Subtitle
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a main topic
sentence in the beginning and end of each body section
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a paragraph-summary sentence in the beginning and
end of each
paragraph
-
regular repetition of the main idea
using a key word or phrase.
These four main elements form the basic or key "road
map" for readers to follow your thinking. Below is the layout of an
imaginary body section with several paragraphs. This layout describes
where each of the four key elements usually are placed. Once again, what
is shown below is just ONE body section--not a whole paper:
Key Parts or Map for One Body Section
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Original Subtitle – 1-4 Words
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1st Paragraph:
First
sentence:
State the main topic sentence for the whole body section: repeat key words
from the subtitle. (An alternative: You can
turn this "First sentence" into a short, 2-3 sentence paragraph that
introduces the entire body section. Then start the second paragraph with
the next step directly below.)
Second
sentence:
Offer a very simple, basic summary sentence for just this 1st
paragraph: use a transition word or phrase like "First," and then use at
least one key word/phrase from the subtitle.
Middle
sentences:
Explain, develop, and/or add quotations.
Last
sentence:
Create a richer, more meaningful concluding summary of what
you just said and how it ties in with the topic of this body section.
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2nd Paragraph:
First
sentence:
Offer a very simple, basic summary sentence for just this 2nd
paragraph: use a transition word or phrase like "Second" or "Another," and
then use at least one key word/phrase from the subtitle.
Middle
sentences:
Explain, develop, and/or add quotations.
Last
sentence:
Create a richer, more meaningful concluding summary of what
you just said and how it ties in with the topic of this body section.
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3rd, 4th, 5th, etc.
Paragraphs:
First
sentence of each paragraph:
Offer a very simple, basic summary sentence for just that paragraph: use a
transition word or phrase like "Third, Fourth, Next, An additional, A
final," etc.; and also use at least one key word/phrase from the
subtitle.
Middle
sentences of each paragraph:
Explain, develop, and/or
add quotations.
Last
sentence of each paragraph:
Create a richer, more
meaningful concluding summary of what you just said and how it ties in
with the topic of this body section.
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Last Paragraph:
Summarize
your whole body section in 2+ sentences as follows:
Restate the
main point of the body section.
Summarize or
mention, briefly or in several sentences, your paragraph subjects.
Add a final interesting
detail, if you wish: a quotation, example, or fact in the middle of the paragraph.
State how this section
ties in--how does it help support your paper's main subject?
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Example Using These
Elements of a Body Section
Here is a very basic example of what is outlined on
the previous page. Imagine your paper is an analysis titled "Barbie Is a
Mixed Pleasure." In this paper, you analyze an imaginary book Barbie Dolls and Modern
Culture by a made up author, Dr. Nancy Smith. You use three viewpoints: radical feminism,
conservative feminism, and moderate feminism. The body section below shows how
you might start and end the third body section – from the viewpoint of
moderate feminism.
Words underlined below are simple
transition words that show the time, place, or number of the next
thought. Words in bold show the use of repeated key-word phrases helping
readers connect the continuing thread of the section's main idea.
(Note: the ideas below don’t necessarily
represent the beliefs of the author; they are used simply to analyze a
position.)
Example of One Developed Body Section
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Section subtitle:
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Barbie in Moderate Feminism
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Topic sentence to introduce the whole body
section:
1st paragraph's intro summary
sentence:
1st paragraph's concluding sent.:
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The
second section of this paper analyzes how
moderate feminism actually finds positive traits in Barbie's cultural
image as described in Smith's book. First, many moderate
feminists believe that Barbie has contributed to a culture of health. [Several sents. of explanation, development, and quotations
from Nancy Smith and/or other sources.] In conclusion, many
moderate feminists point to these attributes of health as stemming
in part from Barbie and other dolls like her. |
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2nd paragraph's intro summary
sentence:
2nd paragraph's concluding sent.:
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Second, some moderate feminists
also argue that Barbie has always been at the leading edge—if not exactly
the cutting edge—of cultural roles that advance women's best interests.
In Smith's book, for example, [several sents. of
explanation, development, and quotations from Nancy Smith and/or other
sources.] In short, moderate feminism often argues
that Barbie's roles as a nurse, teacher, and more recently a scientist,
doctor, and other high-powered role models have been good for women. |
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3rd paragraph's intro summary
sentence:
3rd paragraph's concluding sent.:
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In
addition, moderate feminism
also sometimes believes that Barbie's maternal attributes continue
throughout the years to provide important role modeling for girls who will
become young mothers. Smith demonstrates this when she
[several sents. of explanation, development, and quotations from Smith
and/or other sources.] As a result, such examples as these
simply show that Barbie, rather than hurt women, may in the view of
moderate feminism support girls in their time-honored future roles as
nurturing mothers. |
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4th paragraph –
a conclusion of the whole body section: |
This section thus has analyzed Barbie
in Smith's book using moderate feminism. Unlike radical or
conservative feminism, modern feminism often can see several strengths in
Barbie. [Another final quotation, if you wish.]
Culturally, Barbie has contributed to the health, professional status,
and nurturing-female attributes of the modern woman, all of which,
moderate feminism would argue, are valuable in our society and are
valid roles for young girls to mimic, learn, and enjoy. |
Conclusion: What You Gain from
Learning This
If you have never written this way, this is the time
to begin practicing it. At first, when you practice it, it may seem very obvious and at times even
inefficient. In the world of art, starting painters want to immediately
paint wonderful abstracts or scenes, but they need to first learn how to paint a
good vase and piece of fruit; once they have mastered that, then they can paint
other things clearly, subtly, and beautifully.
Similarly, the idea of the pattern above is to learn
it first, no matter how clunky it may feel. Then, as you practice it--and
depending on your major or profession--you can gradually learn to use it in a
much more efficient way, making it seem effortless and even in some types of
writing, very graceful. The trick is to simply start practicing it, have
patience, and learn to make it your own.
As you gradually master this kind of structured
writing in your body sections, you'll see three results. First, you'll
become more automatic at doing it, and thus you'll find yourself writing a
little more in this way in your first drafts, as well. Second, you'll
learn the specific style and words for this method that are appropriate in your own
discipline. And third, your writing will be much clearer and easier to
read by your audiences.
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