|
Chapter 8: MAJOR ORGANIZATION
What are the most basic forms of organization in
college papers? ---
Introduction
Grade
School
Model
College
Model
When
to
Start Ordering
Section
& Thought
Subtitle
&
Topic Sentence
Beginning
& End
Conclusion
---
This chapter shows the difference in organizing the
basic grade school paper vs. the basic college paper, and it shows several ways
of developing the basic college paper.
---
The good news
about major organizing in college writing is that college composition instructors generally
use the same kind of overall basic format. This format is familiar
to most composition and English instructors, and teachers who expect writing in
other disciplines, especially in the first two years of college, usually know
that students who have had a college composition course are capable of writing
using this structure. This same type of format
is accepted--even required--in a large number of lower-division (first- and
second-year) departments and disciplines, sometimes just as you have already
learned it and sometimes with slight changes in structure (to help better
control the type of content you produce). And thankfully, this main
college-writing pattern or structure can be found in slightly different forms in
large numbers of upper-division classes (third- and fourth/fifth-year)
and graduate-level courses. What follows is a basic discussion of
what this pattern is not, what it is, and how you can focus your own writing
methods to develop this pattern.
---
Return to top.
Here is a
common understanding from grade school of how to organize a paper. This
model is okay as a beginning method of organizing. However, the purpose of
showing it here is to eventually discuss how you can and should go beyond it,
for it is just too simple for college writing. Some of you already may
have learned how to organize better than this: you might have learned in a high
school English class (or even in middle school or junior high), in another
college class, or in a job. For now, though, here is the common grade
school model. I call it the "ruler" method of writing.
When you
were in grade school, how did you tend to organize your ideas for writing?
Many people simply wrote each idea down and then provided details about it. Often, they
wrote about it in the same order in which they first thought about it. If,
for example, you developed ten ideas or thoughts, the result could be
represented as a series of thoughts something like this (whether three thoughts,
ten as shown here, or more):
|
Idea 1 |
Idea 2 |
Idea 3 |
Idea 4 |
Idea 5 |
Idea 6 |
Idea 7 |
Idea 8 |
Idea 9 |
Idea 10 |
The next step was to fill in each thought with with supporting
details or other information, and
then to
add to the whole paper a brief introduction and conclusion. This
method can be called the "ruler method"
because the result looks like a school ruler with divided sections:
THE RULER
|
Intro |
Idea 1:
details |
Idea 2:
details |
Idea 3:
details |
Idea 4:
details |
Idea 5:
details |
Idea 6:
details |
Idea 7:
details |
Idea 8:
details |
Idea 9:
details
|
Idea 10:
details |
Conc. |
Another guideline people learned, often late in grade school--or even later--was
to develop each idea into a complete paragraph. Sometimes, of course,
paragraphs were combined, but the overall effect still was of a ruler method of
writing--the ideas were written down, often in the same order the person first
thought of them, and there was simply a flow from introduction to one idea, then
to another idea, and eventually to the conclusion. If the paper became
long enough, it was called a "report," and it would look something
like this:
THE RULER As a Report--How It Is Written
Intro:
par. 1 |
par. 2 |
par. 3 |
par. 4 |
par. 5 |
par. 6 |
par. 7 |
par. 8 |
par. 9 |
par. 10 |
par. 11 |
Conc.:
par._12 |
There also
was some revising and editing to do, of course, but it didn't usually change the
organizational pattern or format of the paper very much. (If it did, you
were lucky enough to have a writing teacher who was helping you learn advanced
methods.)
The layout of the ruler report--the finished product--looked pretty much like
how you would expect a ruler to appear if you stood it on its end, like this
(with a few thoughts, or ten as shown here, or more):
THE RULER As a Report--The Finished Product
(4+ pp.)
|
Title |
Introduction:
par. 1 (summary) |
| paragraph 2 |
| paragraph 3 |
| paragraph 4 |
| paragraph 5 |
| paragraph 6 |
| paragraph 7 |
| paragraph 8 |
| paragraph 9 |
| paragraph 10 |
| paragraph 11 |
| Conclusion:
par. 12 (sum. + final thought) |
Shorter versions of this "ruler report" may have fewer ideas and
fewer paragraphs. However, they contain or use the same organizational
pattern: the writer has written down several major ideas, tends to keep
them in the same order he or she thought of them, and develops each one into a
paragraph or two, step by step.
---
Return to top.
The grade
school format above is very useful, as far as it goes. However, some high
schools--and almost all colleges and universities--take this format a
few important steps further. They do so for two reasons: (1) the college
method makes papers much more interesting and powerful to
write and read, and (2) these more-highly organized papers better emulate or mirror what you will need to write
in your college courses, in public life, and in your professional careers.
The most
basic developmental-level college model sometimes is called, in its very simplest form, the
"five-star thesis" or "five-paragraph thesis" because it
often has five paragraphs. Often
this pattern of five is first introduced in high school (occasionally
earlier). It looks like a series of layers, somewhat like the layers of a
cake (with the introduction--the frosting--coming first) or, perhaps, of
geological strata (such that the deeper the reader "digs" into the
paper, the more interesting he or she may find it):
LAYERS of a 5-Star Thesis
|
Paragraph 2 (Main
Idea A) |
|
Paragraph 3 (Main
Idea B) |
|
Paragraph 4 (Main
Idea C) |
The
format of this layered, 5-star thesis includes basic principles on which the
majority of college and professional papers are built. However, in most
college and professional writing, there are more than just five paragraphs,
sometimes many more. The typical short or medium-length college or
professional paper often has one- (or sometimes two-) paragraph introduction and
conclusion. The body of the paper--the part between the introduction and
conclusion--usually is layered or divided into two to five sections.
Each section then has several paragraphs of its own. The most common
layering or division is to
have three to four sections:
LAYERS of the Average College/Professional Paper
|
Section 1
(with
several paragraphs) |
|
Section 2
(with
several paragraphs) |
|
Section 3
(with
several paragraphs) |
|
Section 4 (optional)
(with
several paragraphs) |
Beyond this, it becomes difficult to show a "typical" pattern--one
that all college teachers use--because there are so many variations. For
short papers of a few pages or less, most teachers are happy with the pattern
above. For medium papers of five to ten pages in length (or for longer
papers), some teachers still prefer the pattern above, with additional
paragraphs added to each section. However, other teachers prefer a less
rigid pattern based more on the development of your ideas, a pattern with more
of a flow. Each of these two patterns are illustrated below.
Subtitles sometimes are added to the first type, as below, but usually not to
second type:
|
LAYERS
Using a Few Major Ideas
(2-5 Main Sections)
Title
|
Section 1 Subtitle (Main Idea
#2) |
|
1st
paragraph--introductory |
|
2nd paragraph |
|
3rd paragraph, etc. |
|
|
Section
2 Subtitle (Main Idea
#2) |
|
1st
paragraph--introductory |
|
2nd paragraph |
|
3rd paragraph, etc. |
|
|
Section 3 Subtitle (Main Idea
#2) |
|
1st
paragraph--introductory |
|
2nd paragraph |
|
3rd paragraph, etc. |
|
|
LAYERS
Using a Flow of Thoughts
(A Series of Connected Ideas)
Title
|
Thought
#1 (1st par.) |
|
More on Thought #1 (2nd par.) |
|
Thought #2 |
|
Thought
#3 |
|
Thought #4 (1st
par.) |
|
More on Thought #4 (2nd
par.) |
|
Thought #5 |
|
Thought
#6 (1st par.) |
|
More on Thought #6 (2nd
par.) |
|
Even more on
Thought #6
(3rd par.) |
|
Thought
#7 |
|
Thought #8 (1st
par.) |
|
More on
Thought #8
(2nd par.), etc. |
|
How do you know which pattern to use? This answer cannot be stressed too
many times: Ask the teacher. Ask for sample
papers, talk with your teacher in class and/or afterward, and take an early
draft or outline to his or her office to ask what pattern she prefers.
---
Return to top.
The short
answer is, often--at least in your first two or three years of college--to not start by
ordering. This is because you may work best with a type of paper
unfamiliar to you if you start by freewriting. This means that you develop a series of notes
or a rough draft simply by writing
whatever comes to your mind about your subject. Such freewriting actually is the
most common way of writing in some disciplines, such as English, the humanities,
philosophy, and other liberal arts, even sometimes at the highest professional
levels. If you don't yet know what you will say or how you will say it,
freewriting may help.
However,
you might, instead, be the type of person who writes best by starting with some kind of outline
of your overall thesis or central idea, and the points or parts of your paper. In addition, if you have become used to
writing a certain type of paper and/or you are in a discipline or profession
that has rigid writing requirements (such as those for writing a police report
or a business recommendation), you may find it more practical to start with an outline,
whether rough or detailed. Starting with a rough outline generally means
writing a phrase or a sentence or two for each main section, or a word or phrase for each major
paragraph. After that, you then can fill in the details by further
outlining, or you can freewrite each section or paragraph. Whichever
method you use to fill in details, you always can come back to it later and
revise it--add, subtract, expand, limit, add examples, etc. Rough outlining
probably is the most common way of
writing in the professional world, especially in professional fields or jobs
that have very specific types of written documents with very specific
organizational forms for content.
In any
case, the way you start is up to you: it is a combination of the type of
discipline and paper, of your experience with writing that type of paper, and of
your own particular abilities and preferences for developing ideas. See the "First Drafts"
chapter for more details.
If you
start with some kind of outline, your organizing task is simpler. You can develop
your rough outline according to the parts and steps of that type of paper.
If,
however, you are starting by freewriting or note taking, then at some
point you will need to organize your freewritten comments, notes, or thoughts.
Often, the
more you have written, the better: you will have the ideas expressed more
clearly on paper, and you will be able to make faster, better connections
between the different ideas.
For
example, I first learned to organize my own college papers well during my second
year of college (there was no "Composition I" course at my
college). We usually had to write at least three short papers in every
course. For each paper, I learned to spend several days writing many paragraphs of
notes on separate sheets of paper. Then I would put words to the
central point I wanted to make by writing it down in a sentence or two. Next, I would cut
some of my sheets of paper apart with
scissors to make sure that every important idea was on a separate piece of
paper. Then I spread all the pieces of paper, uncut and cut, on the floor of my room,
and I would look for
patterns. I preferred the three- or four-section method of layering, so I would try to shuffle
my pieces of paper into three, four, or sometimes five
major groupings. I might spend a day or two doing this, carefully
tiptoeing through the papers each time I entered or left my room, sometimes
trying two or three different methods of grouping before settling on the on I
liked best.
Once I
had settled on one grouping, I would pick up one of them and place the pieces of paper in the order I thought would be clearest
for my readers to understand my arguments and proofs. Then I would add sentences at
the beginnings and ends of these pieces so they would flow together.
Sometimes, but not always, I had to rewrite the original paragraphs entirely or,
at least, reorder what I had said. At other times, my original paragraphs
fit well with little or no change--just a beginning or ending sentence to help
connect them to the paragraphs before and after.
Once I was done, I would write my
conclusion--almost always just one medium to long paragraph. The last
thing I would do was write my introductory paragraph and decide on my final
title. I learned to do these two parts last because it is important to
sound in a title and an introduction like you know what you are going to
say. And I wouldn't always know this exactly and perfectly well until I
was done with my paper.
What organizational methods can you use to develop a pattern for your own
papers? In some disciplines, there is a set pattern to use, and an
instructor should show this to you. In others, you simply are free to
develop your ideas in a pattern of your own choosing. If the latter is the
case, you might, for example, organize your ideas
by three or four periods of time, or perhaps three or four different types of theories,
or by three or four main arguments. You might organize your ideas by author or type of author,
by reading, or by other means.
If you are completely free to develop the layers of your main sections or ideas
as you choose, you may want to consider a successful method used by many
magazine writers. This method is, in the body of your paper, to offer your
most important or interesting section or idea first, your second most
important or interesting idea last, and the least interesting information
in the middle. Here is how this method might be applied to the two methods
from above of layering a college paper:
|
ORDER
Using a Few Major Ideas
(2-5 Main Sections)
|
Section
1: 1st most important or interesting major idea |
|
Section
2: 3rd most important or interesting major idea |
|
Section
3: Least important or interesting major idea |
|
Section
4: 2nd most important or interesting major idea |
|
ORDER
Using a Flow of Thoughts
(A Series of Connected Ideas)
|
1st
most important/interesting thought |
|
3rd most important/interesting thought |
|
5th
"
"
/
"
" |
|
7th
"
"
/
"
" |
|
Least important/interesting thought |
|
6th
most important/interesting thought |
|
4th
"
"
/
"
" |
|
2nd most important/interesting thought |
|
Of course, many papers cannot be so easily divided because the layers are based
on a progression of historical time or some other required order. However,
if all else is equal, the above system is a useful one for encouraging your
readers to become more involved in your paper.
---
Return to top.
There are
numerous ways to order a section or a thought. When you are simply
writing for yourself--as, for example, in writing rough drafts or first
drafts--you can think on paper any way you please. However, once you are
ready to write for your audience, there is a pattern of development that many
readers have come to expect. It is a method that moves from the general to
the specific:
GENERAL IDEAS
\/
SPECIFIC DETAILS
Sometimes
this kind of development is shown as an upside down triangle. The shape
emphasizes how the beginning is top heavy or thick with broader, more general
ideas, and how these gradually develop into narrower, pointed details:
________________________________
\
MAIN IDEA:
/
\ topic
sentence /
\--------------------------/
\
DISCUSSION:
/
\
background /
\--------------------/
\DETAILS:
Quotes,/
\Facts,
Examples,/
\ Paraphrases, /
\ Numbers,
/
\
Graphs /
\--------/
\CONC./
\ /
\ /
\/
Usually, in following this pattern, you make your ideas clearest to others if
you start with some kind of brief summary of your section or thought or, at the
least, some kind of foreshadowing or early indication of what the section or
thought is about. This introductory summary, also called a "topic
sentence," most often is just a sentence or two in length.
Next,
sometimes, is a discussion. It may be just a sentence, or it may be much
more--perhaps even a paragraph or two. This discussion might include some
useful background information, an explanation, or, perhaps, some kind of rhetorical
mode such as a definition,
classification, or description.
In some types of papers, a discussion section, even a lengthy one, may be
necessary. This is true especially of academic and high-level professional
writing. However, in other types of papers--e.g., in business or technical
report writing--there may be no discussion section at all.
Next is
even more specific information. Once you have offered this discussion (or
if none is necessary), often it is then time to offer details of what you mean:
facts, figures, examples, stories, quotations and paraphrases, pictures, graphs,
etc. This may be the larger part of your section of thought development:
often it is as long as your introductory statement and your discussion, and in
many papers it may be much longer.
Finally, a
good section or major thought usually ends with a summary statement to its
readers. This summary statement may include a simple summary of the
contents of the section or idea, a final, simple, and clear restatement of the
main point, and/or the lesson or outcome of the section or thought.
Sometimes there may also be a sentence that provides a connection to the next
major section or thought.
This pattern may result in many paragraphs or just one longer one. See
"Paragraphing" for more details on how to
develop individual paragraphs beyond this model.
---
Return to top.
Some
disciplines and professions require subtitles, and some don't. Some
instructors, such as those in Business, almost always expect students to use
subtitles. Others, such as those in English, may make subtitles optional
or even forbid them. It is very important to ask your individual
instructor (or, in the work world, your superior) whether subtitles are expected
or accepted. If they are, then traditionally they are used at the
beginning of each major body section, at the beginning of your conclusion, and,
often (but not always) at the beginning of your introduction. They usually
are simply underlined (or not even underlined, just placed alone on a separate
line), even with the left margin, and not typed in bold,
italics, or a larger size (though in business and advertising, larger, bold,
and/or italicized type sometimes is used). Often the subtitle for the
introduction is called, simply, "Introduction," and the final,
summarizing end often is called "Conclusion." The subtitle of
each body section usually has a name--one or a few words--that announces the
content or main idea of the section:
Title
|
Introduction |
|
introductory
paragraph |
|
[Subtitle
in Your Words] |
|
1st
paragraph |
|
2nd paragraph, etc. |
|
[Subtitle in Your Words] |
|
1st
paragraph |
|
2nd paragraph, etc. |
|
[Subtitle in Your Words] |
|
1st
paragraph |
|
2nd paragraph, etc. |
|
Conclusion |
|
concluding
paragraph |
How do
topic sentences fit into this pattern? In a longer, developed paragraph, a
topic sentence appears as the first sentence in each paragraph. It
announces what the entire paragraph will say. The middle sentences in the
paragraph offer your proofs, details, stories, quotations, etc. And the
final sentence provides a summary of what the paragraph has said, or the results
of the proofs or details in the paragraph:
|
[Subtitle in Your Words] |
|
[1st
paragraph:]
- 1st sent. = paragraph topic
- Middle sents.: details, proofs
- Last sent. = parag. sum./result
|
|
[2nd paragraph:]
- 1st sent. = paragraph topic
- Middle sents.: details, proofs
- Last sent. = parag. sum./result |
A topic sentence or two
also is needed for the entire body section at the beginning of the body section.
And a final summarizing sentence or two is needed at the very end of the entire
body section. Generally, in formal writing, you are not allowed to have a
one-sentence paragraph. This leaves you with two different ways to provide
the section's topic at the beginning and a summary at the end:
|
Method A |
|
Method B |
|
[Subtitle in Your Words] |
|
[Subtitle in Your Words] |
|
Intro paragraph of 2-4 sents. stating
entire section's subject. |
|
|
|
[2nd
paragraph:]
- 1st sent. = paragraph topic
- Middle sents.: details, proofs
- Last sent. = parag. sum./result |
|
[1st
paragraph:]
- 1st sent. = section's
topic
- 2nd sent. = paragraph topic
- Middle sents.: details, proofs
- Last sent. = parag. sum./result |
|
[3rd paragraph:]
- 1st sent. = The par. topic
- Middle sents.: details, proofs
- Last sent. = parag. sum./result |
|
[2nd paragraph:]
- 1st sent. = The par. topic
- Middle sents.: details, proofs
- 2nd-to-last sent. = parag. sum.
- Last sent. = section's
sum. |
|
Concluding paragraph of 2-4 sents. giving
summary or result of entire section's subject. |
|
|
The first of these methods ("Method A") allows you to write a separate, short,
introductory and concluding paragraph of 2-4 sentences at the beginning and end
of the entire body section; it treats the body section as its own "mini-paper,"
in a sense, as it has its own very short introducing and concluding paragraphs.
The second method ("B") is much faster and more efficient. It offers a
very brief introductory and concluding sentence for the entire body section,
using just one sentence at the beginning of the first paragraph, and another
sentence at the end of the last paragraph.
---
Return to top.
Introductions and endings can be very
simple, or they can contain some of the very best writing in your paper.
Much depends on the type of paper you are writing--the discipline or profession,
your audience, and the length of paper. Or starters, the great majority of
introductions and endings are just one paragraph each. Why? It is
because an introduction or an ending is supposed to be just a taste, a quick
statement of the whole paper, that is something easily read and easily
remembered. There is an old guideline taught in speech classes that
applies here:
|
In a good speech (and a good
paper),
(1)
tell them what you're going to say,
(2) say it, and
(3) tell them what you said.
|
The introduction and the ending are where you "tell them what you're
going to say" and "tell them what you said." (The body is
where you "say it.") This function often is easily accomplished
in just one paragraph. Here are, for example, several possible types of
introductory and ending paragraphs (these examples are not hard and fast rules,
but rather just general possibilities):
Introductory
Paragraph
|
ACADEMIC ARG.
Thesis Sent.
Best Quotation
Topic Sent. #1
Topic Sent. #2
Topic Sent. #3
|
|
BUS.
PROPOSAL
Problem/Need
Solution
Steps
or Method
Outcomes
|
|
CASE STUDY
Client or Patient
Problems/Symptoms
Diagnosis
Plan & Results |
|
SCIENCE REPORT
Abstract of Paper
(Summary of Contents)
|
Concluding
Paragraph
|
ACADEMIC ARG.
Thesis Sent.
2nd-Best Quote
Final Thought
|
|
BUS.
PROPOSAL
Problem
& Solution
Outcomes
|
|
CASE STUDY
Diagnosis
Plan
Results
|
|
SCIENCE REPORT
nothing or
brief summary of
final implications
|
When do you write introductions and endings? As you may have noticed
above, when I told my own story of
organizing papers in college, I learned to write my the body of a paper, then
its conclusion, and only then would I write the introduction. By the time
I had written everything else, my introduction would sound like I knew exactly
what I was talking about--which I did, by that time.
As I
mentioned above, while some conclusions are as simple and straightforward as can
be, others are more complex, more interesting. Let me try for the latter
here. As I sit writing this, at this moment I am on the tip of a large
peninsula in Michigan, forty miles north of Traverse City. I can see no
other human beings or their buildings and ships anywhere around me. In
front of me, Lake Michigan stretches, sun shining off the water. Above, a
sky of several hues of blue is patchworked by white clouds; below them, the
water is light blue close to shore, turning a deeper sapphire far out. The
beach in front of me is a mix of small rocks and large, sand, short bushes, and
stunted trees. A few minutes ago, a pair of wild swans floated just a few
yards offshore in front of me, and I think there is still a large egret by the
shoreline, hiding from me by some brush. The scene is simple, beautiful,
and natural. Everything is in its right place, and yet there's a tinge of
excitement, too--because I know the power of the lake and the sudden storms that
come off it, day or night. All of these things are how a good conclusion
should feel to readers. In fact, so should your entire organization.
---
Return to top. |
