Organization & Structure

PART I OF III
All essays require structure. A solid structure gives organizational shape to your thoughts, arguments, or stories; structure serves to orient your readers and indicate the direction you’re going and how you plan to get to your final destination—that is, your conclusion. Structure demonstrates to your readers that you are being logical and well-ordered.

Structure is present at multiple levels in any good essay: Every sentence should have structure; every paragraph should have structure; every set of paragraphs should have structure; and every essay should have an overall structure or organization that encourages your readers to follow your lead, sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph, right to your conclusion.

Sentences: The Bricks and Mortar of the Essay

As a general rule, each sentence must have a subject (noun) and a verb (action word). Beyond that general rule, however, sentences may vary widely in word order, word choice, and length, depending on appropriateness, pace, and your individual writing style.

The main point to remember about sentences is that they are the foundation of every piece of writing, and that, individually, each sentence must make perfect sense to your readers. Misspellings, muddled grammar, or poor punctuation will only irritate or confuse your readers. So, each sentence you write must follow specific rules of proper English.

If your sentences are unclear, if they meander pointlessly from one idea to another or show no discernable concern for proper spelling, punctuation, or grammar, it’s a sure bet that your essay will be unclear, as well. That’s why, when you’re writing and especially when you’re revising your essay, you must take the time to make sure that the meaning of each sentence is crystal clear to your readers. Write so your readers cannot misunderstand or misconstrue what you are saying.


Paragraphs: The Pillars of the Essay

Paragraphs are the pillars of the essay—they uphold and support the essay’s overall structure. Each paragraph you write should express a single thought. Each paragraph you write should contain a beginning, middle, and end. Each paragraph you write should have a simple and direct structure.

To construct a solid paragraph:
>Include a topic sentence. A topic sentence, usually placed at the beginning of a paragraph, states the main idea being discussed in that particular paragraph.
>Establish unity. A paragraph is unified if each sentence supports the topic sentence. Unity comes from what you say.
>Establish coherence. Coherence requires that a paragraph is clear, logical, and readily obvious to the reader how each sentence supports the topic sentence. To establish coherence, think about transitions between sentences, not just when you begin a new paragraph. Here are some good ways to establish coherence within a paragraph:
>Use key words to tie your ideas together. Don’t use synonyms merely for variety’s sake; the same word repeated helps create coherence.
>Write a new sentence to expand upon or further develop the previous ones, connecting old information with new.
>Use transitions to connect ideas within a paragraph.

Example:
Good writing comes from hard work [TOPIC]. But [TRANSITION WORD] hard work [REPEATED KEY WORD AND OLD INFORMATION] never scared me. In fact [TRANSITION WORD], I relish the challenge of creating something new, no matter how difficult [KEY WORD] or time consuming [NEW INFORMATION]. I have spent weeks on a few pages, months on an essay, and years on a book [OLD INFORMATION: TIME].

Beginning a New Paragraph
There are no hard and fast rules for when to begin a new paragraph, but consider doing so at the following points:
· When beginning a new idea
· When breaking an idea down into its more descriptive parts
· In dialogue, when the speaker changes
· When summing up ideas (e.g., your conclusion)
· When a paragraph gets long and looks daunting (e.g., any paragraph containing more than 12 sentences)