Introduction

Let’s say you are planning to go on a trip. Really you are going to learn how to organize the structure of a paper, but let’s just say that you are planning to go on a trip. There are two kinds of trip you can take. In the first, you get in the car and take off. Probably you should take along some money, and it would be nice to have a smart phone with a GPS app. But basically your trip starts without a plan other than, perhaps, to head north. You let the events of the trip unfold as they may. This is a focus-and-exploration adventure: focus on a general direction and see what happens.

A second way to go on a trip is to get out a map and plan a route, calculate the number of hours between motel stops, figure the amount of money that you will need, and plot your way so that you get back in time for whatever deadline you might have: school starting again, the end of time off from your job, etc. This is a thesis-and-support model road trip. You know where you are going before you get there and how you will get there before you set out. The thesis is your route: you know what it is before you start. The support is that you will stop and sleep and then get up and drive each day toward a specific destination.

Academic writing expects writers to take readers on thesis-and-support trips, not on focus-and-exploration trips.

In other words, in academic writing we expect a plan, or structure, to the writing. And that structure should be obvious from the first paragraph.

Look back at the first paragraph of this lesson. Is there any indication that this is thesis-and-support style writing? If you look closely, you will see two such indications: two sentences in the first paragraph preview the structure for this part of the lesson.

The second sentence of the first paragraph informs you about the destination for this lesson—“You are going to learn how to organize the structure of a paper.” The third sentence is also characteristic of thesis-and-support style writing—“There are two ways to think about the trip.” That sentence may not inform you about where we are going, but it does tell how you are going to get information. This statement makes clear that the writing has been thought out ahead of time. You can’t say something like that unless you have something in mind. This sentence is entirely devoted to telling you that THIS WRITING HAS A PLAN.

Now don’t get the idea that freestyle writing is being disparaged. Certainly there are reasons to go on a freeform road trip. By exploring, you will go places, meet new people, make discoveries that you never could have planned. Writing that starts with a focus and just comes out as it comes out can be very valuable. The man credited with “inventing” the essay back in the 1500s wrote the first essays in this meandering way. His name was Michel de Montaigne. He was born in France and is known as one of the most influential writers of the French Renaissance. His massive volume Essais (which translates literally as “Attempts”) contains some of the most widely influential essays ever written.

So there are some writing tasks that are better suited to, or even require, focus-and-exploration writing. But most academic writing assignments require a thesis and support. Below is a list of different writing tasks; some require thesis-and-support treatment, and some are better served by focus-and-exploration treatment.

Academic writing is all about thesis and support. In academic writing, you are rewarded not only for having a plan, but also for making that plan as obvious as possible. In academic writing it is preferred to let the structure show.

What does it mean to “let the structure show”?

It means you write sentences like “There are two ways to go about this,” which clearly announce the plan and the organization of your writing.

Here are some examples of statements you might include in a paper on the benefits of travel. How do these statements “let the structure show”?

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Using Questions to Organize

Writing academically requires you to be more reader-aware than other kinds of writing. In many kinds of writing, the author can expect the reader to put things together using clues here and there. In academic writing, however, the writer is supposed to do all the work. This means the writing should have external coherence, a clear organization that a reader can follow easily.

One of the methods you can use to keep your writing organized is to constantly switch back and forth between what you are thinking as a writer and what you might think as a reader of your own paper. In other words it is good to have a conversation with yourself. You need to provide all the information, as any good writer must; but in the reader’s shoes, you may better see how to orchestrate the presentation, signal what should come next, and make sure that the structure does not get lost in the details. The reader is sort of like an interviewer. From this perspective, you want to ask questions to clarify what the information is really about.

Using questions and answers for planning a paper might look similar to the exercise you’re about to do. Let’s assume that you are writing a paper about “the effects of travel.” For each question below, respond with at least one sentence using your Take Notes Tool. Check your understanding after each response. Also, you won’t have the same answers as me; many answers could be correct.

1. What position are you going to take on the topic “The Effects of Travel”? In other words, what is your thesis?
Check your understanding

There are many, many positions you could take on the effects of travel. The main ones would be “Travel is good for you” and “Travel is bad for you.” We are going to demonstrate this position: “Travel can make people more tolerant.” This is the thesis of our essay. Use this as the demonstration thesis in the questions that follow.

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2. Can you express the thesis in different words? (Use the demonstration thesis.)
Check your understanding

I hope you weren’t a smarty-pants and answered simply “yes.” This question is important. You undoubtedly get what you mean in your own writing without a restatement, but your reader may not. Better to be clear. Always. Express the position in different words: “What I mean is that travel can teach us better than books, movies, or even conversations with others who have traveled. Traveling can acquaint us with people in different cultures who are happy with ways of life that we may find strange. It can teach us that the way we happen to live is not the only way or even the best way.”

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3. What reasons do you have to support your thesis that might make me agree with you?
Check your understanding

Why should someone agree? This question can’t be answered off the top of your head. In an actual paper-writing situation, you would have to do some thinking, writing, reading, and perhaps talking to decide exactly what reasons to use to support your position. For the purposes of this demonstration, we’ll use two reasons: 1) traveling makes you aware that other people’s ways of living are normal to them and 2) traveling makes it clear that your ways of living may not be normal to other people. Both of these reasons for travel can make us more tolerant.

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4. Can you restate your first reason and connect it to your thesis? (Use the first reason and thesis.)
Check your understanding

At this point, we can introduce what is called an extended topic sentence. The extended topic sentence explicitly connects the reasons with the position, or thesis. Here is an example: “One reason that you should agree that travel makes us more tolerant is that it makes us more aware other people see their different ways of living as normal.” This step doesn’t add anything to the content of our writing. But lets us check that the reason is actually validly connected to the thesis. It is also a good way to start a new paragraph.

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5. Can you restate that connection in different words?
Check your understanding

Are you getting annoyed? Does it seem like we are saying everything three or four times and not really getting anywhere? Well, remember the writing-as-travel metaphor: in academic writing, clarity is more important than excitement. We are not, at this point, moving to new towns or new adventures. We are getting to know the town we are in very, very well. We are making sure that everything is clear. We are saying to a reader, “If you didn’t understand the first time, I’m now going to say it again a different way.”

So here’s the restatement: “Tolerance has to do with seeing alternative behaviors as permissible options that we don’t have to try to change or eliminate. When you travel, you see people who behave differently but who seem to be content with their way of living life.”

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6. Can you give me some examples of what you mean?
Check your understanding

Examples and explanations are the meat and potatoes of academic writing. Examples are concrete and explanations are abstract. The best way to clarify your ideas is by going back and forth between abstract and concrete. Remember that clarity is the primary focus in academic writing. Examples will strengthen your paper and convince your readers.

For the purposes of our demonstration, we will just give two examples without developing them into paragraphs. See if these are at all similar to what you thought of:

1. People live in a village in Peru with dirt floors and are living perfectly happy lives.

2. People in a town on the Persian Gulf sleep on the roof every night without thinking it’s strange.”

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7. Why might someone disagree with you? Can you respond to these disagreements?
Check your understanding

This is crucial in academic writing. You must be aware of counterarguments and be able to defend your own position against them. Constantly invite this opposing voice into your writing. It will dramatically improve clarity and therefore quality. For the demonstration we can say this: “Someone might think that there are plenty of people living in different ways within any community. Therefore there is no need to travel if you stay alert to the lives of people around you.” As a response to this disagreement we could say, “But although your own community is a possible source of tolerance education, travel is much more immersive. Seeing people live differently in communities that support and participate in that difference, will make you register those differences as permissible and approvable.”

We are introducing the opposing voice at the level of reasons; it could also be included with the examples. (With example #1 from the previous question, a disagreement might be, “But how do you know that the family in Peru is happy with a dirt floor?”)

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The question sequence for a thesis-and-support essay can stay pretty much the same no matter what your topic is. Some topics may, of course, require you to adjust the sequence.

Remember three things from this section of the lesson:

1. Switching back and forth between a writer’s mind and a reader’s mind will lead to better academic writing.
2. Restating the main points in different words can improve the clarity of the essay.
3. Letting an opposing voice into the writing gives you the chance to answer the questions that readers might have and is a crucial addition to your body paragraphs.

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Ordering the Paragraphs

Asking questions should help each part of an essay to follow the previous part in a logical order. But there is another consideration in organization beyond what makes sense in the structure. The order of presentation should be the most reasonable and also the most effective order possible. One guide is that “like” or similar things should go together. It is obviously strange to write “I love my mother, my father, carrots, and my brother.” It might be better to write “I love my mother, my father, my brother, and carrots” since “carrots” are neither people nor related to you. There are, in fact, several ways to determine the best—most reasonable and most effective—order.

Which sentence of the following pairs puts like things together? Mouse over the sentence tha tyou think is in the correct order.

Another guide is that the most important or surprising thing should come last. It is better to write “I love my cell phone, my dog, and my family” than “I love my family, my dog, and my cell phone.” Before that last item, there is almost an “of course” that people hear in their heads. If “cell phone” is last, you imply that it would go without saying that you love your cell phone, but your family and your dog are in question. This would be surprising!

Choose which passage puts the most important thing or most surprising thing last in each of the following pairs of passages. Mouse over the sentence that you think is in the correct order.

The final guide is that exceptions and objections go last: “I love my dog, my mother, and my sister, but not my weird cousin.” This guide can be an exception to the previous rule.

Again, these are the guides for organizational pattern:

1. Like things go together.
2. The most important things go last.
3. Exceptions and objections go last—even if it goes against rule #2.

Which is the best order for the reasons from our demonstration? The reasons were:

1. Travel makes you aware that other people’s ways of living are normal to them.
2. Travel makes it clear that your ways of living may not be normal to other people.
3. And the exception: People who live differently can be found within any community.

Make an educated guess as to how these reasons should be arranged in the body of the paper. Then check your understanding to see how each possible order measures up to the guides for organization:

After setting up guides that make ordering an essay seem so easy that a computer could do it, it’s important to say that there’s more than one way to decisions about order. It depends on what you want a reader’s response to be.

But if we don’t have any special effect in mind or any unusual response we want from a reader, the first order would be the most obvious choice in the last exercise. It places the objection last while the two less surprising reasons come first.

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Putting It All Together

We are going to imagine that you have been asked to write a paper in response to this Twain quotation. We have a thesis developed: Travel makes us more tolerant.

We also have lots of ideas about this—both explanations
of how this could be true and examples of situations where
travel has the effect that Twain describes.

Remember the guides for structuring an essay:

• Let the structure show
• Restatements go after initial statements
• Like elements go together
• Most important goes last
• Objections go last

Now it’s time to open a graphic organizer that you’ll use to help you restructure the paper. The graphic organizer includes instructions and you can download and print it.

You’ll find the introduction, body, and conclusion already labeled because you are tasked with structuring the body paragraphs of the paper. The introduction might include a statement of the thesis, the quote from Mark Twain, and a paraphrase of the quote. The conclusion might include a statement about the importance of the paper’s main claim in today’s world and a restatement of the thesis.

You know that there will be reasons given for agreeing with the thesis. Look for the reasons. Check for clues about which reasons come first, second, and third. The objection to the thesis and the answer to that objection should go after the discussion of the three reasons.

Then you’ll be left with the restatements of the reasons and with the examples. You should be able to figure out where each restatement and example go by looking for key words and other structure clues.

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Test Your Understanding

Complete the following steps to take a quiz that tests your understanding of this topic.

• Click on the link below. The quiz will open in a new window.
• When you have completed the quiz, click the Submit button.
• Close the window to return to this page.
• To review your test results, click the Tests/Quizzes button in the left-hand Epsilen navigation menu to open the Tests/Quizzes page.
• Under Past Tests/Quizzes locate the test for Writing: Module 3: Lesson 2 and click on the magnifying glass icon to view your results.

Please Note: Question/answer choices periodically appear out of order onscreen. This is a known program bug within Epsilen and is currently being addressed.

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Resources

Resources Used in this Lesson: Bibliography

Schmidt, Barbara. Mark Twain Quotations, Newspaper Collections, & Related Resources.

Twain, Mark. The Innocents Abroad. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1869.