What I Am Getting At
When
writing anything, I feel that getting your thoughts down on paper and somewhat
organized is the most important way to start.
Whether you are writing the first draft of an essay or a simple response
paper, you need some sort of organization or your paper is not going to be
received well by your audience. In the course of this post, I hope to offer
advice on how to get your writing organized from the start. By doing this, your paper will come to you
easier and you do not have to worry about the flow of your writing at the last
minute.
Real-life Application
A
close friend of mine had to write a seven plus page research paper last
semester. She had some wonderful ideas
and some great commentary to go with her supporting sources, but her
organization left something to be desired and the effect of her initial draft
was not what she was wanting. The two of
us worked on getting it organized and fixing transitions for several hours
before we felt we had an “A”-type paper to turn in. (She did end up getting an
“A” grade on the assignment after all of the changes.)
The
point of my story is that if she had started her paper with a little more
organization of her thoughts and ideas, she probably would not have had to do
so much work at the very end, saving us the extra hours of work and her the
stress of needing the paper finished.
I recognize that there are many
different strategies that people can use in writing, and I know my own strategies
may not work for some. However, I hope to share with you a strategy that has
proven helpful for me, and hopefully, you will be able adapt it to work for
you.
Getting Started: The Very Basic
First things first: you must have
some sort of idea for a topic. Without a
subject, you really have no paper. (This
would be like talking to someone who just talks to talk; total stream of
consciousness only works for some and, as for the rest, I would probably be
afraid to know what they are thinking.)
Brainstorming, Free writing, Etc.
After you have this basic topic,
write down everything and anything that relates to your topic: How do you feel
about the subject? Who is involved or affected? What do you know off hand? What
do you need to find out? Are you able to learn more about your topic?
When you write all of this down, it
can be in any form you wish: an outline, an idea web, a list, whatever you need
to do to get it all on paper and in front of you. When you have all of your ideas in front of
you, you can more easily see what you really think about a topic, and you can
better approach a single focus.
Connections
When
you are finished compiling all of your thoughts and ideas, look to see which
ones truly relate to your topic and determine what kind of a stance you will be
taking (are you for or against the topic? Are you informing or persuading?
Which side are your thoughts and ideas supporting?)
Do
not be afraid to modify, change or ignore some of this initial work. You may
come to realize that something you thought was good is actually not, or you may
find some more information that makes an even better argument for your topic.
Choose Your Supporting
Information
The ideas and thoughts that you have
connected to each other are the ‘Supporting Details’ that you should use for
your body paragraphs. These thoughts and
ideas should be relatable to each other and the initial topic. For your writing purposes, you may want to
make a main statement for the initial ‘supporting detail’ (i.e. topic sentence)
and then follow those with you supportive information.
With
these supporting details you should be able to form a tentative thesis
statement. This statement can help you keep to your purpose throughout the
course of you essay—you can always go back to it and see if you have gone off
on a tangent or if you are spot on with your purpose.
My Take
In
using this sort of approach to organization, you can save yourself the headache
and worry over whether or not your paper is doing what you want or need it to
after you have basically finished it. I
personally dislike having to go back and reorganize what I have written when I
figured I had finished writing. If I can
have it organized from the get-go, firstly, I feel so much better about the
finished product, and secondly, I do not have to stress myself out over whether
or not it makes sense or stays focused.
For
your information
Here
are a couple blog posts that share some basic information on organization of an
essay:
o
this post is not strictly on organization, however it
describes a strategy for writing called “the 4 C’s” that can help you to keep a
focus
o
this post about organization offers advice for when you are
actually writing your paper rather than before hand
o
this post defines different essay structures such as compare
and contrast or cause and effect
I
hope that this information has been helpful at least in some small way…I would
love it if you let me know what worked for you and what did not (:
Amanda
No comments:
Post a Comment