What Logical Plan Informs Your Paper’s Organization?
Why is it important to organize a paper logically?
Academic writing—like many types of writing—is typically more effective when the writer’s ideas are presented logically. For the sake of clarity and cohesiveness, a logical plan should inform the paper’s organization from beginning to end at the global (big picture) and local (zoomed in) levels. The target audience is more likely to become engaged, and maintain their engagement, when the conversation is clearly organized and purposefully presented.
Organizational structures that work:
- Graphic organizers
- Web: Draw a circle in the middle of a page and write your thesis inside. In a series of circles around the thesis, fill in ideas for the introduction, the main point of each body paragraph, and the conclusion. Then number the circles appropriately.
- Cluster or mind map: Begin with the topic in the center and map out a series of main ideas in connected ovals; continue to draw more ovals and cluster the details around each main idea.
- Outlines
- Traditional, formal outline: This organizational plan typically begins with a thesis statement and lays out your paper’s content in detail, using a standard outline format. Working outline: This plan generally begins with a working thesis followed by an organized, but less formal, presentation of ideas. Strategic reorganization of the outline takes place as your paper develops.
- Reverse outline: Outlining is done after a draft of the paper has been written. The writer extracts the main idea from each paragraph, determines what steps need to be taken to present the ideas logically, and reorganizes appropriately.
What can be done to construct a logical plan?
- Experiment with different organizational structures and choose one that works in harmony with your writing style, as well as the requirements of the assignment.
- Develop a well-organized thesis or working thesis—ideas that are clearly-presented in the thesis generally support clearly-presented ideas in the body of your paper.
- Treat the paper as a living document. Systematically reevaluate the success, or failure, of the organizational plan and reorganize as needed to keep the paper “breathing.”
Moving Beyond the Five-Paragraph Theme
One of the major transitions between high-school writing and college writing involves a wider set of options of how to organize an essay. Choosing the right structure is up to you, and depends on the application of critical thinking skills to select the best fit for your purpose.
In high school, the SAT and other standardized testing formats value a very formulaic, rigid approach to essay writing. Some students who have mastered that form, and enjoyed a lot of success from doing so, assume that college writing is simply more of the same. The skills that go into a very basic kind of essay—often called the five-paragraph theme—are indispensable. If you’re good at the five-paragraph theme, then you’re good at identifying a clear and consistent thesis, arranging cohesive paragraphs, organizing evidence for key points, and situating an argument within a broader context through the intro and conclusion.
In college you need to build on those essential skills. The five-paragraph theme, as such, is bland and formulaic; it doesn’t compel deep thinking. Your professors are looking for a more ambitious and arguable thesis, a nuanced and compelling argument, and real-life evidence for all key points, all in an organically-structured paper.
Figures 3.1 and 3.2 contrast the standard five-paragraph theme and the organic college paper. The five-paragraph theme, outlined in Figure 3.1, is probably what you’re used to: the introductory paragraph starts broad and gradually narrows to a thesis, which readers expect to find at the very end of that paragraph. In this idealized format, the thesis invokes the magic number of three: three reasons why a statement is true. Each of those reasons is explained and justified in the three body paragraphs, and then the final paragraph restates the thesis before gradually getting broader. This format is easy for readers to follow, and it helps writers organize their points and the evidence that goes with them. That’s why you learned this format.
Figure 3.2, in contrast, represents a paper on the same topic that has the more organic form expected in college. The first key difference is the thesis. Rather than simply positing a number of reasons to think that something is true, it puts forward an arguable statement: one with which a reasonable person might disagree. An arguable thesis gives the paper purpose. It surprises readers and draws them in. You hope your reader thinks, “Huh. Why would they come to that conclusion?” and then feels compelled to read on. The body paragraphs, then, build on one another to carry out this ambitious argument. In the classic five-paragraph theme (Figure 3.1) it hardly matters which of the three reasons you explain first or second. In the more organic structure (Figure 3.2) each paragraph specifically leads to the next.
Figure 3.1, The five-paragraph “theme”
The last key difference is seen in the conclusion. Because the organic essay is driven by an ambitious, non-obvious argument, the reader comes to the concluding section thinking “OK, I’m convinced by the argument. What do you, author, make of it? Why does it matter?” The conclusion of an organically structured paper has a real job to do. It doesn’t just reiterate the thesis; it explains why the thesis matters.
Figure 3.2, The organic college paper
The substantial time you spent mastering the five-paragraph form in Figure 3.1 was time well spent; it’s hard to imagine anyone succeeding with the more organic form without the organizational skills and habits of mind inherent in the simpler form. But if you assume that you must adhere rigidly to the simpler form, you’re blunting your intellectual ambition. Your professors will not be impressed by obvious theses, loosely related body paragraphs, and repetitive conclusions. They want you to undertake an ambitious independent analysis, one that will yield a thesis that is somewhat surprising and challenging to explain.
General to Specific (Deductive)
Provide thesis and forecasting statements in the introduction to help busy readers focus.
Approximately 100,000 books and millions of journal articles are published each year in the United States (see Bowker Annual). Digital Archivists estimate the size of the Deep Web at over 7.5 billion documents. The Internet Archive has archived 10 billion pages of the Open Web–over 100 terabytes of information. Now that the Internet has made it possible for just about anyone to publish and potentially reach millions of readers, we are truly overwhelmed by information.
Hook Your Readers – Get to the Point!
Accordingly, writers are under increasing pressure to get to the point, to grab the prospective reader’s attention and deliver the goods. In many writing contexts, across genres, readers expect writers to define the purpose, organization, and significance of a document in a thesis statement that is provided in the introduction. As a result, most documents follow a deductive organization in which the authors make a general statement and then support it with specific examples. In other words, writers summarize their thesis and often forecast how they’ve organized a document. Here, for example, is a headline from today’s newspaper:
“Self-Amputation. Frustrated Man Plans to Cut Off His Legs Online” by Paul Eng (ABCNEWS.COM)
This headline is designed to hook readers, enticing them to read the essay. Now, in the past–that is, long ago (read after the Ice Age but before the Internet)–readers may have given writers several pages to get to the point. Nowadays, you’ve got seconds. Literally seconds. The time it takes to click onto something more informative or entertaining.
Here, for example, is an abstract of “Cybersex and Infidelity Online: Implications for Evaluation and Treatment” prepared by Kimberly S. Young, James O’Mara, and Jennifer Buchanan for the 107th annual meeting of the American Psychological Association:
Prior research has examined how marital relationships can result in separation and divorce due to Internet addiction. This paper examines how the ability to form romantic and sexual relationships over the Internet can result in marital separation and possible divorce. The ACE Model (Anonymity, Convenience, Escape) of Cybersexual Addiction provides a workable framework to help explain the underlying cyber-cultural issues increasing the risk of virtual adultery. Finally, the paper outlines specific interventions that focus on strategies for rebuilding trust after a cyberaffair, ways to improve marital communication, and finally how to educate couples on ways to continue commitment.
Here’s another example of an introduction that gets right to the point, extracted from “Blinded by Junk Food”:
Over indulging in fat-filled snack foods may heighten the risk of developing advanced age-related muscular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness and vision impairment in the United States for those over 55, researchers at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary said in a new study.
By the way, you should know that readers expect you to provide deductive summaries throughout a document, particularly in lengthy documents. Each time you begin a new section, consider:
1. Providing a quick, perhaps one-sentence review of what you’ve discussed.
2. Explaining ways the new topic relates to what has been discussed.
3. Explaining how one section relates to another section.
- Providing a quick, perhaps one-sentence review of what you’ve discussed.
- Explaining ways the new topic relates to what has been discussed.
- Explaining how one section relates to another section.
Specific to General (Inductive)
Use an inductive organizational structure to surprise readers or to address controversial topics.
While writers are under increasing pressure to organize information deductively, they can–and do–write inductively. Typically, writers employ a more inductive style when the topic is controversial or when they wish to surprise readers.
Controversial Issues
When writing documents that address controversial issues or matters that threaten the beliefs of their readers, writers may find it strategic to place their arguments in their conclusions rather than their introductions.
Surprise Readers
Readers of novels expect to be delighted with surprise endings. In contrast, readers of nonfiction don’t expect the surprise ending, so they can be especially appreciative of a carefully constructed surprise. Note below, for example, the way Dianne Lynch surprises you with the line, “you are using the Internet to fight back”–a line in direct juxtaposition to the first 122 words of her short essay “Afghan Women Reach Out Via the Web.”
- You can’t laugh or talk aloud in public, and even your shoes must make no sound. Wearing cosmetics or showing your ankles is punishable by whipping; women have had their fingers amputated for wearing nail polish.
- You paint the windows of your house black so you cannot be seen from the outside. You are forbidden from walking on your balcony or in your backyard. It has been years since the sun shone on your face. And all public references to you have disappeared.
- You are a woman in Afghanistan today, living under the regime of the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban.
- And if you are one of the nearly 2,000 women who belong to The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, or RAWA, you are using the Internet to fight back.
When writing essays for school contexts, be sure to check whether your instructor will permit an inductive organization. While an inductive approach can be an effective strategic approach, some readers–particularly in academic and business contexts–define “good writing” as writing that follows a deductive structure.
Provide Metalanguage to Highlight Your Organization
Use metalanguage to help your readers understand your organization and reasoning. Clarify logical relationships, temporal relationships, and spatial relationships by using metalanguage.
The term “metalanguage” refers to language that helps writers explain relationships between ideas or words that explain how texts are presented. Phrases like “for example,” “as a result,” and “therefore” are examples of metalanguage. Like an impatient TV watcher clicking through hundreds of channels, readers tend to be impatient, always ready to put their work aside.
As a result, throughout a document, you must ensure that readers will understand how different ideas relate to one another. You don’t want your readers to ask
- “So what?”
- “Who cares?”
- “Jeez, just what is this text about?”
- “What’s going on in the world today?” i.e., tangential thoughts.
Successful writers maintain a sense of their readers’ likely responses to their documents. Just as writers commonly summarize their message in their introductions, highlighting its significance, writers frequently repeat their main ideas throughout a document, reminding readers of what’s been discussed, what will follow, and how new information relates to old information. Your essay shouldn’t be a spinning top, wandering from one topic to another–not if you want readers (or a good grade), anyway. Of course, peppering your language with metadiscourse–such as “thus,” “therefore,” “consequently,” and so on–will not provide logic. By itself, metalanguage cannot provide missing logic; it merely provides the glue to help readers better understand how ideas cohere.
Below is a list of common metalanguage terms. Ideally, your ideas relate so well that you do not need extensive metalanguage.
| Transitional Cues | Common Transitions |
|---|---|
| To guide readers |
|
| To order ideas and structure texts |
|
| To place emphasis |
|
| To provide examples |
|
| To show logical connections |
|
| To hedge |
|
| To summarize |
|
