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5.4: Organizing Your Writing

  • Page ID
    4541
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    Learning Objectives
    • Understand how and why organizational techniques help writers and readers stay focussed
    • Assess how and when to use chronological order to organize an essay
    • Recognize how and when to use order of importance to organize an essay
    • Determine how and when to use spatial order to organize an essay

    The method of organization you choose for your essay is just as important as its content. Without a clear organizational pattern, your reader could become confused and lose interest. The way you structure your essay helps your readers draw connections between the body and the thesis, and the structure also keeps you focused as you plan and write the essay. Choosing your organizational pattern before you outline ensures that each body paragraph works to support and develop your thesis.

    This section covers three ways to organize body paragraphs:

    1. Chronological order
    2. Order of importance
    3. Spatial order

    When you begin to draft your essay, your ideas may seem to flow from your mind in a seemingly random manner. Your readers, who bring to the table different backgrounds, viewpoints, and ideas, need you to clearly organize these ideas in order to help process and accept them.

    A solid organizational pattern gives your ideas a path that you can follow as you develop your draft. Knowing how you will organize your paragraphs allows you to better express and analyze your thoughts. Planning the structure of your essay before you choose supporting evidence helps you conduct more effective and targeted research.

    Chronological Order

    In Chapter 4, you learned that chronological arrangement has the following purposes:

    To explain the history of an event or a topic

    To tell a story or relate an experience

    To explain how to do or to make something

    To explain the steps in a process.

    Chronological order is mostly used in expository writing, which is a form of writing that narrates, describes, informs, or explains a process. When using chronological order, arrange the events in the order that they actually happened, or will happen if you are giving instructions. This method requires you to use words such as first, second, then, after that, later, and finally. These transitional words guide you and your reader through the paper as you expand your thesis.

    For example, if you are writing an essay about the history of the airline industry, you would begin with its conception and detail the essential timeline events up until present day. You would follow the chain of events using words such as first, then, next, and so on.

    Writing at Work

    At some point in your career you may have to file a complaint with your human resources department. Using chronological order is a useful tool in describing the events that led up to your filing the grievance. You would logically lay out the events in the order that they occurred using the key transitional words. The more logical your complaint, the more likely you will be well received and helped.

    Keep in mind that chronological order is most appropriate for the following purposes:

    Writing essays containing heavy research

    Writing essays with the aim of listing, explaining, or narrating

    Writing essays that analyze literary works such as poems, plays, or books

    Tip

    When using chronological order, your introduction should indicate the information you will cover and in what order, and establish the relevance of the information. Your body paragraphs should then provide clear divisions or steps in chronology. You can divide your paragraphs by time (such as decades, wars, or other historical events) or by the same structure of the work you are examining (such as a line-by-line explication of a poem).

    Exercise 5.11

    On a sheet of paper, write a paragraph that describes a process you are familiar with and can do well. Assume that your reader is unfamiliar with the procedure. Remember to use the chronological key words, such as first, second,then, and finally.

    Order of Importance

    Recall from Chapter 4 that order of importance is best used for the following purposes:

    Persuading and convincing

    Ranking items by their importance, benefit, or significance

    Illustrating a situation, problem, or solution

    Most essays move from the least to the most important point, and the paragraphs are arranged in an effort to build the essay’s strength. Sometimes, however, it is necessary to begin with your most important supporting point, such as in an essay that contains a thesis that is highly debatable. When writing a persuasive essay, it is best to begin with the most important point because it immediately captivates your readers and compels them to continue reading.

    For example, if you were supporting your thesis that homework is detrimental to the education of high school students, you would want to present your most convincing argument first, and then move on to the less important points for your case.

    Some key transitional words you should use with this method of organization are most importantly, almost as importantly, just as importantly, and finally.

    Writing at Work

    During your career, you may be required to work on a team that devises a strategy for a specific goal of your company, such as increasing profits. When planning your strategy you should organize your steps in order of importance. This demonstrates the ability to prioritize and plan. Using the order of importance technique also shows that you can create a resolution with logical steps for accomplishing a common goal.

    Exercise 5.12

    On a sheet of paper, write a paragraph that discusses a passion of yours. Your passion could be music, a particular sport, filmmaking, and so on. Your paragraph should be built on the reasons why you feel so strongly. Briefly discuss your reasons in the order of least to greatest importance.

    Spatial Order

    As stated in Chapter 4, spatial order is best used for the following purposes:

    Helping readers visualize something as you want them to see it

    Evoking a scene using the senses (sight, touch, taste, smell, and sound)

    Writing a descriptive essay

    Spatial order means that you explain or describe objects as they are arranged around you in your space, for example in a bedroom. As the writer, you create a picture for your reader, whose perspective is the viewpoint from which you describe what is around you.

    The view must move in an orderly, logical progression, giving the reader clear directional signals to follow from place to place. The key to using this method is to choose a specific starting point and then guide the reader to follow your eye as it moves in an orderly trajectory from your starting point.

    Pay attention to the following student’s description of her bedroom and how she guides the reader through the viewing process, foot by foot.

    Attached to my bedroom wall is a small wooden rack dangling with red and turquoise necklaces that shimmer as you enter. Just to the right of the rack is my window, framed by billowy white curtains. The peace of such an image is a stark contrast to my desk, which sits to the right of the window, layered in textbooks, crumpled papers, coffee cups, and an overflowing ashtray. Turning my head to the right, I see a set of two bare windows that frame the trees outside the glass like a 3D painting. Below the windows is an oak chest from which blankets and scarves are protruding. Against the wall opposite the billowy curtains is an antique dresser, on top of which sits a jewelry box and a few picture frames. A tall mirror attached to the dresser takes up most of the wall, which is the color of lavender.

    The paragraph incorporates two objectives you have learned in this chapter: using an implied topic sentence and applying spatial order. Often in a descriptive essay, the two work together.

    The following are possible transitional words and phrases to include when using spatial order:

    Just to the left or just to the right Behind
    Between On the left or on the right
    Across from A little further down
    To the south, to the east, and so on A few yards away
    Turning left or turning right
    Exercise 5.13

    On a sheet of paper, write a paragraph using spatial order that describes your commute to work, school, or another location you visit often.

    Collaboration: Please share with a classmate and compare your answers.

    Exercise 5.14

    Look back at your outline from Exercise 5.9. Please share your formal sentence outline with a classmate and together evaluate whether you have organized your points chronologically, by order of importance, or spatially. Discuss if you have organized your paragraphs in the most appropriate and logical way.

    In the next chapter, you will build on this formal sentence outline to create a draft and develop your ideas further. Do not worry; you are not expected to have a completed paper at this point. You will be expanding on your sentences to form paragraphs and complete, well-developed ideas.

    key takeaways
    • The way you organize your body paragraphs ensures you and your readers stay focused on and draw connections to your thesis statement.
    • A strong organizational pattern allows you to articulate, analyze, and clarify your thoughts.
    • Planning the organizational structure for your essay before you begin to search for supporting evidence helps you conduct more effective and directed research.
    • Chronological order is most commonly used in expository writing. It is useful for explaining the history of your subject, for telling a story, or for explaining a process.
    • Order of importance is most appropriate in a persuasion paper as well as for essays in which you rank things, people, or events by their significance.
    • Spatial order describes things as they are arranged in space and is best for helping readers visualize something as you want them to see it; it creates a dominant impression.
    Supplemental Exercises

    On a separate sheet of paper, choose one of the examples of a proper thesis statement from this chapter (one that interests you) and form three supporting points for that statement. After you have formed your three points, write a topic sentence for each body paragraph. Make sure that your topic sentences can be backed up with examples and details.

    Group activity. Choose one of the topics from Self-Practice Exercise 5.4 and form a yes/no question about that topic. Then, take a survey of the people in your class to find out how they feel about the subject. Using the majority vote, ask those people to write on slips of paper the reasons for their opinion. Using the data you collect, form a thesis statement based on your classmates’ perspectives on the topic and their reasons.

    On a separate sheet of a paper, write an introduction for an essay based on the thesis statement from the group activity using the techniques for introductory paragraphs that you learned in this chapter.

    Start a journal in which you record “spoken” thesis statements. Start listening closely to the opinions expressed by your teachers, classmates, friends, and family members. Ask them to provide at least three reasons for their opinion and record them in the journal. Use this as material for future essays.

    Open a magazine and read a lengthy article. See if you can pinpoint the thesis statement as well as the topic sentence for each paragraph and its supporting details.

    Journal entry #5

    Write two to three paragraphs responding to the following.

    Think back to times when you had to write a paper and perhaps struggled to get started. What did you learn this week that you will apply in future assignments to get the ideas flowing?

    Reflect on all of the content you have learned so far. What did you find challenging but are now more confident with? What, if anything, still confuses you or you know you need to practice more? How have your study skills, time management, and overall writing improved over the past month?

    Remember as mentioned in the Assessment Descriptions in your syllabus:

    You will be expected to respond to the questions by reflecting on and discussing your experiences with the week’s material.

    When writing your journals, you should focus on freewriting—writing without (overly) considering formal writing structures—but remember that it will be read by the instructor, who needs to be able to understand your ideas.

    Your instructor will be able to see if you have completed this entry by the end of the week but will not read all of the journals until next week.


    5.4: Organizing Your Writing is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.

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