Organization

A weak organization leads to a confusing and hard to read paper. Likewise, a strong organization leads to an easy to follow and convincing paper. An organized assignment is easier to follow and communicates a sense of authority. A disorganized assignment looks amateur and communicates an absence of authority.

In this section, we focus on organization methods, outlines, reverse outlines, paragraphs, and transitions.

Organization methods

There is no single way to guide you in organizing every single piece of writing, though there are common organizational methods and guiding principles.

The most important consideration should be: have I placed each part—subsection/body paragraph/sentence—in the best possible order? If not, then move parts or eliminate them. If your purpose is to analyze the strengths of the Union in the Civil War, which of these two structure strategies would be more appropriate?

1. Going over the strengths of the Union chronologically through the war.
2. Picking the biggest strengths of the Union and analyzing how each strength impacted the entire war.

The second structure is superior because it’s focalized on the main point: the strengths of the Union in the Civil War, whereas the first structure is centered on the chronology of the war and happens to go over the strengths of the Union in the process.

Resources Related to Organization

• Writing at the University of Toronto (Jerry Plotnick, University College Writing Centre)
• The Department of English, University of Victoria: a few options of different organization methods. Most of the options work best with summary, argument, or analysis papers.
• University of Washington: specific organization methods. The eight methods analyzed are listed at the top of the page.

Genre also matters. Sometimes genre prepares or constricts a structure for us in various ways. For example, if your assignment is an argumentative essay you’ll probably have an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. For scientific papers, the IMRAD format is helpful (introduction, methods, results, analysis, and discussion).

Resources Related to Genre Specific Organization Methods

• Need help with lab reports?
• Need help with a scientific paper?
• Need help with a social science research paper??

Outlines

Outlines are a critical part to organizing a paper. And you can make outlines before, during, and after drafting a paper.

Outlines are generally created only for the author to organize their work. Therefore, the best advice we can give is create your outline how you want to. There is no dogmatic formula for a paper outline; use what you’re comfortable with, although, it’s imperative to consider the grand organization.

Resources Related to the Outlining Process

• The Writing Center, Harvard University: a step-by-step guide to the outlining process. Start with “The First Steps” and walk through your outline the same way they do with their example.
• Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL): the purpose of an outline.
• Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL): how to make an outline.

Example

The assignment for this paper was part of a class wide reenactment of the French revolution. This outline is an argument for the end of slavery in Saint Domingue (during the time of the French Revolution).

This is a suitable example because the paper is structured around its core claim (see thesis). Therefore, dividing into the two main audiences (revolutionaries and Christians) is wise, because it makes the structure straightforward.

This outline reveals a weakness in structure: the “Introduction to Christian arguments” section. It’s not that there is anything inherently wrong with this section, but it takes away from the symmetry of the two main arguments (to the revolutionaries and to the Christians). To fix this, an “introduction to the revolutionary arguments” section should’ve been added or the Christian introduction should’ve been removed (the more favorable option).

Overall, this is one example of a structured outline, a method that allows the writer to see the strengths and weaknesses of their organization.

Reverse outlining

Reverse outlining is a calculated method to check the overall organization of a finished(ish) piece of writing. The organization is critical to the effectiveness of a writing assignment.

You always want to consider options for more effective organization, and a reverse outline is a method for doing that. Our reverse outlining section and related links will help when revising the organization of a finished piece.

Paragraphs: Unity and structure

In high school, many students were taught that a paragraph is five sentences, no more and no less. This is misleading. For instance, what if there is no logical reason for the paragraph break on the fifth sentence? Then don’t break it there. Break where it’s logical.

Instead of thinking of paragraphs as groups of sentences, at the Rhetoric Center, we think of sentences as complete ideas. This means that compelling academic writing contains unifying paragraphs; these paragraphs can be distinguished from careless paragraphs because of their unifying topics.

Experienced writers avoid writing paragraphs with sentences unrelated to the unifying topic or idea.

However, your high school English teachers weren’t completely misguided; they suggested the five-sentence paragraph for a reason. It’s visually appealing to have paragraphs that aren’t too short or too long. This is why it’s standard for journalists to use short paragraphs; long ones can be daunting.

If your paragraphs are too short or too long, you should consider looking at your unifying ideas. Maybe your unifying idea isn’t capable of supporting a paragraph on its own? Or maybe the idea can be split into multiple closely related ideas, thereby giving you multiple paragraphs.

In addition to the unity of a paragraph, a strong writer takes notice of paragraph structures. There isn’t a recipe that works for every paragraph. Though, in the humanities, the three-part structure tends to work in many scenarios: topic sentence(s), supporting sentences, and conclusion/transition sentence(s).

The topic sentence introduces the crux of the paragraph—anything unrelated to the topic sentence doesn’t belong in the paragraph. The supporting sentences defend the claim made in the topic sentence. The conclusion sentence clarifies where the idea now stands and where it’s going next.

If you're still confused, we recommend watching this Smart English YouTube lecture.

Transitions

Have you ever been told that your paper doesn’t “flow?” Well, if your paper doesn’t “flow,” it probably needs distinct transitions. Having transitions ensures that the readers don’t get lost and that they can follow your progression of ideas.

Transitions are words, phrases, sentences, or ideas that connect your ideas or paragraphs.

For a comprehensive resource on transitions, check out The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Pay careful attention to the following sections: “Signs that you might need to work on your transitions,” “How transitions work,” and “Transitional expressions.”

It’s important to recognize that certain assignments allow for headings and subheadings to be used. Subheadings, in a way, are a form of transition on their own; they certainly lift a lot of the weights that transition sentences normally do. However, it’s still important to connect the ideas intellectually.

This project proposal for a geospatial security analysis of Calvin College effectively uses subheadings as transitions. The subheadings are more explicit than sentence-long transitions and they do the job of telling the reader when the content is changing to a new topic.

For help on how to make your ideas flow, check out this article from Writing at the University of Toronto (Margaret Procter, Writing Support, and Vikki Visvis, University College Writing Centre). The information on transitions is about three fourths of the way down the page under the heading “How do I make my ideas flow in a paragraph?”

However, if you’re in a rush, we’ve provided a brief summary of the article’s advice on transitions:

• Show intellectual connections (i.e., how are these two things related).
• Use deliberate repetition.
• Strategically use pronouns (see article for details).

Resources related to transitions

• Shmoop: an introduction to the necessity of transitions, what they accomplish, and even a few basic transition words.
• Northern Michigan University, Writing Center: different types of transitions and when to use them.
• Indiana University of Pennsylvania: using transitions to organize.
• The Guide to Grammar, Capital Community College: another resource regarding types of transitions.

Formatting

Think about the numerous ways that the format of a paper refers can highlight its organization. For example:

• Extra white space between sections tell your reader that there’s a break in the train of ideas.
• Headers and footers remind readers of longer papers about the section they’re in.
• Headings announce and describe new sections.
• Using the same or different fonts and font sizes for headings can keep subsections together or separate them.
• Page numbers show readers where they’re at.

For further direction please see our page on visual rhetoric.