How To Organize My Essay: Basic Advice For Students
No matter whether you are working on your first or your tenth essay, you should spend some time organizing your paper and clarifying your ideas. Learning how to the improve organization of your assignment is a useful skill, so you should to come up with clear ideas, prepare an outline, and craft each sentence. You should also pay attention to a thesis statement which is an essential part of your paper. The following basic advice will help you properly organize your writing:
- Understand your assignment.
- Choose an appropriate organizational scheme.
- Write your thesis statement first.
- Create a detailed outline.
- Compose topic sentences and effective transitions.
You should clearly understand your writing task in order to organize your thoughts. Notice the words like “describe,” “compare,” “explain,” “contrast,” and “analyze.” They will give you a clue what your task is about. Do not hesitate to ask your instructor if you do not understand something.
Although every essay has the same organizational structure, each type of paper has its recommended organizational scheme. For example, a compare and contrast document can have a single paragraph that compares two subjects following a contrasting paragraph, or it is possible to compare and contrast a single subject in the same paragraph.
Many instructors advice to start your writing process with composing a working thesis statement. This sentence will be your “road map” that helps you organize your essay. It tells your readers what your paper is about and what issue you will address in the following paragraphs. Make sure that you explain why writing about this issue is important.
Creating a detailed outline helps you decide what ideas to write about in your paper and determine the order in which you will provide these points. For example, consider discussing your ideas in the order of least to most problematic. Remember that each paragraph should present a single idea supported by evidence.
A topic sentence should provide a preview of your argument in the following paragraph. Avoid using facts and well-known statements as topic sentences. Instead, they should give a clear direction for the entire paragraph. Effective transitions will help you underline the organizational logic of your writing. Use transitional words and phrases according to the type of transition they indicate.
The basic advice provided above will help you organize your essay. However, you should remember to revise the paper after the final draft is ready. Check whether things work out better in a different order, cut unnecessary details, and correct inconsistencies if any.