ORGANIZATIONAL METHODS:

• Not every subject you may be called upon to write about can be satisfactorily developed within the limited scope of the single paragraph.
  • For example, a single paragraph arguing the prohibition of handguns in the U.S. would probably not produce enough proof to persuade most audiences to agree.
     
• This lesson is the first in a sequence of eight designed to help you arrange individual paragraphs -- themselves unified, coherent, and well-developed -- into multi-paragraph papers which satisfy the same criteria.
   
• Organizing such a paper is a logical and systematic exercise, or at least it should be. A well written paper begins by attracting the reader and by arousing interest in the subject matter. Lesson 34 will suggest some techniques for "hooking" your reader by creating interesting introductory paragraphs.
   
• That is not enough, however. Once you have the reader's attention, you must deliver the merchandise. Put in another way, there is not much point in arousing the reader's curiosity unless you are prepared to satisfy that curiosity. Every point established in the introduction should have a corresponding paragraph in the body of the essay.
   
• If the reader can follow your explanations and can understand the scheme of reasoning which underlies your arguments, you are likely to both communicate the desired information and to persuade that reader to agree with you.
   
• Since organization is basically a matter of being logical, it is not surprising that most expository and persuasive papers are arranged in a manner which corresponds to one of the two basic patterns in which human beings reason:  These basic patterns are called INDUCTION and DEDUCTION.

© 2010

Luzerne County Community College makes this Web site available to members of the community
for educational purposes, but it does not necessarily endorse the items published here.