A Sense of Doubt blog post #3028 - English Composition Instructional Tip: Organization, Arrangement, Logical Order, Flow, and Transitions
I have been doing tips of the day for my students while we do conferences and do not have class, and they are revising their projects for the final draft.
Thanks for tuning in.
Greetings Writers!
Welcome to the fourth consecutive instructional tip of the day. I am aiming to do this for at least a week. I have a week planned so far.
Also, this is a longer one, but tip three was shorter; I am trying to alternate between longer and shorter instruction.
Today's subject concerns Arrangement, Logical Order, and FLOW.
One achieves FLOW for the most part with transitions.
OUR STRUCTURE
In our English 102 course, we have two basic structures: whole project argument or project with argument section.
WHOLE PROJECT ARGUMENT
This structure may make the most sense to you and be the easiest to achieve because it will seem most familiar: just a longer English 101 essay.
In this structure the thesis appears early in the project. Unlike an English 101 the thesis need not be a single sentence or at the end of the introduction, but it needs to be delivered in the introduction.
Since most if not all arguments boil down to a call to action (solution) and reasons for the change (problems), it makes sense to write a problem-solution style thesis, and then structure based on that thesis, moving from description and details of the problems (reasons for change) and then arguing for the change (call to action/solution[s]).
Unlike English 101, writers of 102 projects rarely confine a single problem (reason for change) to one paragraph backed by a single piece of evidence. In English 102 projects, writers should think of SECTIONS of content that concern a single unit in the outline with multiple paragraphs and multiple sources shared as evidence. In this way, literally dividing the project into sections and labeling these sections can be very helpful to the reader. However, section labels do not serve as transitions by themselves.
PROJECT WITH ARGUMENT SECTION
This structure in which the argument appears later in the essay may be more difficult to compose successfully as the writer will have to justify all the content prior to the argument section in how it serves the argument to come as well as preview in some way the thesis, even if the official thesis appears later in the essay.
The same problems-solutions structure makes sense here, though if this argumentative stance fills the argument section, then previous parts of contextual information have to be clearly tied to the argument and justified for the reader.
COUNTER ARGUMENTS
In both descriptions of argument structures, the counter arguments were not explicitly mentioned as they are best delivered within each topic or argument part.
Thinking back to Toulmin structure of argument: if each section of the project follows a Toulmin pattern, then oppositional arguments and refutation of them will appear in these sections.
PLEASE NOTE
Though explaining the structure of the essay to the reader early on is appreciated for a long research project, beware of narrating your essay as if you are giving a tour. Description of all the parts makes sense in the first couple of pages, transitions linking one idea section to the next are needed, but all must be done describing and linking IDEAS not like driving instructions: "In the next paragraph, we will see..." is not a good form.
ARRANGE LOGICALLY
In most argument essays, writers choose to position the reasons before the call to action because readers will be more likely to accept the argument for change after being convinced of WHY the change must happen.
However, within these sections, one idea must be linked to the next with transitions and one follows the next logically.
Readers such as peers, tutors, instructors, and others may be very helpful in spotting when ideas do not follow one another, especially if asked to read for assessing the order of ideas.
MODES OF ORGANIZATION (from our textbooks)
There are modes of organization as shown in the image below that make obvious sense.
Examine the link for more on moving from thesis to outline to topics and their order:
12.2: Writing for Success- Outlining - LUMEN
Likewise, ancient Greek rhetoric has a system for constructing arguments built from the famous triangle.
Check out the following:
WITH VIDEOS - 12.1: Classical Essay Structure - LUMEN
CHECK YOUR WORK
Finally, in thinking about order and sections of paragraphs, check your work with these handy questions:
Revisiting Body Paragraphs - Write Here, Right Now
AND THE REST OF IT...
Lots of resources follow.
I placed the best and often simplest resources at the top of each list.
Writing well and improving one's writing requires study of writing constructions and how to improve one's writing one feature at a time, such as arrangement and logical order, then flow (transitions).
Have fun!!
ARRANGEMENT AND LOGICAL ORDER
ORDERING INFORMATION IN THE BODY OF THE ESSAY - SUNY Empire State Univ - Saratoga Springs
Organizing an Essay _ English Composition I_ Rhetorical Methods–Based_LUMEN-PDF Version
Organizing_logical-flow-in-writing_ppt_Cuyamaca_edu
Organizing_Ordering your Ideas-Advanced Writing Resource for ESL Students
Organizing_Writing Paragraghs - Academic Writing - Library at Bethlehem College & Seminary
ACHIEVING FLOW
Five Ways to Create FLOW in your writing
Walden University Writing Center
Beth Oyler - 2013
Flow in Scholarly Writing - PURDUE OWL
FLOW - UNC at Chapel Hill - PDF version
FLOW - UMASS.edu - PDF VERSION
The Four Levels of Flow in Writing: What it Means When Writing Flows - Grammar Flip
Julia Lowe - April 2, 2018
Making Your Writing Flow: How to add clarity to your sentences and paragraphs
The University of Arizona Global Campus
What Does “Flow” Mean & How to Achieve It in Your Writing: How to achieve flow in writing by learning to omit unnecessary elements
William Samayoa - The Writing Cooperative - Dec 18, 2020
TRANSITIONS
Writing Effective Transitions Between Paragraphs pt1 - Monmouth University
Writing Effective Transitions Between Paragraphs pt2 - Monmouth University
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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2306.03 - 10:10
- Days ago = 2892 days ago
- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.
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