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How a paper is organized is vital to how well it is perceived by who is reading it. In a student's case, that is most likely the person grading the assignment.
Before beginning to write the draft, while writing it, and while revising, there are several layers of organization and structure to consider. The following breaks down several of those layers.
You have piles of research and stacks of notes, what is the next step?
Compiling notes and resources is only the first step--organizing all of your research and notes and turning it into topics and sub-topics that build on your research question is your next step. And it is one that should not be skipped; poorly organized research usually leads to a poorly written paper.
There are several method to organizing research. Find one that works for you and make sure to take time for organization.
The overall organization of a paper generally refers to how the topics are put together. It is important that they all work together in a logical and cohesive way. You don’t want your paper to jump around from idea to idea--each idea needs to relate to the previous one.
For example, if you are writing about how education in Northern Alabama has evolved since the 1800s, the topics would most likely be chronologically ordered. But you will not always work chronologically--if you are writing about property taxation and educational quality in Alabama, you would probably start with the major idea/point and build your argument cohesively with related topics.
Additionally, transitions are always needed between sentences and paragraphs. Using transitions is greatly helpful in making your paper flow.
An often underutilized, but great, tool that helps with organization is reverse outlining. Reverse outlining is simply reading your text and creating an outline based solely on what you have written, usually through sections, topics, and sentences.
Why do this? Creating a reverse outline breaks down your paper into how you have written it, so that you can compare it to your original outline and plans for the paper. This is especially helpful for longer papers. After completing the reverse outline, ask yourself some questions:
Based on your outline and the answers to your questions, you now have areas to look at for revisions--some of which you may not have considered before.
A paper is a multi-layered project. If an outline was created in the pre-writing phase, then there are probably main topics and subtopics that all build on the research question. Each main idea’s section within the paper also needs to be thoughtfully compiled--every subtopic within needs to flow together to back up the argument or research question. If the paper jumps around from idea to idea without cohesion, oftentimes the importance of the research is lost.
The basics of a paragraph are taught all through grade school, high school, and college English composition classes, but how many students really think about the process of structuring a paragraph when writing? This is still a vital building block to the process of writing a paper.
Although it may sound elementary, every paragraph needs a great structure. Start with a topic sentence that explains to the reader the main idea of that paragraph, then add several supporting sentences that build on that main idea, and finally use a transition sentence that wraps up that paragraph and leads into the next one.
During the revision process, take time to read each paragraph individually and check for the components.
Finally, always refer back to the overall structure of the paper and check that this paragraph makes sense where it is. Don’t be afraid to move paragraphs around to stay true to the main ideas of the paper. Nothing is final until the paper is submitted.
Overall, spending time reviewing the organization and structures within your paper is usually time well spent. Making the time to organize your research, plan your paper, and make revisions will help you reach your writing goals. And again, the Writing Center is a valuable resource for this stage in your writing. A second set of eyes reviewing your paper with you is always helpful.
