How to Organize an Essay

Laying the Groundwork

Determine the type of essay you're writing. In general, essays have the same basic components: an introduction that sets the stage for your essay, body paragraphs that discuss your ideas and arguments, and a conclusion that wraps everything up. However, depending on the type of essay you're writing, you may need to choose different organizational schemes. For example, a high-school AP essay should have a very clear structure, with your introduction and thesis statement first, 3-4 body paragraphs that further your argument, and a conclusion that ties everything together. On the other hand, a creative nonfiction essay might wait to present the thesis till the very end of the essay and build up to it. A compare-and-contrast essay can be organized so that you compare two things in a single paragraph and then have a contrasting paragraph, or you can organize it so that you compare and contrast a single thing in the same paragraph. You can also choose to organize your essay chronologically, starting at the beginning of the work or historical period you're discussing and going through to the end. This can be helpful for essays where chronology is important to your argument (like a history paper or lab report), or if you're telling a story in your essay. Persuasive essays can have several different organizational structures: The “support” structure begins with your thesis laid out clearly in the beginning and supports it through the rest of the essay. The “discovery” structure builds to the thesis by moving through points of discussion until the thesis seems the inevitable, correct view. The “exploratory” structure looks at the pros and cons of your chosen topic. It presents the various sides and usually concludes with your thesis.

Read your assignment carefully. If you've been given an assignment or prompt, read it carefully. It's crucial to understand what your instructor is asking for before you organize and write your essay. If you haven't been given an assignment, you can always run ideas by your instructor or advisor to see if they're on track. Ask questions about anything you don't understand. It's much better to ask questions before you put hours of work into your essay than it is to have to start over because you didn't clarify something. As long as you're polite, almost all instructors will be happy to answer your questions.

Determine your writing task. How you organize your essay will also depend on what your writing task is. This is usually in the assignment or prompt. Look for keywords like “describe,” “analyze,” “discuss,” or “compare.” These will tell you what your writing “job” is -- what the essay needs to accomplish.

Think about your audience. If you're in school, deciding on your audience could be fairly easy: it's probably your instructor. However, it's still important to consider to whom your writing is addressed. This is doubly important when you don't have an audience specified by someone else. For example, are you writing an opinion essay for your school newspaper? Your fellow students are probably your audience in this case. However, if you're writing an opinion essay for the local newspaper, your audience could be people who live in your town, people who agree with you, people who don't agree with you, people who are affected by your topic, or any other group you want to focus on.

Start early. The last thing you want to do is wait to start organizing your essay until the last minute. The earlier you can get a handle on your essay's organization, the easier it will be for you to write the essay. Give yourself plenty of time for the multiple stages of essay planning. Give yourself at least five days to write your essay. That way you will have plenty of time to research, brainstorm, and make an outline.

Getting the Basics Down

Write a thesis statement. Make this a unique observation, a powerful argument, an interpretation of a particular work or event, or another relevant statement that is not simply stating the obvious or summarizing a larger work. A thesis statement acts as the “road map” for your paper. It tells your audience what to expect from the rest of your essay. A good thesis statement is usually disputable, meaning someone might challenge or oppose your idea. While that can sound scary, it's crucial to have a disputable thesis, because otherwise you're probably arguing something that's so obvious it's not worth spending time on. Include the most salient points within your thesis statement. For example, your thesis may be about the similarity between two literary works. Describe the similarities in general terms within your thesis statement. Consider the “So what?” question. A good thesis will explain why your idea or argument is important. Ask yourself: if a friend asked you “So what?” about your thesis, would you have an answer? The “3-prong thesis” is common in high school essays, but is often frowned upon in college and advanced writing. Don't feel like you have to restrict yourself to this limited form. Revise your thesis statement. If in the course of writing your essay you discover important points that were not touched upon in your thesis, edit your thesis.

Do research, if necessary. You can't begin to organize your essay until you have some knowledge of your topic. If your argument or analysis requires outside research, make sure you do it before you start organizing. If you have a librarian available, don't be afraid to consult with him or her! Librarians are trained in helping you identify credible sources for research and can get you started in the right direction.

Brainstorm your ideas. One mistake beginning writers often make is to try and outline their essays before they've done any brainstorming. This can leave you frustrated because you don't yet know what you want to say. Trying a few brainstorming techniques can generate enough material for you to work with. Try freewriting. With freewriting, you don't edit or stop yourself. You just write (say, for 15 minutes at a time) about anything that comes into your head about your topic. Try a mind map. Start by writing down your central topic or idea, and then draw a box around it. Write down other ideas and connect them to see how they relate. Try cubing. With cubing, you consider your chosen topic from 6 different perspectives: 1) Describe it, 2) Compare it, 3) Associate it, 4) Analyze it, 5) Apply it, 6) Argue for and against it.

Revisit your thesis. Once you've done your research and brainstorming, you may find that you have a new perspective that informs your argument. Go back and change your thesis accordingly. If your original thesis was very broad, you can also use this chance to narrow it down. For example, a thesis about “slavery and the Civil War” is way too big to manage, even for a doctoral dissertation. Focus on more specific terms, which will help you when you start you organize your outline.

Organizing the Essay

Create an outline of the points to include in your essay. Use your thesis statement to determine the trajectory of your outline. For example, if you will compare and contrast two different topics, outline the similarities and the differences. Determine the order in which you will discuss the points. If you're planning to discuss 3 challenges of a particular management strategy, you might capture your reader's attention by discussing them in the order of most problematic to least. Or you might choose to build the intensity of your essay by starting with the smallest problem first.

Avoid letting your sources drive your organization. Don't feel like you have to copy the structure of the source you're drawing from or discussing. For example, a very common mistake in beginning essays written about literature is to reiterate the plot point-by-point, building your argument along with it. Instead, focus on the most important idea of each paragraph. Even if you have to present your evidence in a different order than it appears in your source, your paragraph will have a better flow. For example, a solid paragraph about Hamlet's insanity could draw from several different scenes in which he appears to act insane. Even though these scenes don't all cluster together in the original play, discussing them together will make a lot more sense than trying to discuss the whole play from start to finish.

Write topic sentences for each paragraph. A clear topic sentence will assist with essay organization. Devote each paragraph to discussing only the point of its topic sentence. Discussing tangential information will create a disorganized essay. Ensure that your topic sentence is directly related to your main argument. Avoid statements that may be on the general topic, but not directly relevant to your thesis. Make sure that your topic sentence offers a “preview” of your paragraph's argument or discussion. Many beginning writers forget to use the first sentence this way, and end up with sentences that don't give a clear direction for the paragraph. For example, compare these two first sentences: “Thomas Jefferson was born in 1743” and “Thomas Jefferson, who was born in 1743, became one of the most important people in America by the end of the 18th century.” The first sentence doesn't give a good direction for the paragraph. It states a fact but leaves the reader clueless about the fact's relevance. The second sentence contextualizes the fact and lets the reader know what the rest of the paragraph will discuss.

Use transitional words and sentences. Create coherence for your essay by using transitional words that connect each paragraph to the one before it. Beginning paragraphs with words such as "likewise" and "in contrast" will allow your reader to follow your train of thought. Transitions help underline your essay's overall organizational logic. For example, beginning a paragraph with something like “Despite the many points in its favor, Mystic Pizza also has several elements that keep it from being the best pizza in town” allows your reader to understand how this paragraph connects to what has come before. Transitions can also be used inside paragraphs. They can help connect the ideas within a paragraph smoothly so your reader can follow them. If you're having a lot of trouble connecting your paragraphs, your organization may be off. Try the revision strategies elsewhere in this article to determine whether your paragraphs are in the best order. The Writing Center at the University of Wisconsin - Madison has a handy list of transitional words and phrases, along with the type of transition they indicate.

Craft an effective conclusion. Include a restatement of your thesis using other words and summarize your essay's main points. To create a captivating conclusion, offer insights about the implications of your argument or findings for further thought or investigation. You can try returning to your original idea or theme and adding another layer of sophistication to it. Your conclusion can show how necessary your essay is to understanding something about the topic that readers would not have been prepared to understand before. For some types of essays, a call to action or appeal to emotions can be quite helpful in a conclusion. Persuasive essays often use this technique. Avoid hackneyed phrases like “In sum” or “In conclusion.” They come across as stiff and cliched on paper.

Revising the Plan

Reverse-outline the essay. It's very common, and completely okay, for your argument to evolve as you write it. This allows your argument to achieve depth and richness. However, it can also mean that your essay ends up feeling disorganized. Reverse-outlining your essay once you've finished drafting it will help you determine what the argument looks like now, and what it needs to look like. You can reverse-outline on the computer or on a printed draft, whichever you find easier. As you read through your essay, summarize the main idea (or ideas) of each paragraph in a few key words. You can write these on a separate sheet, on your printed draft, or as a comment in a word processing document. Look at your key words. Do the ideas progress in a logical fashion? Or does your argument jump around? If you're having trouble summarizing the main idea of each paragraph, it's a good sign that your paragraphs have too much going on. Try splitting your paragraphs up.

Cut your essay up. If you're having trouble organizing your paragraphs, print out your essay and cut up your essay by paragraphs. Try physically putting the paragraphs in a different order. Do things make better sense in a different structure? You may also find with this technique that your topic sentences and transitions aren't as strong as they could be. Ideally, your paragraphs should have only one way they could be organized for maximum effectiveness. If you can put your paragraphs in any order and the essay still kind of makes sense, you may not be building your argument effectively.

Shuffle things around. Don't commit yourself to your original outline. You may find after reverse-outlining that some paragraphs would make better sense elsewhere in your essay. Move things around, making changes to topic sentences and transitions where necessary. For example, you might find that placing your least important argument at the beginning drains your essay of vitality. Experiment with the order of the sentences and paragraphs for heightened effect.

Cut where necessary. It can be super painful, but sometimes, that beautiful paragraph you worked so hard on just doesn't belong in your newly organized essay. Don't get so married to your ideas that you can't cut what needs to be cut for logic, flow, and argument.

Read the essay out loud to catch inconsistencies or choppiness. You may find that your essay abruptly changes direction or some of your paragraphs contain unnecessary sentences or information. Use a highlighter or pencil to mark places that don't sound right, and then go back to correct them.