Organizing An Essay
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Organization
The process of shaping rhetorical tools and analytical ideas into a clear, thoughtful essay
The Parts of an Essay
Introduction: The introduction offers the audience an overview of your topic. With analytical writing, you want to
insure that your introduction supports an argumentative claim that you will discuss through the course of your
essay. One of the primary resources of your introduction is a thesis statement.
Thesis: A statement that offers a concise, insightful, and focused rhetorical stance on your topic. A thesis
statement should discuss the main argument(s) you decide to discuss. With a direct thesis, you offer your
audience clarity and the ability to understand your argument’s direction. For example, consider the following
statement:

Cell phones can make people behave rudely.
This statement lacks an insightful argument. Instead, it reads like a commonly held opinion. Consider the
following, more focused, statement:

Cell phone calls crowd out time for the most important dialogue in life—the one in our own heads.
This thesis statement expands upon the previous idea—cell phones can cause problems with human behavior.
However, unlike the previous statement, this one suggests a specific problem that stems from cell phone
usage. (See Subject to Thesis handout)
Body Paragraphs: Body paragraphs should support the claim(s) made in the thesis. Each paragraph begins
with a strong topic sentence that defends the main argument. After this sentence, you might use a number of
methods to support your claim(s): analysis of a text, statistical data, description, narrative, or historical
information. The method(s) you choose will be based on your topic and/or field of study.
Conclusion: The concluding portion of your essay should not summarize your introduction. Instead, you might
conclude with thoughts on further study that connects with your topic or discussion of your topic’s relevance for
future generations or cultures. Again, this largely depends on your topic.
Outlines
Outlines help with the process of organization. You can choose several different formats, including
Sentence Outline: In this format, you construct the paragraphs of your essay with sentences you might use in
the essay.
Idea Outline: In this format, you list the main ideas and supporting ideas for each paragraph.
Mapping and Webbing: Organizing your ideas in a map or web is a visual form of outlining. You can connect
like terms and ideas, connect these ideas within paragraphs, and use this pattern to organize the first draft of
your essay.
Flow Charts: Flow charts are another visual way to organize your ideas, and usually move from the top to
bottom of a page. Start the chart with your main idea and connect to supporting and sub-supporting ideas. You
can easily turn a flow chart into an outline if you use the main ideas as headings and the supporting ideas as
subheadings until an outline takes shape.
Last Edited 12/20/2010
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Information in this handout was adapted from John Mauk and John Metz, The Composition of Everyday Life: A Guide to Writing (United States:
Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2010).