ORGANIZATIONAL PATTERNS1 FOR YOUNG ARGUMENT WRITERS
Adapted from Gretchen Bernabei’s Kernel Essays
A.
B.
C.
D..
Overview
of
the issue
+
My Claim
Reason
#1
Reason
#2
Offer a
solution
Here's the
issue
First I
Thought
This
Then I
Learned
This
Now I
suggest
that we
Overview
of the
Issue
One side
thinks
Another
side
thinks
We need
to
Overvie
w of the
Issue +
Claim
Here's
what I
am
thinking
A
question
some
people
raise
My
answer
to that
question
I
recommend
that we
E. Make your own kernel essay structure! Draw it here:
1 These organizational structures
are not concerned with paragraphs as much as ideas or sections about the
argument a young writer is learning to compose. Help students view the sections as answers to questions a
reader might have about a topic and the writer’s claim or assertion about a topic. In this way these
organizational structures are generative while still providing structure and an organizational pattern for an
argument draft.