ORGANIZING YOUR NOTES

If you have read thoughtfully, taken careful (and, again, thoughtful) notes on your reading, and then (yet again) thought about these notes, you are well on the way to writing a good paper. You have, in fact, already written some of it in your notes. By now you should clearly have in mind the thesis you intend to argue. But you still have to organize the material, and, doubtless, even as you set about organizing it, you will find points that will require you to do some additional research and much additional thinking.

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Divide your notes into clusters, each devoted to one theme or point (e.g., one cluster on the extent of use of steroids, another on evidence that steroids are harmful, yet another on arguments that even if harmful they should be permitted). If your notes are in a computer file, rearrange them into appropriate clusters. If you use index cards, simply sort them into packets. If you take notes in a notebook, either mark each note with a number or name indicating the cluster to which it belongs, or cut the notes apart and arrange them as you would cards. Put aside all notes that — however interesting — you now see are irrelevant to your paper.

Next, arrange the clusters or packets into a tentative sequence. In effect, you are preparing a working outline. At its simplest, say, you will give three arguments on behalf of X and then three counterarguments. (Or you might decide that it’s better to alternate material from the two sets of three clusters each, following each argument with an objection. At this stage, you can’t be sure of the organization you will finally use, but you can make a tentative decision.)

THE FIRST DRAFT

Draft the essay, without worrying much about an elegant opening paragraph. Just write some sort of adequate opening that states the topic and your thesis. When you revise the whole later, you can put some effort into developing an effective opening. (Most experienced writers find that the opening paragraph in the final version is almost the last thing they write.)

If your notes are on cards or notebook paper, carefully copy into the draft all quotations that you plan to use. If your notes are in a computer, you may simply cut and paste them from one file to another. Do keep in mind, however, that rewriting or retyping quotations will make you think carefully about them and may result in a more focused and thoughtful paper. (In the next section of this chapter we will talk briefly about leading into quotations and about the form of quotations.) Be sure to include citations in your drafts so that if you must check a reference later it will be easy to do so.

LATER DRAFTS

Give the draft, and yourself, a rest — perhaps for a day or two — and then go back to it. Read it over, make necessary revisions, and then outline it. That is, on a sheet of paper chart the organization and development, perhaps by jotting down a sentence summarizing each paragraph or each group of closely related paragraphs. Your outline or map may now show you that the paper obviously suffers from poor organization. For instance, it may reveal that you neglected to respond to one argument or that you needlessly treated one point in two places. It may also help you to see that if you gave three arguments and then three counterarguments, you probably should instead have followed each argument with its rebuttal. However, if you alternated arguments and objections, it may now seem better to use two main groups — all the arguments and then all the criticisms.

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No one formula is always right. Much will depend on the complexity of the material. If the arguments are highly complex, it is better to respond to them one by one than to expect a reader to hold three complex arguments in mind before you get around to responding. If, however, the arguments can be stated briefly and clearly, it is effective to state all three and then to go on to the responses. If you write on a computer, you will find it easy, even fun, to move passages of text around. Even so, you will probably want to print out a hard copy from time to time to review the structure of your paper. Allow enough time to produce several drafts.

A FEW MORE WORDS ABOUT ORGANIZATION

There is a difference between

You should write papers of the second sort, but (there is always a “but”) take care not to belabor the obvious. Inexperienced writers sometimes either hide the organization so thoroughly that a reader cannot find it or they so ploddingly lay out the structure (“Eighth, I will show . . .”) that the reader becomes impatient. Yet it is better to be overly explicit than to be obscure.

The ideal, of course, is the middle route. Make the overall strategy of your organization evident by occasional explicit signs at the beginning of a paragraph (“We have seen . . . ,” “It is time to consider the objections . . . ,” “By far the most important . . .”); elsewhere make certain that the implicit structure is evident to the reader. When rereading your draft, if you try to imagine that you are one of your classmates, you will probably be able to sense exactly where explicit signs are needed and where they are not needed. Better still, exchange drafts with a classmate in order to exchange (tactful) advice.

Another strategy for organizing an essay is to determine early on whether your approach uses classification or division. These two terms refer to the development of essays and to the function of individual paragraphs, so they may be used profitably together. Classification normally suggests surveying many items or aspects of an issue. You might be examining the various roles played by celebrities in international relations, or looking at many types of GMOs, or analyzing a range of characters in a novel. Classification suggests a collection of numerous things within the purview of your thesis. Division, in contrast, suggests looking at one thing very closely, and dividing it into parts — perhaps as a key example of your broader thesis. If you are using division, you might be examining the role of one celebrity in international relations (e.g., Bono), or looking at one particular GMO, or analyzing the role of one character within a novel. We can illustrate the difference in a hypothetical essay about the dangers of steroid use. If you’re using classification, you might be looking at many different types of drugs and their uses in various sports by various athletes. You might be further pointing out the many effects of these substances and the controversies that surround each to support an overall thesis about the issue. If you’re using division, you might be emphasizing a key drug, a key athlete, or a key case study to understand thoroughly its specific effects as representative of the whole.

Classification may be thought of as utilizing many parts to understand a whole. Division may be thought of as using a whole to understand many parts.

CHOOSING A TENTATIVE TITLE

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By now a couple of tentative titles for your essay should have crossed your mind. If possible, choose a title that is both interesting and informative. Consider these three titles:

Are Steroids Harmful?

The Fuss over Steroids

Steroids: A Dangerous Game

“Are Steroids Harmful?” is faintly interesting and lets the reader know the gist of the subject, but it gives no clue about the writer’s thesis, the writer’s contention or argument. “The Fuss over Steroids” is somewhat better, for it gives information about the writer’s position. “Steroids: A Dangerous Game” is still better; it announces the subject (“steroids”) and the thesis (“dangerous”), and it also displays a touch of wit because “game” glances at the world of athletics.

Don’t try too hard, however; better a simple, direct, informative title than a strained, puzzling, or overly cute one. And remember to make sure that everything in your essay is relevant to your title. In fact, your title should help you to organize the essay and to delete irrelevant material.

THE FINAL DRAFT

When at last you have a draft that is for the most part satisfactory, check to make sure that transitions from sentence to sentence and from paragraph to paragraph are clear (“Further evidence,” “In contrast,” “A weakness, however, is apparent”), and then worry about your opening and closing paragraphs. Your opening paragraph should be clear, interesting, and focused; if neither the title nor the first paragraph announces your thesis, the second paragraph probably should do so.

The final paragraph need not say, “In conclusion, I have shown that. . . .” It should effectively end the essay, but it need not summarize your conclusions. We have already offered a few words about final paragraphs (Planning, Drafting, and Revising an Argument), but the best way to learn how to write such paragraphs is to study the endings of some of the essays in this book and to adopt the strategies that appeal to you.

Be sure that all indebtedness is properly acknowledged. We have talked about plagiarism; now we will turn to the business of introducing quotations effectively.