Post 10: about how you have typically organized your academic documents, especially Doc2 that you just completed. Look back at your document for details about how you put it together. Suggest an alternative arrangement.

Who is on First.

This is not about the famous Abbot and Costello skit. No, this is about organizing your writing. Second only to the thesis statement, the way you organize your writhing is the most important element of your essay. If your paper wasn't organized, it would be difficult to read and your message would be lost.

After you decide on what to write about, you will need to figure out how you will organize the information.  There is a lot of things to consider.  Some types of writing work best with specific types of organizational methods.  If you were to write a police report, you would not want to use a narration style as if it were a novel  

Some examples of the different types or ways to organize your writing are:

    Narration: telling a story

    Description: relating what you see, hear, taste, feel, and smell

    Process: describing a sequence of steps necessary to a process

    Definition: illustrating the meaning of certain words or ideas

    Division and Classification: grouping ideas, objects, or events into categories

    Compare and Contrast: finding similarities and/or differences between topics

    Analogy: making a comparison between two topics that initially seem unrelated

    Cause and Effect: explaining why something happened, or the influence of one event upon another

    Logical explain the first step before they can understand the next.

    Chronological Order, First, second, next, last.

These are not the only way. Use whatever way works best for your specific writing.

A way to distinguish which way the author used is by looking for key words or "Linking Words".  An example would be for an essay written in chronological order the linking words could be first, next, and then, and so on.

Even thought I did not use the standard connection words, my Doc 2 is written with the "Process" style in mind. It started with training and then testing and that lead into what to expect on that first job. Next I discussed further education by earning a 2 or 4 year degree and its benefits. 

I could have used a Chronological style but the two are very close in style. 

Until We Talk Again.