Lesson 12: Revising Tips, continued...again

Alright class, here are more tips to keep in mind as you work on revising your writing. After looking over the content of your paper, the next thing you need to worry about is organization.

Having good organization is important because no matter how good your content is, if you don't have it organized in an effective way, people won't understand it as well. A traditional essay should have an introduction paragraph, a few body paragraphs, then a conclusion paragraph. As I will talk about during another class, this format, though the norm, is not required or the most effective at times. But we'll talk about that later.

Now, within the introduction paragraph, you should start out with an attention grabber, or "hook," then give enough background information for the reader to understand your topic. End with your thesis, which will most likely be the last sentence of the introduction. For your body paragraph, you'll have a topic sentence, a source (either a quote, paraphrase, or summary), your commentary on that source, repeated until you have sufficiently proven your point. Then you will end with a concluding sentence. For your conclusion paragraph, you will recap your paper, restate your thesis, and then generally leave the reader with something to think about, some action you want them to take, depending on the type of paper you're writing.

Now, these rules, as previously mentioned, aren't set in stone. But it's a good format to start off with. When you write a first draft, you don't have to worry too much about your organization if you don't want to. It is often easier to get your ideas onto paper (or the computer screen) if you just focus on content. Then make sure that your sentences and paragraphs are organized in a way that will add to, not take away from, your content.

Just like how you have to organize your time well to get the most of it, you have to organize your paper well to get the most out of every word. Well, work on this portion of your revision of your paper, and next time we'll discuss some more revising tips.