Top to Bottom or Bottoms Up: A Prelude to Drafting
Have you ever noticed how different your approach to a book is when you’ve seen the movie version first? And how reading it first creates expectations for the movie? The order of experience matters. It influences our perception of the piece—creative works, criticism, non fiction. Order influences our perception of its author and information. Essays are no different. Most essays you’ll be asked to write will be argumentative. Readers will expect to be informed, provoked, and swayed. Clarity is directly influenced by its organization. Successful, argument winning essays reflect the authors ability to manipulate our perception with their skillful organization.
The importance of order does not mean it must be written in order. That is what editing is for; “assembling” means re-organizing as necessary. My first sentence attempts usually turn out to be part of a conclusion instead of the beginning or middle. How can you tell? Conclusions encompass the overall argument, sum-up, and mirror the broadness of the introduction. Broad ideas do not belong in the center. Details that require previous knowledge are too early, and supportive evidence for information in an earlier paragraph are too late. So…how do you build an essay? Start with an interesting, or nagging thought formed while researching, and turn it into a sentence that allows you to argue, support, and convince an audience.There is, however, one piece that should absolutely be left for last: the introduction. My Oxford tutor explained that an intro needs to be composed last since “you don’t know what you’re writing about yet.” This may sound odd, but it’s true. During the research process, it is inevitable that your argument (thesis/claim) will evolve.
The initial claim will sharpen the deeper you dig into your research (the plot thickens as it should in any good story). Returning to research with a claim in mind will allow you to focus your database searches—a subject deserving multiple posts and will be addressed another day. After finding the required number of sources that best support your argument, make an outline highlighting the points you will make with each source. This is an excellent time to start importing the quotes with their page numbers for citation in whatever way works best for you. Outlines help show which ideas lead into the next. The first stage of assembly can be done right in the outline. It is highly likely that you will need—and want—to redraft your claim sentence in the midst of cultivating your outline, then proceed to the actual writing portion of construction.
Use the outline to form a topic and concluding sentence for each paragraph to transition into actual essay writing. My brilliant English 102 teacher (cited with her permission https://www.linkedin.com/in/brittany-peterson-72504490) explained that making each paragraph its own mini essay is the most productive way to prove an argument. The first sentence is the claim for that paragraph followed by several supporting sentences, including supportive quotes. The last few sentences conclusively states your point. The very last sentence transitions into your next paragraph’s claim. Outlines help clarify transitions and the purpose of each mini essay.
Every paragraph must make a necessary point crucial to your original thesis statement. The same English teacher taught me to ask myself two questions at each sentence: “how does this relate back to my claim?" and "Does this sentence help prove my claim?” If the answer is no to either, set it aside. You may also delete it right away, but I find editing and revising is more productive when I can refer to older versions. Plus, it simply feels safer to keep it somewhere, which helps with anxiety. Essentially, everything you write should validate actions such as you enthusiastically jumping up and down saying, “I am right, I am right, I am right!” If you keep that level of energy throughout, your readers will remain engaged and interested in the story you are telling.
There are a myriad of winning approaches to every argument. Within each approach, however, there is an order that will be the most convincing. Guide your argument by asking "how do I win?" With the right order, readers will have only one path to follow: the one you told them to. Think of it as a garden maze you must lead readers through. The end of the maze is their agreement that you have irrefutably proved your claim.
May nerd-dom abound!