The order in which you make your
points is very significant. A useful way of thinking about the structure of
your essay is to see it as a set of directions to the reader. Imagine that
you are giving instructions to someone on how to get from their house to yours.
If you give them the right instructions ('turn left at the chip shop, carry
on past the supermarket then turn right after the pub') but in the wrong order
('turn right after the pub, left at the chip shop then past the supermarket')
the person would not arrive at the right destination. It is like that with
the essay. You might be making very perceptive observations about the text(s),
but if they are not organised in a meaningful way, the reader is less able
to follow your train of thought and the overall persuasiveness of what you
are saying in the essay is reduced. The reader must be able to follow your
ideas and see how they develop as the essay progresses. There must be some
logical structure to the way in which it proceeds, if it is to be effective.
Organise your work into paragraphs.
A paragraph should deal with one main idea, or focus on one particular theme.
Individual observations and points which you think are related to one another
should be grouped together within paragraphs. A good way of checking how effectively
your essay is organised is to try to summarise the main ideas contained in
each paragraph and then to see how logical the overall shape or 'scheme' of
the essay appears to be. Does the essay 'flow' or is it disjointed? Look at
the examples below to see how other students have structured their work, and
which ones are more and less effective.
Use 'signposting' words and phrases,
such as 'Similarly…', 'However…', 'In contrast to…', to indicate
how a particular paragraph relates to the previous one. (For example, it might
develop an idea further, or present an alternative point of view on the subject,
or move on to a different subject.)
