The GED Language Arts, Writing Exam includes questions about organization: how ideas are arranged in a text. This article reviews key strategies and patterns writers use to effectively organize their ideas.
On the GED Language Arts, Writing Exam, questions about organization are designed to measure your ability to organize ideas effectively. You may be asked to identify the best sequence of sentences or paragraphs, the best place to move a sentence or paragraph, or the best sentence or paragraph to eliminate to improve a paragraph's unity or coherence.
This section reviews three aspects of organization:
- essay structure and organizational patterns
- effective paragraphs
- transitions
Essay Structure and Organizational Patterns
Most nonfiction texts have the basic underlying structure of main idea?→ support. They begin with a main idea (sometimes called the thesis or theme of the text) that controls the whole passage. It is this idea that the text will develop. The rest of the text then provides support for that idea in the form of examples, definitions, reasons, and so on. Most paragraphs function this way, too. In fact, you can think of a paragraph as a mini-essay.
On this basic level of main idea → support, everything in the passage or paragraph should support or develop that main idea. When sentences or paragraphs lose focus, when they stray from that controlling idea, the passage or paragraph loses its effectiveness.
Writers can use several different strategies for organizing their support. One of these strategies often serves as the overall organizing principle for the text while individual sections may use other techniques as well. For example, imagine an essay comparing and contrasting two film versions of Frankenstein. The support will be organized by comparison and contrast. But the writer may also use other organizational techniques within that comparison and contrast structure. For example, she may use order of importance when explaining what makes one version better than the other.
The four most common organizational patterns are:
- chronological order
- order of importance
- comparison and contrast
- cause and effect
To answer many of the questions about organization on the GED Language Arts, Writing Exam, you will need to be able to determine the writer's purpose and be able to recognize organizational patterns on both the essay and paragraph level. By identifying the organizational pattern, you can determine where to insert sentences or paragraphs and if any sentences or paragraphs are misplaced, such as a sentence that is out of chronological order.
Chronological Order
When writers use time as their main organization principle, it is called chronological order. They describe events in the order in which they did happen, will happen, or should happen. Much of what you read is organized in this way, including historical texts, instructions and procedures, and essays about personal experiences.
Passages organized by chronology typically use a lot of transitional words and phrases to help us follow the passage of time. The transitions help us see when things happened and in what order. They help us follow along when the passage shifts from one period of time to another. Transitional words and phrases keep events linked together in the proper order. (Transitions are covered in more detail.)
Here is a list of some of the most common chronological transitions:
The third paragraph of the Batman text uses this organizational pattern. The transitions are underlined:
Kane's Batman was a big success right from the start. The masked hero soon moved from comic books to its own newspaper strip, and in 1943, Batman episodes were aired on the radio. In 1966, live-action Batman shows hit the TV screen. The series was wildly popular, and the syndicated show still airs today on channels like the Cartoon Network.
Order of Importance
With this organizational pattern, ideas are arranged by rank instead of time. What's most important comes first or last, depending upon the writer's purpose.
Organizing ideas from most important to least important puts the most essential information first. Many writers do this when they are offering advice or when they want to be sure readers get the most important information right away. Newspaper articles, for example, generally use this structure. They begin with the most important information (the who, what, when, where, and why about the event) so readers don't have to read the whole article to get those key facts. Details and background information come later in the article.
When writers move from least to most important, they save their most important idea or piece of information for last. Writers often use this approach when they are presenting an argument. That's because this kind of structure is usually more convincing than the most-toleast organizational pattern. The more controversial the argument, the more important this structure. Many writers "save the best for last" because that's where "the best" often has the most impact.
Transitions are very important for this organizational pattern, too. Here's a list of the most common transitions writers use with the order of importance structure. Most of these work for both the most-to-least important and least-to-most important formats:
Comparison and Contrast
When you show how two or more things are similar, you are making a comparison. When you show how two or more things are different, you arecontrasting them. As an organizational technique, this pattern allows you to place two (or more) items side by side and see how they measure up against each other. How are they similar or different? And why does it matter? For example, a writer comparing and contrasting the 1931 and 1994 film versions of Frankenstein might aim to show that the 1994 version is far truer to the book because it portrays Victor Frankenstein as just as much of a monster as the creature he creates.
As with the other organizational patterns, one of the keys to a good comparison and contrast is strong transitions. Here are some words and phrases that show similarity:
The following words and phrases, on the other hand, show difference:
Cause and Effect
The fourth most common organizational pattern is cause and effect. A cause is a person or thing that makes something happen (creates an effect). An effect is an event or change created by an action (or cause). A passage about cause explains why something took place. You might ask, for example, "What caused the Cold War?" A passage about effect, on the other hand, explains what happened after something took place. What happened as a result of the Cold War?
Just as certain key words indicate whether you are comparing or contrasting, other key words indicate whether things are causes or effects. Here is a partial list of words and phrases that indicate cause and effect:
Effective Paragraphs
Sentences are the building blocks of paragraphs, and paragraphs are the building blocks of essays. Effective organization in an essay depends upon unity within those paragraphs.
In an essay, all paragraphs should work together to support one main idea. The same is true of a paragraph. A paragraph is, by definition, a series of sentences about one main idea. If there's more than one main idea, you should have more than one paragraph.
In an essay, the controlling idea is usually expressed in a thesis statement. On the paragraph level, this controlling idea is often expressed in a topic sentence. This topic sentence is commonly found at the beginning of the paragraph, but it can also be at the end. Less frequently, the topic sentence is found somewhere in the middle of the paragraph or is simply implied. In the first paragraph that follows, the topic sentence is at the beginning; in the second example, the topic sentence is at the end.
Many people are afraid of snakes, but most snakes aren't as dangerous as people think they are. There are more than 2,500 different species of snakes around the world. Only a small percentage of those species are poisonous, and only a few species have venom strong enough to kill a human being. Furthermore, snakes bite only 1,000–2,000 people in the United States each year, and only ten of those bites (that's less than 1%) result in death. Statistically, many other animals are far more dangerous than snakes. In fact, in this country, more people die from dog bites each year than from snake bites.
There are more than 2,500 different species of snakes around the world. Only a small percentage of those species are poisonous, and only a few species have venom strong enough to kill a human being. Furthermore, snakes bite only 1,000–2,000 people in the United States each year, and only ten of those bites (that's less than 1%) result in death. Statistically, many other animals are far more dangerous than snakes. In fact, in this country, more people die from dog bites each year than from snake bites. So although many people are afraid of snakes, most snakes aren't as dangerous as people think they are.
In addition to a logical order and controlling idea, strong paragraphs also need focus. Is there a piece of the passage that seems to digress? Would removing a sentence or paragraph improve the focus of the text? Would adding another sentence make it clear how a certain sentence relates to the main idea of the passage?
For example, notice how the following paragraph loses focus:
(1) Electronic mail (e-mail) is very convenient, but should not be used for every business occasion and must be carefully managed. (2) E-mail messages should be concise and limited to one topic. (3) The re: line should clearly state what the e-mail is about, and the first sentence or two of the e-mail should clearly convey the main point of the message. (4) It is important to be concise in business. (5) It is also important to be very polite. (6) Say what you need to say as succinctly as possible. (7) When complex issues need to be addressed, phone calls are still best.
Sentences 4, 5, and 6, while true, do not fit the focus of this paragraph about e-mail. The paragraph would be much stronger if these sentences were omitted.
Transitions
Transitions are the words and phrases used to move from one idea to the next. They help words flow smoothly and show readers how ideas relate to one another. Transitional words and phrases connect ideas within sentences and between sentences, within paragraphs and between paragraphs. They are essential to good writing. Notice, for example, the difference between the following two paragraphs. In the first version, the transitions have been omitted. In the second version, they are underlined.
Why do we punish those who commit crimes? There are two main theories of punishment: retribution and deterrence. Retribution argues that people who commit crimes deserve to be punished and that the punishment should fit the crime. It is an "eye for an eye" philosophy. Deterrence theory posits that punishing offenders will help prevent future crimes.
Why do we punish those who commit crimes? There are two main theories of punishment: retribution and deterrence. The first, retribution, argues that people who commit crimes deserve to be punished and that the punishment should fit the crime. In other words, it is an "eye for an eye" philosophy. Deterrence theory, on the other hand, posits that punishing offenders will help prevent future crimes.
With the appropriate transitions, the second paragraph reads much more smoothly and makes its ideas clearer.
Certain transitions work best for specific functions. For example, for example is a great transition to use when introducing a specific example. Here's a brief list of some of the most common transitional words and phrases:
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