Logical Organizational Strategies for Essay Writing Help

Organizational Strategies for Essays

This lesson describes four more organizational strategies for essays: analysis/classification, order of importance, comparison and contrast, and problem → solution.

In the previous lesson, you learned ways to organize ideas according to time and space. Now, you'll examine four additional principles of organization:

analysis/classification
order of importance
comparison and contrast
problem → solution

Analysis/Classification

Some essays are best organized by arranging ideas, items, or events by their characteristics or functions. The following assignment is broad enough to describe many different strategies.

Plants and animals protect themselves in many different ways. Describe the various strategies organisms have developed for protection.

It makes sense to group similar strategies together and organize your essay by type (classification). A formal outline to address the assignment might look like this:

Appearance
1. camouflage
  1. moths
  2. flounder
  3. walking stick
2. warning colors
  1. monarch butterfly
  2. coral snake
  3. South American poisonous frog
3. mimicry
  1. king snake resembling coral snake
  2. swallowtail butterfly larva resembling snake
  3. snowberry fly resembling jumping spider
Chemicals
1. smoke
  1. squid
  2. octopus
2. smells
  1. skunks
  2. others?
3. poisons
  1. spiders
  2. snakes
  3. bombardier beetles
Armor
1. spikes, thorns
  1. roses and thistles
  2. sea urchins
  3. porcupines
2. shells, hard coverings
  1. nuts
  2. beetles
  3. turtles

Notice how the protective strategies are first classified into three categories: appearance, chemicals, and armor. Each of these categories is then further classified for analysis. Appearance, for example, is broken down into three types of protection strategies: camouflage, warning colors, and mimicry.

Order of Importance

One of the most frequently used organizational strategies, order of importance is often the main organizing principle of an essay. Even when it's not, it's used in individual sections and paragraphs. It works in both directions, as cause and effect does. You can begin with the most important, and work toward the least, or begin with the least important, and finish with the most.

Most important generally means most supportive, most convincing, or most striking. For example, the outline you just read lists several protection strategies. While the overall organizing principle is analysis/classification, most sections within that larger structure are also organized by order of importance. Look again at the section on appearance:

Appearance
1. camouflage
  1. moths
  2. flounder
  3. walking stick
2. warning colors
  1. monarch butterfly
  2. coral snake
  3. South American poisonous frog
3. mimicry
  1. king snake resembling coral snake
  2. swallowtail butterfly larva resembling snake
  3. snowberry fly resembling jumping spider

"Appearance" is one of the essays' major supporting ideas. The three minor supporting ideas—camouflage, warning colors, and mimicry—are listed in order of importance. Camouflage is the most common and least sophisticated of the three, whereas mimicry is the most unique and most compelling way that animals use appearance to protect themselves. And for each of these three supporting ideas, three specific examples are provided. Again, they are listed in order of importance, from the least striking example to the most compelling.

Whenever you're building an argument (and in most essays, that's exactly what you're doing), it's most effective to start with the least important idea and move to the most important. A good argument is like a snowball rolling down a hill. It builds momentum and strength as it rolls, one idea building upon another. And because you're working to convince readers that your assertions are valid, it helps to use this structure. In many cases, your least important ideas are probably also the least controversial and easiest to accept. It makes sense to begin with those that your reader will most likely agree with, and build the reader's trust and acceptance as you work toward more difficult concepts.

Comparison and Contrast

Essays that show the similarities and differences between two or more ideas use the comparison and contrast organizational strategy. This strategy depends upon first having comparable ideas or items. For example, you'd have difficulty writing a successful essay if you wanted to compare Frankenstein's creature with Cinderella. Frankenstein's creature and Pinocchio, on the other hand, are comparable items—they're both beings that someone else brought to life. Often, comparable items have a number of aspects that may be compared and contrasted. You might compare and contrast the creation of the figures, their creator's reactions after they come to life, and/or their relationships with their creators.

After you've selected the aspects you'll compare and contrast, there are two ways to organize your discussion: the block technique and the point-by-point technique.

The Block Technique

This method organizes ideas by item (A and B). First, discuss all the aspects of item A (ideas 1, 2, and 3). Then, discuss all of the corresponding aspects of item B. The result is two "blocks" of text—a section about item A, and one about item B. For example:

A1—Pinocchio's creation

A2—Geppetto's reaction

A3—Relationship between Pinocchio and Geppetto

B1—The creature's creation

B2—Frankenstein's reaction

B3—Relationship between the creature and Frankenstein

The Point-by-Point Technique

In this method, you organize ideas by aspect (1, 2, 3) rather than by item, so the result is a direct comparison and contrast of each aspect. Because you put each aspect side by side, readers get to see exactly how the two items measure up, element by element. This is a more sophisticated way of organizing a comparison and contrast essay, and it's easier for your reader to follow. Here's a sample outline.

A1—Pinocchio's creation

B1—The creature's creation

A2—Geppetto's reaction

B2—Frankenstein's reaction

A3—Relationship between Pinocchio and Geppetto

B3—Relationship between the creature and Frankenstein

Problem → Solution

In this organizing principle, you first identify a problem, and then offer a solution. There is no room for flexibility, because it won't make sense to your reader to offer the solution to a problem without first revealing or discussing that problem. Here's the "solution" section of an outline for an essay about the problem of misinformation on the Internet.

Solution
1. Create "reliability index"
  1. ranks sites for level of credibility
  2. run by not-for-profit; perhaps university or consortium of universities
  3. organization would rate websites on scale of trustworthiness (fact-check, etc.)
    1. Priorities
      1. sites offering information about health and healthcare
      2. sites offering information about raising children (education, emotional, social development)
      3. sites offering information about finances and investments
2. Run awareness campaign
  1. public service announcements
  2. lessons in schools
  3. announcements by all Internet providers

In Short

Analysis, order of importance, comparison and contrast, and problem → solution are four more strategies to help organize your ideas. One strategy can serve as an overall organizing principle, while others may help you organize individual paragraphs and sections of your essay.

Exercises for this concept can be found at Logical Organizational Strategies for Essay Writing Practice.

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Logical Organizational Strategies for Essay Writing Help (page 2)

Organizational Strategies for Essays

Analysis/Classification

Order of Importance