Literacy and technology

[--Pete]

In your introduction, do you provide a cronological outline of the various subjects you're going to talk about in your essay, or do just jump right into the first subject at hand after your introduction?[right][snapback]57585[/snapback][/right]

Hi,

I'd say, "Neither."

A good structure for many essays is, "Tell them what you're gonna tell them, tell them, then tell them what you told them." However, this does not imply an outline of any form, chronological or otherwise. I have found that a good exercise is to try to formulate my thesis in one (simple) declaratory sentence. This clarifies the topic for me so that I don't meander all over the map (as some readers of these fora know I tend to do :) ). Then, in one sentence each, I try to formulate my arguments. That material then (suitably mutated) becomes the introduction and the summary.

A good idea is to build a first draft of those two sections (introduction and summary) and see how big they are. They should be between five and ten percent of the total length of the essay (excluding figures, tables and appendices). If you are writing under the constraints of a page count or word count, this process will be a good guide of how well you've chosen and limited the subject. If the introduction and summary are too big, you need to rethink your subject and further limit your scope, and conversely if they are too little.

Usually the next step is to generate a title that is both interesting and informative. The ability to do that is another good indicator that you've formulated the topic well enough that you know what you want to say. I've found that if I can write a good introduction, summary, and title, the essay has a tendency to 'write itself'.

Now, I'll freely admit that this is just a technique that works for me (and then only for expository writing) and that others have other methods. However, if you haven't adopted a method of your own, you might give this a shot. While it is a little bit more work up front, I found that it saves a lot of rewriting later.

Good luck on your essay, and if any random thoughts on the topic enter my mind, I'll be sure to share them ;)

--Pete