Writing Homework Help

The goal of this exercise is to think about the structure of your complex essay; to do this, you’re going to create a reverse outline of your GA essay draft. This is a very effective strategy that allows you to break down the claims you’re making and to see the ‘skeleton’ of your paper – which gives you a clearer idea of how to help your reader. (Hint: this is a really useful editing strategy–you can use it with any essay!). This assignment works best when you work with the essay you have, not the essay in your head or the one you think you’ll write — work with what’s in front of you.

What to do:

• Open your essay, and also create a blank document.
• As you read over your essay, pause after each paragraph. In the blank document you created, start an outline with each section, followed by the topic sentence of each paragraph (just copy/paste the first sentence!), followed by a bullet summary of every point made in each paragraph and the last sentence of the paragraph (just copy/paste the last sentence!).

Once you have gone over the entire essay and finished your reverse outline, complete the following steps, writing your answers in the same document that contains the outline:

1. Take a good look at the reverse outline. Do the ‘topic sentences’ provide a clear claim (using an analytical frame!) that is followed through in the paragraph? If not, highlight itDoes each paragraph have one main point that is directly tied to the claim in the topic sentence? If you have a paragraph with too many main points, highlight what maybe belongs in a new paragraph – and make a note of what the topic sentence of that paragraph should be.
2. Does each paragraph logically succeed the previous? If there are any paragraphs that should be moved, make a note.
3. Does the last sentence of each paragraph lead directly to the next topic sentence? Does it ‘tie up’ the paragraph’s important claim? If not, highlight it.
4. Locate and make a note of any paragraph that features one or zero sources. Also, if any paragraph relies too heavily on a single source, make a note of that. (Note: it is sometimes okay to use only one source in a paragraph, as long as the paragraph contains an original argument and isn’t just a summary of the source.) Similarly, make note of any paragraph that contains no quotes from the primary text.
5. Does each paragraph have one main point that is directly tied to the claim in the topic sentence? If you have a paragraph with too many main points, highlight what maybe belongs in a new paragraph – and make a note of what the topic sentence of that paragraph should be.p