Organizing Tricks

I do not have any great tricks for organizing a paper. That is why I paid extra special attention in class today so I could write down all of Dr. Rogers's suggestions. I think the post-it note method sounds the most promising. I know it always helps me if I can visualize the way things will lay once I rearrange them. The post-it notes accomplish this, and allow the student to move things easily without feeling as if they are destroying their entire paper.

Another method I have found helpful in my own writing is to read back through the first sentence of every paragraph. I check to see that these topic sentences are really topic sentences and to see if they are in the right order. When I discover that I have placed a paragraph about the main character, already discussed in the first few pages, at the end, then I know I need to move that paragraph to be with the parts of the paper that are most like it.

With one student, I found that he did not get to his main idea until the final paragraph. He spent time talking about the traits of a dog, (no, I'm not copying the class example), then got to the idea that he was attacked by a dog but learned to overcome his fear in the last paragraph. It was then I realized that he thought he paper was about this personal experience and how he overcame his fear, when in reality, I, as a naive reader, assumed he was telling me how great dogs are for no particular reason. I pointed out what I thought his main idea was after we finished, and he agreed. He wanted to tell about his experience overcoming his fear of dogs. So, I suggested that he move the last part to the beginning. This seemed to work.

Every student is going to be different. In each situation, we just have to try out several methods until we find what works. I am glad that I have some new suggestions for going about organization from today's reading and class. I sure need them!