Why must the thesis go at the end of the first paragraph?!
As Emily pointed out, every student and every paper is different. I've worked with a few papers that had appalling organization. Those papers where when you think you're finally starting to get where it's going, you read another sentence and are left blinking like the fake (whose name I don't know) Katie Couric listening to Tina Fey answer questions... There have been times where I have just had to ask an open question "what were you trying to convey with this essay?" and hope the student has a better idea in his head than he does on his paper.
And, just because I can, I'm not going to transition into my next idea. How an essay is organized becomes more fluid as a student figures out how to organize an essay. If they don't understand the concept of a thesis, then as a tutor you should explain that, and probably teach them that the best place for it is at the end of the first paragraph. Getting the main idea up front can do wonders for a confusing paper, but then as a tutor, there are other things that I can do to help a student organize their paper. I like the post it notes idea, simply because it demonstrates the fluidity of the paper. Even our class example could have been organized differently for a different effect. So long as there is a logical order that can be signposted and connections made from one idea to the next, there are almost always options in organization. A lot of teaching organization is just teaching the writer to understand that they need to make clear what they were thinking when they jumped from one idea to the next. I've found that they normally think it is obvious, and when I point out that it is not and ask them to explain how they got from one idea to the next, they normally can do it. A paper often seems more organized even just by baby-stepping from one idea to the next in a paper, even perhaps, when there is clearly a better order that I, as a tutor and more experienced writer might prefer. I don't think you should reorder your student's papers to fit your idea of a good organization. I can, however, teach how to get from one idea to the next and point out that this is not obvious to most readers, and most importantly, it is fluid. In some of the best papers, the thesis is not at the end of the first paragraph. Sometimes, it just does not need to be, no matter what some of my professors have said. Sometimes, the effect created by creative organization is better than what might have happened from a more traditional flow. It all depends on the purpose of the paper. As a tutor, I feel like my job in teaching organization is just to show that they should be aware of what is happening, and make clear why they are putting things in the order they are. If the organization is bad enough, the writer normally notices that themselves as they try to explain that to me, and other times I decide it's not as a bad as I once thought, provided they do some subtle transitioning in their essay.
I'd rather talk about organization than comma splices any day.
And, just because I can, I'm not going to transition into my next idea. How an essay is organized becomes more fluid as a student figures out how to organize an essay. If they don't understand the concept of a thesis, then as a tutor you should explain that, and probably teach them that the best place for it is at the end of the first paragraph. Getting the main idea up front can do wonders for a confusing paper, but then as a tutor, there are other things that I can do to help a student organize their paper. I like the post it notes idea, simply because it demonstrates the fluidity of the paper. Even our class example could have been organized differently for a different effect. So long as there is a logical order that can be signposted and connections made from one idea to the next, there are almost always options in organization. A lot of teaching organization is just teaching the writer to understand that they need to make clear what they were thinking when they jumped from one idea to the next. I've found that they normally think it is obvious, and when I point out that it is not and ask them to explain how they got from one idea to the next, they normally can do it. A paper often seems more organized even just by baby-stepping from one idea to the next in a paper, even perhaps, when there is clearly a better order that I, as a tutor and more experienced writer might prefer. I don't think you should reorder your student's papers to fit your idea of a good organization. I can, however, teach how to get from one idea to the next and point out that this is not obvious to most readers, and most importantly, it is fluid. In some of the best papers, the thesis is not at the end of the first paragraph. Sometimes, it just does not need to be, no matter what some of my professors have said. Sometimes, the effect created by creative organization is better than what might have happened from a more traditional flow. It all depends on the purpose of the paper. As a tutor, I feel like my job in teaching organization is just to show that they should be aware of what is happening, and make clear why they are putting things in the order they are. If the organization is bad enough, the writer normally notices that themselves as they try to explain that to me, and other times I decide it's not as a bad as I once thought, provided they do some subtle transitioning in their essay.
I'd rather talk about organization than comma splices any day.
posted by Michelle Jeffs at 10:40 AM
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