Professional Writing Skills: Structure

STRUCTURE:
The structure of written work or conversations is important. Structure includes the chronological order of the content, and signposting to your reader about what you are talking about.

All conversations (written or spoken) has a chronological order that moves from general topics (such as an introduction) to a more specific argument (such as your idea or critique).  Paragraphs should contain ONE TOPIC PER PARAGRAPH, and should be arranged as:

1. Thesis (an introductory thesis for short papers should only be 1-2 sentences long). A thesis tells your reader what you are going to discuss and and a one-sentence summary of your argument.

2. EXPLAIN. Explain the topic, such as a philosopher's argument. Explain sufficiently so that any non-philosopher can understand the argument.

3. APPLY. As part of an explanation, paint a picture in your reader's mind by giving analogies or examples of the argument. Apply the argument to your daily life and use examples from media or daily activities. Examples use a specific time and place, even if they are hypothetical. Avoid giving general statements or general examples.

4. CRITIQUE: Assess whether the philosopher's argument is valid, sound, or contains fallacies.  It is better to give ONE CRITIQUE, fully explained, than to hint at several unexplained critiques.

5. CREATE your own argument. Explain fully using analogies, thought experiments, scenarios, or examples. Invent your own thought experiments, such as Trolley Problems, to support your own argument.

6. Practice proper citation and bibliography. See APA citation HELPSHEET .pdf

7. Practice reading comprehension. The more you read and explain in your own words, the better you will be at understanding what you read. There is no shortcut: It is simply a matter of practice.

8. Practice writing professionally. Paragraphs should be 3-6 sentences long. Work at giving concise sentences with substantial information.

9. Read your paper out loud to catch run-on sentences (if you run out of breath reading a sentence, then you know it is a run-on sentence), incomplete sentences, grammar mistakes, and unorganized structure. Use a spell-checker.

SIGNPOSTING:

Without signposting, your essays read as a stream of consciousness. Signal to your reader what you are trying to do.

Signposting is like a roadmap for your reader. It looks like this:

"Schick gives a definition of Epistemological Relativism as: . . ."

"As an example of an argument that uses this kind of reasoning is. .  ."

"There are problems with Epistemological Relativism. One problem is. . . ."

"Another problem is. . ."

"A possible objection is. .  ."

"As a reply. . ."

"However. . . ."