The introduction of an essay creates expectation for the reader. We know what the topic and thesis of the essay will be, and we know the basic structure and development of the essay. As the essay develops, it needs to fulfill these expectations.
If the organization of information in the essay does not match what was promised in the introduction, the reader may get confused and the essay itself will not be very cohesive.
Checklist for Effective Organization
Let’s begin by considering the essential elements of effective organization.
Does your essay:
Revising Organization
Let’s practice revising the basic organization of an essay. Your reader should be able to read the introduction and topic sentences of your essay and have a clear idea of what the essay accomplishes.
Read over the Introduction to the essay.
Topic Sentence that belong in the essay:
- Technological literacy includes deep working knowledge of the tools we use to navigate and search the internet.
- Finally, technological literacy for students includes appreciating the potential of university library search portals even though they appear more difficult than commercial online search engines.
Sample Topic Sentence to meet essay expectations:
In addition to learning how to use the search engines, students need to understand how a search engine works.
Explanation:
Now you have the three key sections of the essay clearly outlined and matched to the map provided in the introduction. The outline for the essay, without the supporting details, would look like this:
