First, always keep your audience and purpose in mind—i.e., in this case, Professor Melody Tunes and your suggestion about a topic (band, musician) for her new course. Then use the five main organizational strategies to generate ideas for body paragraphs; then, when you research your topics, you can add even more ideas, along with evidence. Note these Doc 2 possibilities for body pghs (paragraphs):
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Organizational Strategies for Doc Two |
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Strategy |
Application to Doc 2 |
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Classification—dividing a topic into its sub-sections (parts) |
- break the course’s target audience into its parts - break down a few potential band choices |
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Illustration—structuring pgh around examples (illustrations for topic sentence) |
- examples of influential songs - statistics involving demographics of target audience |
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Cause-effect—building pgh around either reasons or consequences |
- reasons why one band’s a good choice - reasons why one of the reasons is validation for your choice |
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Process—showing the steps/stages in some chronology |
- an influential series of events for your chosen group |
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Compare-contrast—using another topic to make comparisons/contrasts with your topic |
- two contrasting elements within demographics
- your chosen band contrasted with another possible choice |
The table’s right column shows nine potential body pghs (you need just 3 or 4 for each of our main papers), but you could create even more by reapplying the organizational strategies. For instance, after you list the reasons why your chosen band’s the right one (an obvious generating ideas tactic), you might see one idea that could form its own body pgh around direct examples (illustration structure), or around some chronological idea (process), or perhaps some “contrasting” information. The five strategies above provide more ideas than you will need; that way, you can choose the best three or four for your supporting pghs.
In fact, throughout your planning, writing, and even revising processes, keep the five structural strategies in mind by repeatedly asking these questions:
- How can I break a topic into parts (classify)?
- What details will prove an idea (illustration)?
- Why is one point true (cause-effect)?
- What consequences will occur (cause-effect)?
- What chronological patterns appear (process)?
- What comparisons or contrasts exist (compare-contrast)?
Always view your paper’s ideas through these different lenses, different angles. Remember that Doc 2 has the same content requirements as Doc 1, such as evidence in each body pgh (at least two ICE’d quotations—introduced, cited, and explained). And while one body pgh (just one) needs an incorporated list, you must also build a table within another body pgh. The bulleted ideas above can give you ideas for these two visuals, too.