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The most important advice this book can offer you is state your controlling idea
and support it. If you have no controlling ideano topic sentence for a paragraph
or thesis for an essayyour writing will be unfocused, and your readers may be
confused or bored. But if you organize your material well, so that it supports and
develops your controlling idea, you can present your views to your readers with
interest, clarity, and persuasion.
Stating the controlling idea and organizing support can be accomplished
effectively and systematically. How? This chapter presents several uncomplicated techniques you can use in Stage Two of the writing process.
41
Example: Long homework assignments for children can interrupt family life.
subject
focus
subject
focus
Better:
subject
focus
subject
focus
Better:
focus
focus
focus
focus
EXERCISE 1
E v a l u a t i n g To p i c S e n t e n c e s
In the following controlling ideas, underline and label the subjects (S) and focus
(F). Also judge each one as effective (E) or ineffective (I).
Example:
I
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E v a l u a t i n g To p i c S e n t e n c e s
In the following controlling ideas, underline and label the subjects (S)
and focus (F). Also judge each one as effective (E) or ineffective (I).
1. An experience in the rst grade taught me a valuable lesson about
honesty.
2. The Internet has changed the way many people shop.
6. Rap music can be classied on the basis of the intent of its writers/
composers.
7. Mumbai is one of the most densely populated cities in the world.
EXERCISE 2
43
8. What I have seen while working in a fast-food place has made me lose
my appetite.
9. My physical education teacher is called Coach.
10. Count Draculas reputation is based on his exploits as a nocturnal
creature.
EXERCISE 3
W r i t i n g To p i c S e n t e n c e s
Complete the following entries to make each one a solid topic sentence. Only a
subject and part of the focus are provided. The missing part may be more than
a single word.
the car they are
Example: Car salespeople behave differently, depending on _____________
selling and the kind of customer they are serving.
_________________________________________________________
EXERCISE 4
W r i t i n g To p i c S e n t e n c e s
Convert each of the following subjects into a topic sentence.
1. Bumper stickers
2. Rudeness
Your topic sentence or thesis can come from any of several places. You may
be able to generate it at Stage One, in your initial freewriting, brainstorming,
clustering, or gathering information, or you may be given an assigned topic. In
any case, your procedure is the same at this point. You need to work on the
statementjust that one sentenceuntil you have developed an interesting
subject and a well-dened focus. The statement may be a bit more mechanical
than the one you actually use in your paragraph or essay, but it can easily be
reworded once you reach Stage Three of the writing process: writing, revising,
and editing.
The controlling idea will probably not pop into your head fully developed. It is
more likely to be the result of repeated revisions. Even when you are revising
a paper you have written, you may go back and rephrase your topic sentence
or thesis. That is part of the back-and-forth (recursive) nature of the writing
process.
In the following example, note how Jackson reworks her controlling idea several
times before she settles on a statement that is well focused and able to be
developed.
Subject
Focus
Bad drivers
Someone
Bad driving
If I were a trafc cop
44
Organizing Support
45
E X E R C I S E 5 W r i t i n g Yo u r To p i c S e n t e n c e
Using a topic you worked with in Chapter 1 or one from the list on page 35,
write a topic sentence or thesis. Mark the subject and focus parts.
Organizing Support
You have now studied the rst part of the seven-word sentence State your controlling idea and support it. In the rst stage of the writing process (described in
Chapter 2), you explored many ideas, experimented with them, and even developed some approaches to writing about them. You may also have gathered information through reading and note taking. The techniques of that rst stage have
already given you some initial support. The next step is to organize your ideas
and information into a paragraph or an essay that is interesting, understandable,
and compelling.
Three tools can help you organize your supporting material: listing (a form of
brainstorming), clustering, and outlining. You will probably use only one of these
organizing tools, depending on course requirements, the assignment, or individual
preference. In the continuing demonstration of Betsy Jacksons work, each tool is
shown.
LISTING
Lists are the simplest and most exible of the organizing tools. Listing need be
nothing more than a column of items presenting support material in a useful
sequence (time, space, or importance). As you work with your support material,
you can cross out words or move them around on the list. By leaving vertical
space between items, you can easily insert new examples and details. Jackson
took phrases from the list she had made in Stage One and wrote them below her
topic sentence.
If I were a trafc cop, I would crack down on certain types of bad drivers.
subject
focus
focus
passing in
emergency lanes
freeways
only
not buckling up
tailgating
unsafe lane
changing
Violations
freeways
and surface
streets
surface
streets only
no signals
speeding
D. U. I.
too slow in
fast lanes
left turn
on red
rolling stops
not yielding to
pedestrians
OUTLINING
Outlining is the tool that most people think of in connection with organizing.
Because it is exible and widely used, it will receive the most emphasis in this
stage of the writing process. Outlining does basically the same thing that listing
and clustering do. Outlining divides the controlling idea into sections of support
material, divides those sections further, and establishes sequence.
An outline is a framework that can be used in two ways: (1) It can indicate
the plan for a paragraph or an essay you intend to write, and (2) it can show the
organization of a passage you are reading. The outline of a reading passage
and the outline as a plan for writing are identical in form. If you intend to write
a summary of a reading selection, then a single outline might be used for both
purposes.
The two main outline forms are the sentence outline (each entry is a complete
sentence) and the topic outline (each entry is a key word or phrase). The topic
outline is more common in writing paragraphs and essays.
In the following topic outline, notice rst how the parts are arranged on the
page: the indentations, the number and letter sequences, the punctuation, and
the placement of words. Then read Jacksons outline and see how the ideas in it
relate to one another.
Main Idea (will usually be the topic sentence for a paragraph or the thesis for an
essay)
I. Major support
A. Minor support
1. Explanation, detail, example
2. Explanation, detail, example
B. Minor support
1. Explanation, detail, example
2. Explanation, detail, example
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Organizing Support
47
detail, example
detail, example
detail, example
detail, example
subject
focus
I. Drunks
II. Unsafe lane changers
A. Attitude
1. Rude
2. Bullying
B. Results
1. Accidents
2. People irritated
III. Left-turners on red
A. Attitude
1. Self-centered
2. Putting self above law
B. Results
1. Bad collisions
2. Mass anger
IV. Tailgaters
A. Motives
1. Hostility
2. Rushed
3. Impatient
B. Effects
1. Accidents
2. Road ghts
The foundation of an effective outline, and, hence, of an effective paragraph or
essay, is a strong controlling idea. Always begin by writing a sound topic sentence
or thesis, one with a specic subject and a well-dened treatment. Then divide
the focus into parts. The nature of the parts will depend on what you are trying to
do in the focus. Just consider the thought process involved. What kinds of material would best support or explain that topic sentence or thesis? How should you
organize that material? Should you present a series of examples? a description of
a process? a story of human struggle? a combination of methods?
Among the most common forms of dividing and organizing ideas are the following:
Narration: division of time or incident to tell a story
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I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
Situation
Conict
Struggle
Outcome
Meaning
Completing Outlines
Fill in the missing parts of the following outlines. It may be helpful to consider,
in each case, whether you are dealing with time, examples, causes, effects,
parts, or steps. The answers will vary, depending on your individual experiences
and views.
1. Borrowing is the mother of trouble.
subject
focus
EXERCISE 6
Organizing Support
focus
I. Good appearance
A.
B.
II. Behaving properly
III. Being qualied
A. Education
B.
IV. Knowing something about the employer
3. Joes drug addiction had signicant effects on his life.
subject
focus
focus
IV.
5. An ordinary person can be an environmentalist every day.
subject
focus
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50
focus
focus
I.
II.
III.
8. Some drivers break trafc laws selectively.
subject
focus
W r i t i n g Yo u r O u t l i n e
Using the subject you converted into a topic sentence or thesis (Exercise 5),
compose a topic outline.
EXERCISE 7
Writers Guidelines
51
1. The most important advice this book can offer you is state your controlling
idea and support it. If you have no controlling ideano topic sentence for
a paragraph or thesis for an essayyour writing will be unfocused and your
readers may be confused or bored. But if you organize your material well, so
that it supports and develops your controlling idea, you can present your views
to your readers with interest, clarity, and persuasion.
2. An effective controlling statement, called the topic sentence for a paragraph
and the thesis for an essay, has both a subject and a focus. The subject is
what you intend to write about. The focus is what you intend to do with your
subject.
Example: Long homework assignments for children can interrupt family life.
subject
focus
3. Three tools can help you organize your supporting material: listing, clustering,
and outlining.
Listing presents support material as a column of items in a useful sequence
(time, space, or importance).
Clustering uses chains of circles radiating from a central double-bubbled
circle to show the relationship of ideas.
Outlining can be used in two ways: to plan the structure and content of
something you intend to write and to reveal the structure and content of
something you read.