Graphic Organizers for Structuring Your Writing

Graphic organizers can help you strengthen the unity of your writing and also help you make it more coherent. To ensure coherence, you can connect each point to the thesis, using transitions from point to point. This also makes your writing more clear.

Once you have developed a thesis and the reasons that will support it, you can fill in an organizer like the one below. The organizer will serve as a guide for writing the paper and as a test of its unity and coherence.

This graphic organizer will keep you on track as you write. The boxes that start with “By this I mean” will remind you to explain your reason by restating it in different words. The “for example” boxes will remind you to give examples of what you are writing about. And the boxes labeled “people may object that . . .” will remind you to offer a refutation of a possible objection.

Try writing a text directly from the organizer above. This is how it works:

• You will write down the thesis, “People should not express their anger at the bad driving of other drivers.”
• Add to that sentence the first reason: “because it makes the roads less safe.”
• Go on to give an explanation (which you have to make up).
• Give two examples (likewise, your creations).
• Offer a refutation (think of an objection someone might make and argue against it).

This is intended to be a very “rough cut” of your paper, so don’t worry about eloquence or finesse. Those can come later.

Using your notes, write your responses. After you have done some rough cut writing (one sentence per box is enough), check your understanding to see a possible response.

Check Your Understanding

Sample Response:

People should not express their anger at the bad driving of other drivers because it makes the roads less safe. By this I mean that angry drivers are distracted drivers and are likely to make driving errors or use the car to express their anger. For example, an angry driver may be cursing to herself and not see a red light. Another example is that an angry driver might try to chase the person who is driving badly and end up speeding, cutting in and out of traffic, and possibly causing an accident. People may object that bad drivers should not get away with their bad driving, but vigilante enforcement puts everyone on the road in jeopardy.

Another reason that people should not express their anger at the bad driving of other drivers is because it does nothing to make things better. What I mean is that if expressions of anger really made some positive difference in the safety of the roads, it might be worth whatever drawbacks are involved. However, expressing anger in driving situations makes no positive difference. For example, when someone gets honked at for not immediately accelerating at a green light, it doesn’t make this person more alert; instead it makes the person more distracted. Or another example is that when a person is rewarded with an obscene gesture for cutting another driver off, the result is two angry drivers instead of one. It is extremely unlikely that such an interchange results in better, more defensive driving from either party. People may object that sometimes bad drivers are unaware that they are driving badly. This may be true, but there is no evidence that being abused will make them aware that they are driving badly.

Close

Again, this is a rough cut. This essay needs extensive revision and editing before it is finished. It’s formulaic, repetitive, and choppy, but it’s at least a starting point. From this point you can see what has to be done. You can refer back to your graphic organizer if some connections don’t make sense. In the case above there is some weakness in the “nothing to make things better” reason. That particular reason may be too vague to support with examples.

It’s better to have something like this to revise than something that you have polished to eloquence that doesn’t make sense. The further along you are in the writing process, the harder it is to go back and revise.