I. Center Your Thinking

A.  Center on topics occupying a distinct area and pointing to a single purpose or impression. Ask yourself:

1. What information belongs to my purpose?
2. Do I have it or can I get it?
3. What facts and ideas apply?
4. Can I state my purpose in a single declarative sentence?

B. Center on topics known either by first-hand experience or by reflection, i.e., by reading, listening, or thinking. The sources of your knowledge are less important than its definiteness, quantity, and intimate personal reality.

C. Center on topics limited by two considerations:

1. The realistic limits of your knowledge.
2. The limits of time and space realistically available for its presentation.

D. Center a reader's attention by

1. Stating central ideas explicitly.
2. Referring to them repeatedly without redundancy.
3. Avoiding digressions into irrelevant facts and ideas.
4. Drawing implications from all relevant facts and ideas presented.

A. Understand three key forms of organization:

1. Chronological — by time

a. Uses:

Schedules, minutes, reports

How-to directions

Narrative stories and histories

Process analyses

b. Abuses:

Thinking time is the only organizer.

Confusing temporal sequences for logical causes, events for explanations.

Substituting the processes of thinking for the products.

2. Spatial — by space

a. Uses:

Physical descriptions — in architecture, anatomy, geography, the plastic arts.

Metaphorical descriptions — spatializing abstract logical concepts as in, "metaphors occupy all the rooms in the house of reason."

b. Abuses:

Thinking space is the only organizer.

Confusing contiguity for cause, placement for explanation.

Substituting the places of thinking for the products.

Reducing mind to matter, thought to brain, for example.

3. Logical — by reason

a. Uses:

Explanatory essays and reports

Critical analyses

Research articles and books

Theoretical speculations

Persuasive speeches and papers

Forms needing definition, decision, judgment, quantification, qualification, exposition and/or argumentation

b. Abuses:

Mistaking the forms of reason for the content:

saying "hence" when no argument is concluded,

"certainly" when all is in doubt,

"facts prove" when opinions provide all the evidence.

Forgetting the common fallacies of reasoning.

Misunderstanding the "practical" demands of reasoning:

willing audiences,

timely presentations,

careful preparation.

B. Understand these six forms of logical reasoning:

1. Deductive — general to specific
2. Inductive — specific to general
3. Inferential — effect to cause
4. Analogical — likeness to difference
5. Decisional — problem to solution
6. Judicial — experience to opinion

C. Understand how chronological, spatial, and logical forms of organization often occur in combination, one kind usually predominating over another —  subordinate forms often changing places throughout the whole of an essay.

D. Understand, too, the difficulties of each form:

1. Logical order is the hardest, signifying maturity in abstract reasoning.
2. Spatial order is easier, marking capacities for observational if not logical abstraction.
3. Chronological order is the easiest, showing some incapacity for abstracting from direct experience.

A. Remember that theses will be generalizations needing  support.

B. Support your generalizations with specific facts, not vague approximations of fact. Among these are

1. Concrete details appealing to the five senses:  sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch — words giving the "hum" of thought or the "clamor" of opinion help.

2. Allusions relying on a reader's familiarity with a common world:  There's a "world" of difference between "some private pilots crowding airspace in planes somewhere" and "the late Frank Sinatra doing it his way in a Learjet over L. A."

3. Quotations citing authorities in a field either positively or negatively — though a writer's authority generally increases in proportion to some rational dissent from previous authorities.

4. Numbers showing respect for verified or verifiable quantitative data — but as students of statistics learn, not all statistical data are created equal.

5. Anecdotes explaining by illustration what is otherwise inexplicable.

6. Descriptions showing readers what cannot be told — especially to readers unfamiliar with your particular world.

7. Finally proofs:  Always indicate your respect for strategies of reasoning like definitions, quantities of evidence, qualities of judgment, chains of argument — remembering that real academic achievement always hangs in the balance.

A. Ask yourself, will this be clear to my reader?

B. Catch your reader's attention with a title that anticipates both the general subject and thesis of a paper.

C. Direct a reader's attention in an introduction from a subject to a thesis, going from general to specific ideas aimed at understanding — anticipating the substance, stance, and shape of the essay as a whole.

D. Treat your reader as knowledgeable but not all-knowing — and present yourself as knowledgeable but not all-knowing.

E. Develop parts of any essay fully and logically, attending to matters of substance, sequence, and detail aimed at reader understanding.

F. Use paragraphs to signal main logical divisions, especially introductions, transitions, illustrations, arguments, conclusions and/or implications.

G. At every point keep sentences connected.

1. Always stick to a delineated point, purposefully inscribing a clear, straight line of thought.
2. Watch well what words you put at sentence beginnings and endings.
3. Use correlative adverbs or transition words sparingly but carefully.

H. Use standard English.  Ask yourself:

1. Do my verbs agree with their subjects in number?
2. Do my pronouns refer to their antecedents,agreeing with them in number, person, and gender?
3. Are there quick, sudden shifts in verbtenses and moods, or in my pronouns and point of view?
4. Do my modifiers point clearly to the words I have intended them to modify?
5. Have I proofread everything, looking for common errors in grammar and usage?

I. Finally, since the fewer shocks a manuscript holds for a reader the more your own best thoughts can appear, try to make essays mechanically correct. So check and recheck

1. Punctuation
2. Capitalization
3. Spelling
4. Manuscript mechanics
5. Bibliographic Documentation
6. Electronic Documentation