Organizing academic writing can be challenging. What should be included? How do you structure your main ideas and key points? Dissertations and other forms of academic writing have established guidelines for the structure Custom Essay

Organizing academic writing can be challenging. What should be included? How do you structure your main ideas and key points? Dissertations and other forms of academic writing have established guidelines for the structure. The structure is purposeful and is an indication of scholarly writing. However, within the structure, you choose which rhetorical structure best presents and supports your main ideas and key points. Even though using rhetorical strategies might be a new concept to you it is well understood and applied among scholars, especially in the areas of verbal and written communication. One effective way to organize your thoughts is to choose one of the following 7 Rhetorical Strategies. Each rhetorical strategy allows you to structure arguments, pose questions, explore ideas and review literature. Read through the 7 strategies below. Note how each strategy offers a structure for organizing your thoughts and arguments.

1. Chronology (time): chronological/reverse chronological order. Use this approach when you would like to show how events unfolded in a certain order. For example, if you wanted to describe how diversity in education has evolved from the passing of the Civil Rights Acts through Affirmative Action, a chronological order shows the progression and significant events.

2. Spatial order (space): organized by layout, design, direction, or location. Use this approach when you would like to begin at one geographic point and move logically through others. For example, if you wanted to discuss the distance between different beaches on the Gulf Coast and the impact of an oil spill on tourism, spatial order shows the relationship between different locations.

3. Order of importance: least to most/most to least. Use this approach when you would like to emphasize the merit or importance of certain points as they relate to your topic, purpose statement or position. For example, if you wanted to emphasize that teacher readiness is a more critical need than using new technologies in education today, order of importance lets you choose, describe and support the points you want to emphasize in the order you would like them to be considered.

4. Order of generality: general to specific/specific to general. Use this approach when you would like a whole to represent a part (general principle or theory to specific instance) or a part to represent a whole (specific instance to a general principle). For example, if you wanted to describe how transformational learning occurs in a classroom, order of generality lets you first describe the theory of transformational learning and then describe specific instances you observed in the classroom. Or you could describe themes emerging from your data analysis and show how they represent a general principle or theory.