Making your order clear to the reader

In essays of 2000-3000 words, you would usually be using more than a single organising principle.

You might, for example, use scope as your major organising principle. Then, within each argument, you might choose the principle of strongest-to-weakest to present your evidence in relation to the argument.

Whatever you decide, make sure your readers can see the principle you are using so that they can follow the development of your arguments.

You can do this by:

• stating your organising principle explicitly in your introduction. Your purpose statement or brief overview section is probably best suited to this.
• using the topic sentences of paragraphs which introduce new arguments to reinforce the principle you are following. (See Module 3, Unit 2: Structuring paragraphs.)

Your readers will expect to see a pattern. If you change your organising principle, let them know.

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