2.10 Step 5: Organize Your Paragraph Topics
Can I improve the order of my paragraph topics?
| Table 2-2E. The scaffolding steps covered so far in Chapter 2. | |
|---|---|
| Step 1 | Generate broad topics: Write each topic on the blank side of an index card |
| Step 2 | Organize and evaluate topics: Manipulate index cards into a plausible order |
| Step 3 | Enhance existing topic cards: Convert broad topics into finer detailed subtopics and write each subtopic on its own index card |
| Step 4 | Convert subtopic cards into paragraph topic cards: Each index card represents a paragraph?s topic |
| Step 5 | Organize your paragraph topics |
When you complete Step 4, your scaffold displays paragraph topic cards which define your manuscript’s detailed structure. But you cannot yet begin to write. Before you write, you should reconsider and confirm the order of your paragraph topics. In Step 5 (Table 2-2E) you evaluate your paragraph topics to ensure your topics proceed in order.
How does Step 5 proceed? You can quickly get a manuscript’s main drift by only reading each paragraph’s first and last sentences (Sarnecka, 2019). The first and last sentences in a paragraph communicate the paragraph’s topic provide links to create a narrative structure. Unfortunately, your scaffold does not – yet – contain any sentences. However, your scaffold does contain the next best thing, the paragraph topics – topics which topic sentences and concluding sentences will convey. So, in Step 5 you read and evaluate your paragraph topics.
You use your scaffold to support Step 5. You need not remember paragraph topics or their order. Instead, you read the paragraph topic you have written on each index card, moving in the order in which you arranged your cards on the scaffold. As you read the paragraph topics, you evaluate them. Does your paragraph topic order make sense? Does your paragraph topic order properly communicate your manuscript’s main points?
In Step 5, you continue to manipulate the scaffold, particularly if you feel you can improve paragraph topic order. You might move index cards around to explore alternative topic orders. You can also evaluate positions of index cards representing section titles. In short, you use your scaffold to satisfy yourself with your manuscript’s structure. You use your scaffold to evaluate your manuscript’s structure even though you have not yet written any sentences.
During Step 5, you also continue to critically evaluate paragraph topics. Perhaps you feel your structure would improve by inserting another paragraph topic. To do so, you add a new paragraph topic card and place your new card in the desired spot in your display. If you detect redundancy in paragraph topics, you fix the problem by either removing a paragraph topic card or by replacing two cards with one which more clearly expresses the topic while removing redundancy.
When you finish Step 5, you have chosen your manuscript’s paragraph topic order. You might now write a number on each card to indicate the order in which card topics will appear in your manuscript; you will soon remove them from your display and place them (in order) in a deck. Your ordered deck provides a ‘spine’ of detailed topics for your manuscript – the topic chain on the Figure 2-5’s left.
Step 6, described in the next section, turns to building Figure 2-5’s right side. You can finally start writing. You will see, though, all your scaffolding work makes writing your first sentences much easier.
