Dr. Lori E. Amy 
Department of Writing and Linguistics 
Georgia Southern University
   P.O. Box 8026
Statesboro, GA 30460
        (912) 681-0625/fax (912) 871-1386

Analyzing Organization and Structure

To begin, make an outline of the points in each paragraph of your paper. Since you will inevitably end up revising your introductory paragaph, begin your paragraph outlining with the first body paragraph of your paper. You will end up with something similar to this:

Body Par. 1:
sentence 1 -- a few key words
sentence 2 -- a few key words
sentence 3 -- a few key words
etc.

Body Par. 2:
sentence 1 -- a few key words
sentence 2 -- a few key words
sentence 3 -- a few key words
etc.

Body Par. 3:
sentence 1 -- a few key words
sentence 2 -- a few key words
sentence 3 -- a few key words
etc.

etc. . . .

Once you have completed outlining the paragraphs, review each paragraph and:

  1. Identify the topic sentence.
  2. Make sure all of the sentences in a paragraph explain, support, or develop the topic sentence.
  3. Underline, circle, or make a note of sentences that do not support the topic sentence
  4. If you cannot identify a topic sentence, then you know you have a problem!
After you have identified all of the topic sentences/points for each paragraph, you are ready to revise the paper for internal paragraph organization and global organization.

Revising for Organization

At this point, if your paper has many paragraphs that are not unified around a single topic sentence, it is helpful to review every point in your paper and label all similar points with a similar letter or number. This provides an easy, visual way of seeing which points should logically be grouped together.

  1. Paragraph organization:
    1. Check each paragraph for consistency
    2. If you have identified sentences that do not directly develop the topic sentence, you will need to move them to another paragraph or decide not to use them
    3. Decide where and how off-topic material for each paragraph should be included -- do you need to reorganize paragraphs? Develop new paragraphs?
  2. Global organization:
    1. Check each paragraph against the others. Do paragraph points repeat themselves? Remember that important information developing a point should be kept together.
    2. If you find that you are repeating material without adding anything new or chaining meaning, you will need to reorganize your paper so that you keep all of the information relevant to a particular point together.
  3. After analyzing the structure of the paper, re-vise your work accordingly.
  4. Re-write your introductory paragraph to reflect the changes in your paper. Remember, the introductory paragraph must include a thesis statement, and must briefly introduce each of the paper's major points in the order that the paper will develop them. Follow parallel structure!