How to Write Great Essays

HOW TO WRITE GREAT ESSAYS
CHAPTER 1
Organization
8
I.
A.
B.
1.
2.
a.
b.
Once you have completed an outline, revise and refine it by following these steps:
1. Write down your overall goal for your essay. What are you trying to say to your
readers?
2. Go over your outline and circle, underline, or highlight your major points or
images. Do they all support your goal?
3. Brainstorm words and phrases that will accurately and concisely express those
points (jot them down in the margin of your outline, or use a separate sheet of
paper).
4. Use this list and your outline to guide your writing. Do not allow yourself to
stray from your goal or your major points.
PYRAMID CHARTS
As you reread your prewriting notes, answer the following:
■
What is the purpose of my essay as a whole?
■
What are the major parts of the whole, and how can they be categorized?
■
What are the minor parts of the whole, and how do they relate to the major
parts?
■
What details can I use to illuminate both major and minor parts?
The answer to the first question is your thesis. Place it at the top of the pyramid. Below
it, write the major parts and join them to the thesis with lines. Next, write the minor parts
beneath the major ones, connecting them with lines. Finally, your details should be added
under the parts to which they correspond.
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Organization
CHAPTER 1 
HOW TO WRITE GREAT ESSAYS
9
SAMPLE PYRAMID CHART
Here is an example of a prewriting list and a corresponding pyramid chart.
Local school boards should not be allowed to ban books.
Freedom to read is guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution (1st amendment).
Give students credit—we don’t believe everything we read.
Let us read books and decide what is right.
We need to learn how to think for ourselves.
Library Bill of Rights prohibits banning of books.
Parents and others should trust that we can read conflicting viewpoints and still hold
our own values.
Censorship is wrong.
Education is about opening minds, and censorship is about closing them.
LIST
If you are having trouble with the highly structured outline or pyramid, try listing. Picture
someone reading your completed essay. They will not see the framework behind your words,
but instead will encounter each word, and thus each idea, one at a time. In other words,
reading happens sequentially. With that in mind, organize your notes into a list based on
one of the following strategies:
1.
Order of Importance:
rank supporting ideas from most important to least impor-
tant, or vice versa.
2.
Chronological:
organize your ideas in the order in which they did happen or will
happen.
School
boards should
not be allowed
to ban books
• Freedom protected by the Constitution
• Students should be trusted
• Censorship is wrong
• Education is about learning many different viewpoints
• Individuals and groups shouldn't take it upon themselves to go against 
the law of the land
• ACLU takes on cases of censorship and book banning
• We are allowed to make many decisions, why not what to read?
• Just because we read about a subject does not mean we will imitate it (
The Bell Jar
)

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