Organising ideas/planning

Now that you have generated your ideas and put them on to paper, the next step is to organise them. It is a common mistake to organise or plan an assignment without reference to the question. Whenever you are composing a response, you must always be thinking about the question.

How important is the impact that Atticus Finch has on the themes in To Kill a Mockingbird? Answer in 1000 words.

Sample Question

Choosing topics

Organising your brainstorm is a matter of refining and structuring. Structuring your exposition is a matter of dividing your information into topics. Each paragraph that you write should cover a particular topic. For a 1000-word essay it is only a very general rule to have five paragraphs, including your introduction and conclusion. For the sake of simplicity this is the format that will be used here.

Important note: You are not required to have a specific number of paragraphs in an essay. You can include as many or as few paragraphs as you choose. Do not feel restricted or constrained to any ideas about appropriate numbers of paragraphs. Your choice of topics should be based on the question and your answer rather than the length or format.

To do this we first need to ask, 'What points are going to be relevant?' We will need to keep any points where Atticus Finch has an impact on the presentation of theme. The animation What points are relevant? provides an example of what your table might look like.

It is very important to note that the preliminary brainstorm will still be of use. We have not yet addressed language techniques and many of the points concerned with theme and character may well come in use. For the time being we are trying to decide upon a basic structure. We need to find definite divisions in our notes. Fortunately, in this case it is clear that we will be able to plan our exposition around themes. From the information that we have collected it is clear that we will have three paragraphs:

• Atticus and good and evil
• Atticus and moral education
• Atticus and social inequality

Choosing a thesis

A thesis is the main idea of your composition.

Choosing paragraphs is only a small part of planning your exposition. In order to compose an effective exposition, your response needs to be structured with meaning. One way to do this is to decide upon a thesis. An answer to the question 'How important is the impact that Atticus Finch has on the themes in To Kill a Mockingbird?' is much more than 'very important' or 'not important'. To demonstrate the depth of your understanding, it is necessary to state why it is important and how you can justify your answer. Choosing a thesis that incorporates your topic will enable you to do this.

Firstly, any common factors in the topics need to be identified. The most obvious factor is education. The animation Common factors provides an example of what your table might look like.

Thesis The main themes of the novel are often expressed as lessons that are taught by Atticus. The novel is a bildungsroman or coming-of-age story. Throughout the novel, Scout 'comes of age' by learning about the themes. Atticus, as her father, is essential to this learning process.

Choosing Structure

The next step is to structure the exposition around the thesis. The question to ask is, 'In what order should the topics be placed to best explain my point of view?' The important factor to bear in mind when considering this question, is that the argument needs to be logical. Each topic should flow on from the other. In this example, the topic of 'moral education' is similar to our thesis. This is a good topic to base the structure around.

If the order were:

• Atticus and good and evil
• Atticus and moral education
• Atticus and social inequality

The topic of moral education could be confused with the thesis about education.

If the order were:

• Atticus and good and evil
• Atticus and social inequality
• Atticus and moral education

The topic of moral education could be the final paragraph. The logical flow would then be to build up the thesis of the importance of Atticus as the educator developing the themes.

An easier way to structure the exposition is:

• Atticus and moral education
• Atticus and good and evil
• Atticus and social inequality

In this way the argument would be structured so that the first topic 'moral education' explains and can be developed through the final two topics.

Overall Structure

The broad details of the structure of this exposition are complete. You should already be aware that there needs to be an introduction and a conclusion. The structure of this exposition will look like this:

INTRODUCTION PARAGRAPH ONE - Atticus and moral education. PARAGRAPH TWO - Atticus and good and evil. PARAGRAPH THREE - Atticus and social inequality. CONCLUSION