February 23: Draft Workshop 2: Organization

1. Based on the CURRENT DRAFT, paraphrase the author’s thesis statement and the topic sentences of each of his/her paragraphs, composing a rough outline of the draft like the ones we composed in class last week.

2. Do the paragraphs follow through on what the author says s/he will do in the first paragraph? Is there anything s/he said would be written about that isn’t? Are there any sections of the paper that aren’t mentioned (or at least accounted for) in the introduction?

3. Examine the paragraph topic sentences for coherence. For each topic sentence, ask yourself, “how is this idea relate to the main thesis?” and, “how does this idea relate to the ideas presented just before and after?” Note anything that seems amiss and give suggestions for improvement.

4. Examine the paragraph topic sentences for unnecessary repetition. Do the same key words or phrases appear in multiple topic sentences? If so, where could combining paragraphs or sentences help make the essay’s structure clearer? (Remember: one paragraph, one idea.)