Designing essays

We've already looked at the logical structure of arguments: now we start looking at how to map those logical pieces into units of writing in a way that makes sense to readers. Indeed, the way you design an essay is just as important as your ideas and evidence. Good structure helps make an essay easier to follow. Your reader, remember, doesn't know where the essay is going or how it's going to get there. Even if he knows the main argument, he won't be sure what you're doing at any given point—why this example, this quotation, this paragraph. And when we as writers get sloppy about these things, as we do all too often—wandering off track in a sentence, a quotation, a paragraph—how can we expect our reader to stay on track?

　　Inexperienced writers forget to look at their writing from the reader's point of view, and don't give enough attention to careful organization and clear signposts for where the essay is going. Writing an essay, especially on a topic you've been thinking a lot about, is like giving a stranger directions to your home: it's hard to come up with easy-to-follow, step-by-step directions for a process you take for granted.