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9.3 Organizing Your Writing

Learning objectives.

  • Understand how and why organizational techniques help writers and readers stay focused.
  • Assess how and when to use chronological order to organize an essay.
  • Recognize how and when to use order of importance to organize an essay.
  • Determine how and when to use spatial order to organize an essay.

The method of organization you choose for your essay is just as important as its content. Without a clear organizational pattern, your reader could become confused and lose interest. The way you structure your essay helps your readers draw connections between the body and the thesis, and the structure also keeps you focused as you plan and write the essay. Choosing your organizational pattern before you outline ensures that each body paragraph works to support and develop your thesis.

This section covers three ways to organize body paragraphs:

  • Chronological order
  • Order of importance
  • Spatial order

When you begin to draft your essay, your ideas may seem to flow from your mind in a seemingly random manner. Your readers, who bring to the table different backgrounds, viewpoints, and ideas, need you to clearly organize these ideas in order to help process and accept them.

A solid organizational pattern gives your ideas a path that you can follow as you develop your draft. Knowing how you will organize your paragraphs allows you to better express and analyze your thoughts. Planning the structure of your essay before you choose supporting evidence helps you conduct more effective and targeted research.

Chronological Order

In Chapter 8 “The Writing Process: How Do I Begin?” , you learned that chronological arrangement has the following purposes:

  • To explain the history of an event or a topic
  • To tell a story or relate an experience
  • To explain how to do or to make something
  • To explain the steps in a process

Chronological order is mostly used in expository writing , which is a form of writing that narrates, describes, informs, or explains a process. When using chronological order, arrange the events in the order that they actually happened, or will happen if you are giving instructions. This method requires you to use words such as first , second , then , after that , later , and finally . These transition words guide you and your reader through the paper as you expand your thesis.

For example, if you are writing an essay about the history of the airline industry, you would begin with its conception and detail the essential timeline events up until present day. You would follow the chain of events using words such as first , then , next , and so on.

Writing at Work

At some point in your career you may have to file a complaint with your human resources department. Using chronological order is a useful tool in describing the events that led up to your filing the grievance. You would logically lay out the events in the order that they occurred using the key transition words. The more logical your complaint, the more likely you will be well received and helped.

Choose an accomplishment you have achieved in your life. The important moment could be in sports, schooling, or extracurricular activities. On your own sheet of paper, list the steps you took to reach your goal. Try to be as specific as possible with the steps you took. Pay attention to using transition words to focus your writing.

Keep in mind that chronological order is most appropriate for the following purposes:

  • Writing essays containing heavy research
  • Writing essays with the aim of listing, explaining, or narrating
  • Writing essays that analyze literary works such as poems, plays, or books

When using chronological order, your introduction should indicate the information you will cover and in what order, and the introduction should also establish the relevance of the information. Your body paragraphs should then provide clear divisions or steps in chronology. You can divide your paragraphs by time (such as decades, wars, or other historical events) or by the same structure of the work you are examining (such as a line-by-line explication of a poem).

On a separate sheet of paper, write a paragraph that describes a process you are familiar with and can do well. Assume that your reader is unfamiliar with the procedure. Remember to use the chronological key words, such as first , second , then , and finally .

Order of Importance

Recall from Chapter 8 “The Writing Process: How Do I Begin?” that order of importance is best used for the following purposes:

  • Persuading and convincing
  • Ranking items by their importance, benefit, or significance
  • Illustrating a situation, problem, or solution

Most essays move from the least to the most important point, and the paragraphs are arranged in an effort to build the essay’s strength. Sometimes, however, it is necessary to begin with your most important supporting point, such as in an essay that contains a thesis that is highly debatable. When writing a persuasive essay, it is best to begin with the most important point because it immediately captivates your readers and compels them to continue reading.

For example, if you were supporting your thesis that homework is detrimental to the education of high school students, you would want to present your most convincing argument first, and then move on to the less important points for your case.

Some key transitional words you should use with this method of organization are most importantly , almost as importantly , just as importantly , and finally .

During your career, you may be required to work on a team that devises a strategy for a specific goal of your company, such as increasing profits. When planning your strategy you should organize your steps in order of importance. This demonstrates the ability to prioritize and plan. Using the order of importance technique also shows that you can create a resolution with logical steps for accomplishing a common goal.

On a separate sheet of paper, write a paragraph that discusses a passion of yours. Your passion could be music, a particular sport, filmmaking, and so on. Your paragraph should be built upon the reasons why you feel so strongly. Briefly discuss your reasons in the order of least to greatest importance.

Spatial Order

As stated in Chapter 8 “The Writing Process: How Do I Begin?” , spatial order is best used for the following purposes:

  • Helping readers visualize something as you want them to see it
  • Evoking a scene using the senses (sight, touch, taste, smell, and sound)
  • Writing a descriptive essay

Spatial order means that you explain or describe objects as they are arranged around you in your space, for example in a bedroom. As the writer, you create a picture for your reader, and their perspective is the viewpoint from which you describe what is around you.

The view must move in an orderly, logical progression, giving the reader clear directional signals to follow from place to place. The key to using this method is to choose a specific starting point and then guide the reader to follow your eye as it moves in an orderly trajectory from your starting point.

Pay attention to the following student’s description of her bedroom and how she guides the reader through the viewing process, foot by foot.

Attached to my bedroom wall is a small wooden rack dangling with red and turquoise necklaces that shimmer as you enter. Just to the right of the rack is my window, framed by billowy white curtains. The peace of such an image is a stark contrast to my desk, which sits to the right of the window, layered in textbooks, crumpled papers, coffee cups, and an overflowing ashtray. Turning my head to the right, I see a set of two bare windows that frame the trees outside the glass like a 3D painting. Below the windows is an oak chest from which blankets and scarves are protruding. Against the wall opposite the billowy curtains is an antique dresser, on top of which sits a jewelry box and a few picture frames. A tall mirror attached to the dresser takes up most of the wall, which is the color of lavender.

The paragraph incorporates two objectives you have learned in this chapter: using an implied topic sentence and applying spatial order. Often in a descriptive essay, the two work together.

The following are possible transition words to include when using spatial order:

  • Just to the left or just to the right
  • On the left or on the right
  • Across from
  • A little further down
  • To the south, to the east, and so on
  • A few yards away
  • Turning left or turning right

On a separate sheet of paper, write a paragraph using spatial order that describes your commute to work, school, or another location you visit often.

Collaboration

Please share with a classmate and compare your answers.

Key Takeaways

  • The way you organize your body paragraphs ensures you and your readers stay focused on and draw connections to, your thesis statement.
  • A strong organizational pattern allows you to articulate, analyze, and clarify your thoughts.
  • Planning the organizational structure for your essay before you begin to search for supporting evidence helps you conduct more effective and directed research.
  • Chronological order is most commonly used in expository writing. It is useful for explaining the history of your subject, for telling a story, or for explaining a process.
  • Order of importance is most appropriate in a persuasion paper as well as for essays in which you rank things, people, or events by their significance.
  • Spatial order describes things as they are arranged in space and is best for helping readers visualize something as you want them to see it; it creates a dominant impression.

Writing for Success Copyright © 2015 by University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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6.14: Essay Organization

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Learning Objectives

  • Examine the basic organization of traditional essays

Although college essays can offer ideas in many ways, one standard structure for expository essays is to offer the main idea or assertion early in the essay, and then offer categories of support.

One way to think about this standard structure is to compare it to a courtroom argument in a television drama. The lawyer asserts, “My client is not guilty.” Then the lawyer provides different reasons for lack of guilt: no physical evidence placing the client at the crime scene, client had no motive for the crime, and more.

In writing terms, the assertion is the thesis sentence , and the different reasons are the topic sentences . Consider this following example:

  • Topic Sentence (reason) #1: Workers need to learn how to deal with change.
  • Topic Sentence (reason) #2: Because of dealing with such a rapidly changing work environment, 21st-century workers need to learn how to learn.
  • Topic Sentence (reason) #3: Most of all, in order to negotiate rapid change and learning, workers in the 21st century need good communication skills.

As you can see, the supporting ideas in an essay develop out of the main assertion or argument in the thesis sentence.

Essay Organization

The structural organization of an essay will vary, depending on the type of writing task you’ve been assigned, but they generally follow this basic structure:

Introduction

The introduction introduces the reader to the topic. We’ve all heard that first impressions are important. This is very true in writing as well. The goal is to engage the readers, hook them so they want to read on. Sometimes this involves giving an example, telling a story or narrative, asking a question, or building up the situation. The introduction should almost always include the thesis statement.

Body Paragraphs

The body of the essay is separated into paragraphs. Each paragraph usually covers a single claim or argues a single point, expanding on what was introduced in the thesis statement. For example, according to the National Institute of Mental Health, the two main causes of schizophrenia are genetic and environmental. Thus, if you were writing about the causes of schizophrenia, then you would have a body paragraph on genetic causes of schizophrenia and a body paragraph on the environmental causes.

A body paragraph usually includes the following:

  • Topic sentence that identifies the topic for the paragraph
  • Several sentences that describe and support the topic sentence

The words "the end" written in sand.

  • Remember that information from outside sources should be placed in the middle of the paragraph and not at the beginning or the end of the paragraph so that you have time to introduce and explain the outside content
  • Quotation marks placed around any information taken verbatim (word for word) from the source
  • Summary sentence(s) that draws conclusions from the evidence
  • Transitions or bridge sentences between paragraphs.
  • Draw final conclusions from the key points and evidence provided in the paper;
  • For example, if you began with a story, draw final conclusions from that story; If you began with a question(s), refer back to the question(s) and be sure to provide the answer(s).

Step through this presentation to review the main components of an essay, then see if you can correctly organize the essay below.

Contributors and Attributions

  • Revision and Adaptation. Provided by : Lumen Learning. License : CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
  • Writing an Essay. Provided by : QUT Cite Write. Located at : http://www.citewrite.qut.edu.au/write/essay.jsp . License : CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
  • Image of Choosing Paragraph Patterns. Authored by : GrinnPidgeon. Located at : flic.kr/p/a9oiLS. License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
  • Essay Structure. Authored by : Marianne Botos, Lynn McClelland, Stephanie Polliard, Pamela Osback . Located at : https://pvccenglish.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/eng-101-inside-pages-proof2-no-pro.pdf . Project : Horse of a Different Color: English Composition and Rhetoric . License : CC BY: Attribution
  • Traditional Structure. Provided by : Excelsior OWL. Located at : https://owl.excelsior.edu/writing-process/essay-writing/essay-writing-traditional-structure-activity/ . License : CC BY: Attribution
  • Image of writing in the sand. Authored by : Michitogo. Provided by : Pixabay. Located at : pixabay.com/photos/the-end-sand-end-beach-text-1544913/. License : Other . License Terms : pixabay.com/service/terms/#license
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Organizing an Essay

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Some basic guidelines

The best time to think about how to organize your paper is during the pre-writing stage, not the writing or revising stage. A well-thought-out plan can save you from having to do a lot of reorganizing when the first draft is completed. Moreover, it allows you to pay more attention to sentence-level issues when you sit down to write your paper.

When you begin planning, ask the following questions: What type of essay am I going to be writing? Does it belong to a specific genre? In university, you may be asked to write, say, a book review, a lab report, a document study, or a compare-and-contrast essay. Knowing the patterns of reasoning associated with a genre can help you to structure your essay.

For example, book reviews typically begin with a summary of the book you’re reviewing. They then often move on to a critical discussion of the book’s strengths and weaknesses. They may conclude with an overall assessment of the value of the book. These typical features of a book review lead you to consider dividing your outline into three parts: (1) summary; (2) discussion of strengths and weaknesses; (3) overall evaluation. The second and most substantial part will likely break down into two sub-parts. It is up to you to decide the order of the two subparts—whether to analyze strengths or weaknesses first. And of course it will be up to you to come up with actual strengths and weaknesses.

Be aware that genres are not fixed. Different professors will define the features of a genre differently. Read the assignment question carefully for guidance.

Understanding genre can take you only so far. Most university essays are argumentative, and there is no set pattern for the shape of an argumentative essay. The simple three-point essay taught in high school is far too restrictive for the complexities of most university assignments. You must be ready to come up with whatever essay structure helps you to convince your reader of the validity of your position. In other words, you must be flexible, and you must rely on your wits. Each essay presents a fresh problem.

Avoiding a common pitfall

Though there are no easy formulas for generating an outline, you can avoid one of the most common pitfalls in student papers by remembering this simple principle: the structure of an essay should not be determined by the structure of its source material. For example, an essay on an historical period should not necessarily follow the chronology of events from that period. Similarly, a well-constructed essay about a literary work does not usually progress in parallel with the plot. Your obligation is to advance your argument, not to reproduce the plot.

If your essay is not well structured, then its overall weaknesses will show through in the individual paragraphs. Consider the following two paragraphs from two different English essays, both arguing that despite Hamlet’s highly developed moral nature he becomes morally compromised in the course of the play:

(a) In Act 3, Scene 4, Polonius hides behind an arras in Gertrude’s chamber in order to spy on Hamlet at the bidding of the king. Detecting something stirring, Hamlet draws his sword and kills Polonius, thinking he has killed Claudius. Gertrude exclaims, “O, what a rash and bloody deed is this!” (28), and her words mark the turning point in Hamlet’s moral decline. Now Hamlet has blood on his hands, and the blood of the wrong person. But rather than engage in self-criticism, Hamlet immediately turns his mother’s words against her: “A bloody deed — almost as bad, good Mother, as kill a king, and marry with his brother” (29-30). One of Hamlet’s most serious shortcomings is his unfair treatment of women. He often accuses them of sins they could not have committed. It is doubtful that Gertrude even knows Claudius killed her previous husband. Hamlet goes on to ask Gertrude to compare the image of the two kings, old Hamlet and Claudius. In Hamlet’s words, old Hamlet has “Hyperion’s curls,” the front of Jove,” and “an eye like Mars” (57-58). Despite Hamlet’s unfair treatment of women, he is motivated by one of his better qualities: his idealism. (b) One of Hamlet’s most serious moral shortcomings is his unfair treatment of women. In Act 3, Scene 1, he denies to Ophelia ever having expressed his love for her, using his feigned madness as cover for his cruelty. Though his rantings may be an act, they cannot hide his obsessive anger at one particular woman: his mother. He counsels Ophelia to “marry a fool, for wise men know well enough what monsters you make of them” (139-41), thus blaming her in advance for the sin of adultery. The logic is plain: if Hamlet’s mother made a cuckold out of Hamlet’s father, then all women are capable of doing the same and therefore share the blame. The fact that Gertrude’s hasty remarriage does not actually constitute adultery only underscores Hamlet’s tendency to find in women faults that do not exist. In Act 3, Scene 4, he goes as far as to suggest that Gertrude shared responsibility in the murder of Hamlet’s father (29-30). By condemning women for actions they did not commit, Hamlet is doing just what he accuses Guildenstern of doing to him: he is plucking out the “heart” of their “mystery” (3.2.372-74).

The second of these two paragraphs is much stronger, largely because it is not plot-driven. It makes a well-defined point about Hamlet’s moral nature and sticks to that point throughout the paragraph. Notice that the paragraph jumps from one scene to another as is necessary, but the logic of the argument moves along a steady path. At any given point in your essays, you will want to leave yourself free to go wherever you need to in your source material. Your only obligation is to further your argument. Paragraph (a) sticks closely to the narrative thread of Act 3, Scene 4, and as a result the paragraph makes several different points with no clear focus.

What does an essay outline look like?

Most essay outlines will never be handed in. They are meant to serve you and no one else. Occasionally, your professor will ask you to hand in an outline weeks prior to handing in your paper. Usually, the point is to ensure that you are on the right track. Nevertheless, when you produce your outline, you should follow certain basic principles. Here is an example of an outline for an essay on Hamlet :

This is an example of a sentence outline. Another kind of outline is the topic outline. It consists of fragments rather than full sentences. Topic outlines are more open-ended than sentence outlines: they leave much of the working out of the argument for the writing stage.

When should I begin putting together a plan?

The earlier you begin planning, the better. It is usually a mistake to do all of your research and note-taking before beginning to draw up an outline. Of course, you will have to do some reading and weighing of evidence before you start to plan. But as a potential argument begins to take shape in your mind, you may start to formalize your thoughts in the form of a tentative plan. You will be much more efficient in your reading and your research if you have some idea of where your argument is headed. You can then search for evidence for the points in your tentative plan while you are reading and researching. As you gather evidence, those points that still lack evidence should guide you in your research. Remember, though, that your plan may need to be modified as you critically evaluate your evidence.

How can I construct a usable plan?

Here are two methods for constructing a plan. The first works best on the computer. The second method works well for those who think visually. It is often the method of choice for those who prefer to do some of their thinking with pen and paper, though it can easily be transposed to a word processor or your graphic software of choice.

method 1: hierarchical outline

This method usually begins by taking notes. Start by collecting potential points, as well as useful quotations and paraphrases of quotations, consecutively. As you accumulate notes, identify key points and start to arrange those key points into an outline. To build your outline, take advantage of outline view in Word or numbered lists in Google Docs. Or consider one of the specialized apps designed to help organize ideas: Scrivener, Microsoft OneNote, Workflowy, among others. All these tools make it easy for you to arrange your points hierarchically and to move those points around as you refine your plan.You may, at least initially, keep your notes and your outline separate. But there is no reason for you not to integrate your notes into the plan. Your notes—minor points, quotations, and paraphrases—can all be interwoven into the plan, just below the main points they support. Some of your notes may not find a place in your outline. If so, either modify the plan or leave those points out.

method 2: the circle method

This method is designed to get your key ideas onto a single page, where you can see them all at once. When you have an idea, write it down, and draw a circle around it. When you have an idea that supports another idea, do the same, but connect the two circles with a line. Supporting source material can be represented concisely by a page reference inside a circle. The advantage of the circle method is that you can see at a glance how things tie together; the disadvantage is that there is a limit to how much material you can cram onto a page.

Here is part of a circle diagram

Once you are content with your diagram, you have the option of turning it into an essay outline.

What is a reverse outline?

When you have completed your first draft, and you think your paper can be better organized, consider using a reverse outline. Reverse outlines are simple to create. Just read through your essay, and every time you make a new point, summarize it in the margin. If the essay is reasonably well-organized, you should have one point in the margin for each paragraph, and your points read out in order should form a coherent argument. You might, however, discover that some of your points are repeated at various places in your essay. Other points may be out of place, and still other key points may not appear at all. Think of all these points as the ingredients of an improved outline which you now must create. Use this new outline to cut and paste the sentences into a revised version of your essay, consolidating points that appear in several parts of your essay while eliminating repetition and creating smooth transitions where necessary.

You can improve even the most carefully planned essay by creating a reverse outline after completing your first draft. The process of revision should be as much about organization as it is about style.

How much of my time should I put into planning?

It is self-evident that a well-planned paper is going to be better organized than a paper that was not planned out. Thinking carefully about how you are going to argue your paper and preparing an outline can only add to the quality of your final product. Nevertheless, some people find it more helpful than others to plan. Those who are good at coming up with ideas but find writing difficult often benefit from planning. By contrast, those who have trouble generating ideas but find writing easy may benefit from starting to write early. Putting pen to paper (or typing away at the keyboard) may be just what is needed to get the ideas to flow.

You have to find out for yourself what works best for you, though it is fair to say that at least some planning is always a good idea. Think about whether your current practices are serving you well. You know you’re planning too little if the first draft of your essays is always a disorganized mess, and you have to spend a disproportionate amount of time creating reverse outlines and cutting and pasting material. You know you’re planning too much if you always find yourself writing your paper a day before it’s due after spending weeks doing research and devising elaborate plans.

Be aware of the implications of planning too little or too much.

Planning  provides the following  advantages :

  • helps you to produce a  logical  and  orderly  argument that your readers can follow
  • helps you to produce an  economical  paper by allowing you to spot repetition
  • helps you to produce a  thorough  paper by making it easier for you to notice whether you have left anything out
  • makes drafting the paper easier by allowing you to concentrate on writing issues such as grammar, word choice, and clarity

Overplanning  poses the following  risks :

  • doesn’t leave you enough time to write and revise
  • leads you to produce papers that try to cover too much ground at the expense of analytic depth
  • can result in a writing style that lacks spontaneity and ease
  • does not provide enough opportunity to discover new ideas in the process of writing

Module 6: The Writing Process

Essay organization, learning objectives.

  • Examine the basic organization of traditional essays

What are some ways that you can organize your essays in college. One standard structure for expository essays is to offer the main idea or assertion early in the essay, and then offer categories of support.

One way to think about this standard structure is to compare it to a courtroom argument in a television drama. The lawyer asserts, “My client is not guilty.” Then the lawyer provides different reasons for lack of guilt: no physical evidence placing the client at the crime scene, client had no motive for the crime, and more.

In writing terms, the assertion is the  thesis sentence , and the different reasons are the  topic sentences . Consider this following example:

  • Topic Sentence (reason) #1:  Workers need to learn how to deal with change.
  • Topic Sentence (reason) #2:  Because of dealing with such a rapidly changing work environment, 21st-century workers need to learn how to learn.
  • Topic Sentence (reason) #3:  Most of all, in order to negotiate rapid change and learning, workers in the 21st century need good communication skills.

As you can see, the supporting ideas in an essay develop out of the main assertion or argument in the thesis sentence.

The structural organization of an essay will vary, depending on the type of writing task you’ve been assigned, but they generally follow this basic structure: The thesis and the topic sentences are all concerned with workers and what they need for the workforce.

Introduction

The introduction provides the reader with context about your topic. You may be familiar with the cliché about how first impressions are important. This is true in writing as well, and you can think of your introduction as that first impression. The goal is to engage the readers, so they want to read on. Sometimes this involves giving an example, telling a story or narrative, asking a question, or building up the situation. The introduction should almost always include the thesis statement.

Body Paragraphs

The body of the essay is separated into paragraphs. Each paragraph usually covers a single claim or argues a single point, expanding on what was introduced in the thesis statement. For example, according to the National Institute of Mental Health, the two main causes of schizophrenia are genetic and environmental. Thus, if you were writing about the causes of schizophrenia, then you would have a body paragraph on genetic causes of schizophrenia and a body paragraph on the environmental causes.

A body paragraph usually includes the following:

  • Topic sentence that identifies the topic for the paragraph
  • Several sentences that describe and support the topic sentence

The words "the end" written in sand.

Figure 1 . College instructors require more than just “the end” at the close of a paper. Take the time to revisit your thesis statement, bringing all of your claims and evidences together in your conclusion.

  • Remember that information from outside sources should be placed in the middle of the paragraph and not at the beginning or the end of the paragraph so that you have time to introduce and explain the outside content
  • Quotation marks placed around any information taken verbatim (word for word) from the source
  • Summary sentence(s) that draws conclusions from the evidence
  • Transitions or bridge sentences between paragraphs.

If you began with a story, draw final conclusions from that story in your conclusion. If you began with a question, refer back to the question and be sure to provide the answer.

A concluding paragraph:

  • summarizes final conclusions from the key points
  • provides a brief comment on the evidence provided in the paper
  • ties in the introduction

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  • Revision and Adaptation. Provided by : Lumen Learning. License : CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
  • Writing an Essay. Provided by : QUT Cite Write. Located at : http://www.citewrite.qut.edu.au/write/essay.jsp . License : CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
  • Image of Choosing Paragraph Patterns. Authored by : GrinnPidgeon. Located at : https://flic.kr/p/a9oiLS . License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
  • Essay Structure. Authored by : Marianne Botos, Lynn McClelland, Stephanie Polliard, Pamela Osback . Located at : https://pvccenglish.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/eng-101-inside-pages-proof2-no-pro.pdf . Project : Horse of a Different Color: English Composition and Rhetoric . License : CC BY: Attribution
  • Traditional Structure. Provided by : Excelsior OWL. Located at : https://owl.excelsior.edu/writing-process/essay-writing/essay-writing-traditional-structure-activity/ . License : CC BY: Attribution
  • Image of writing in the sand. Authored by : Michitogo. Provided by : Pixabay. Located at : https://pixabay.com/photos/the-end-sand-end-beach-text-1544913/ . License : Other . License Terms : https://pixabay.com/service/terms/#license

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Tips for Writing a "What I Did on Vacation" Essay

  • Writing Essays
  • Writing Research Papers
  • English Grammar
  • M.Ed., Education Administration, University of Georgia
  • B.A., History, Armstrong State University

Are you required to write an essay about your summer vacation or your holiday break? This can be a tough assignment to tackle at first glance. But if you think about it, there are lots of interesting things that happen on your vacation that others might enjoy reading about. The key to success is to zero in on the experiences, people, or situations that made your vacation unique.

Summer vacation can be busy or lazy, funny or serious. You may have traveled with your family, worked every day, fallen in love, or coped with a difficult situation. To start your essay, you'll need to choose a topic and tone.

Family Vacation Essay Topic Ideas

If you traveled with your family, you may have some great stories to tell. After all, every family is crazy in its own way. Want some proof? How many Hollywood films have themes about family holidays or trips? Those films are popular because they enable us to glimpse inside the crazy family lives of others. Alternatively, you may have a more serious story to tell.

Consider these funny topics:

  • Why I'll Never Go Back to (insert place name)
  • How (insert name) Drove Me Crazy in Five Days
  • Traveling to (insert city) Then and Now
  • The Hazards of Traveling With a (person or thing)
  • Why You Shouldn't Take a Dog to (insert place)
  • I Left (insert city) But My (lost item) Stayed
  • Why I Couldn't Sleep in (place name)

If your family vacation involved something more serious, think about one of these topics:

  • The Love I Left Behind in (insert place)
  • Saying Good-Bye to (insert person or place)
  • Exploring (place's) Secrets
  • An Emotional Trip

Summer Job Essay Topic Ideas

Not everyone gets to spend the summer having fun; some of us have to work for a living. If you spent your summer at a job, chances are you met a lot of interesting characters, dealt with complicated situations, or even saved the day once or twice. Here are some ideas for summer job topics:

  • The Boss's Day Off
  • The Customer From Hell
  • What I Learned from My Customers
  • Why I'll Never Go Into the ___ Business
  • Six Things I Learned on the Job

How to Write the Essay

Once you've chosen your topic and your tone, think about the story you want to tell. In most cases, your essay will follow a typical story arc:

  • The hook (the funny, sad, or scary sentence that grabs the reader's attention)
  • The rising action (the beginning of your story)
  • The climax (the most exciting moment in your story)
  • The denouement (the aftermath or ending to your story)

Start by writing out the basic outline of your story. For example, "I started cleaning a guest's room and found that they'd left behind a wallet with $100 in cash. When I turned it in without taking a single dollar for myself, my boss rewarded me with a $100 gift certificate and a special award for honesty."

Next, start fleshing out the details. What was the room like? What was the guest like? What did the wallet look like and where was it left? Were you tempted to just take the money and turn in the wallet empty? How did your boss look when you handed her the wallet? How did you feel when you got your reward? How did others around you react to your honesty?

Once you've told your story in all its detail, it's time to write the hook and conclusion. What question or thought can you use to grab your reader's attention? For example: "What would you do if you found a wallet loaded with cash? That was my dilemma this summer."

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Practical Traveler

Planning the Perfect Vacation

15) describe the organization of the well planned vacation essay

By Michelle Higgins

  • July 20, 2011

WITH summer in full swing, the top priority of most travelers is simple: relax. But for many people that isn’t such an easy goal to attain.

The problem is how to get the most out of those precious days off. Is it best to fill them with a lot of activities? Or is there a benefit to just doing nothing? Do you need at least a week, if not more, to decompress? Or will short getaways do the trick? And what about the e-mail accruing every second you are out of the office? Is it less stressful to answer those messages while on vacation? Or should you completely disconnect and deal with them when you return?

The answers depend on an individual’s personality. Yet a review of behavioral studies and interviews with experts revealed that there are several factors that should not be ignored.

Below, the Practical Traveler’s as-scientific-as-possible guide to planning the perfect vacation:

RELISH THE ANTICIPATION Planning early brings many people more joy than the actual vacation. A 2010 study by Jeroen Nawijn, a tourism research lecturer at Breda University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands, examined the behavior of 1,530 Dutch adults and found that the 974 individuals who took a vacation achieved the greatest amount of happiness leading up to the trip.

His findings were in line with studies led by the psychologists Leigh Thompson of Northwestern University and Terence Mitchell of the University of Washington that examined travelers’ anticipation of, actual experiences on, and memories of vacations. The results, published in 1997 in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, found that regardless of the type of trip, vacationers were happier in the period leading up to their time off than during the vacation itself.

So booking your trip well ahead not only gives you an edge when it comes to logistics (getting the best room and often the best deal), it also helps build anticipation, which can boost happiness. Not to mention that planning early can decrease the stress of a last-minute scramble.

LONGER ISN’T NECESSARILY BETTER If a leisurely one- or two-week vacation is not possible, you might try taking multiple short trips. In fact, taking several three- or four-day trips — providing multiple opportunities to experience the pleasure of anticipation — may even be more beneficial than one long vacation.

“I found that the length of stay has very little influence on how people feel during a trip or afterwards,” Professor Nawijn said.

In other words, if you take only one big vacation a year, then it’s over and there’s nothing to look forward to until next year. That does not mean every vacation should be a quick weekend jaunt. There should be a balance between travel time (and the inevitable hassles that come with it) and vacation days at your destination, Professor Nawijn said.

WHATEVER YOU DO, MAKE YOUR TIME COUNT While the length of your vacation may vary, some experts believe true relaxation can’t be rushed.

“It takes one week to get into it and really start to unwind,” said Al Gini, a business ethics professor at Loyola University of Chicago and the author of “The Importance of Being Lazy.” “People very often take three days of vacation and work right up until the end,” he added. “Those first three days you’re exhausted and confused and still tied in knots.”

His advice: Give yourself permission to slow down leading up to your trip by taking a few days for packing and for wrapping things up at work. Building in time to wind down at the end of your trip by lounging by the pool instead of running around sightseeing also helps avoid coming home exhausted.

DITCH THE SMARTPHONE There are no definitive studies on how to best manage the inevitable e-mail pileup back at the office. The answer, experts say, depends on you.

“There are some people who just by not connecting at all for a week or two weeks or even three days will actually become more stressed out thinking about all the things they’re missing and could be going wrong and so forth,” said Dalton Conley, New York University’s dean of social sciences, who uses the term “weisure” to describe the increasingly blurring boundaries between work and leisure time in his 2009 book, “Elsewhere, U.S.A.”

“Other people will need to be constantly connected to feel secure,” he added. (Mr. Conley seems to fall into the latter category: he returned this reporter’s call while on vacation himself.)

For those who simply can’t disconnect, check e-mail only at a certain time and stick to it. For those who really want to get away from it all, but don’t trust their ability to ignore their smartphone, travel to places where connectivity is not an option. 

“One of the most relaxing vacations I ever had was to a remote island in Fiji,” said Jeremy McCarthy, corporate spa director for Starwood Hotels and Resorts, who has a master’s degree in applied positive psychology and maintains a blog on the psychology of well-being.   “Although I initially freaked out when I realized I would not be able to get online, once I accepted that it was beyond my control it allowed me to truly escape.”

PROTECT YOURSELF WITH A CAREFULLY WRITTEN OUT-OF-OFFICE MESSAGE To lessen the number of e-mails awaiting your return, Mr. McCarthy recommends the following vacation message: “I will be out of the office with no access to e-mail until Aug. 17.   If you need my assistance or attention after I return, please resend your message after that date.”

“If the sender really needs help,” he said, “they’ll resend the e-mail.”

You might also consider doing what a couple of my colleagues have suggested: adding a day or two to your return date to give yourself time to catch up before new e-mails start pouring in.

LOSE YOURSELF IN AN ACTIVITY “Doing activities that completely absorb us can be good while on vacation,” said Elizabeth W. Dunn, an associate professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia who studies consumption and happiness. She said that research by Christopher Hsee, a professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, found that people who use their time productively are happier than people who are idle.

That doesn’t mean you have to take an intensive yoga or rock-climbing course. Indeed, Professor Hsee points out that staying busy doesn’t have to be physical: simply exploring the local culture can be beneficial, he said. Consider taking a cooking class while in Italy instead of simply eating out, or sign up for an in-depth tour of an archaeological site while in Mexico instead of lying by the pool.

END ON A HIGH NOTE Daniel Kahneman, a Princeton psychologist and Nobel laureate, has demonstrated in studies that people tend to judge experiences largely on peak moments, either good or bad, that stood out — regardless of how long the experience lasted (a phenomenon called the “peak-end rule”).

While it is not always possible to end a trip with a positive experience (especially if flights are involved), planning at least one special activity (an epic meal, a scenic hike) can make a difference. After all, it’s the highlights we tend to brag about to our friends when we return.

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How to Write a Summer Vacation Essay

Summer break is a great time to kick back, relax and enjoy yourself and, if you’re lucky, to go on an awesome trip! But how can you translate your amazing vacation into a narrative essay for English class or work it to fit a common application prompt? Here’s some tips to help you out:

Save Mementos From Your Summer

Even if you’re not the sentimental type, make sure to document your summer travels. Take pictures, write diary entries, save train stubs. This is the best way to ensure that you’ll remember your summer well enough to look back and write about it later.

Write an Outline Before Writing Your Essay

Regardless of whether you spent your summer break in Madison, Wisconsin or Madrid, Spain, you should plan out what you’re going to write before diving in. Make a list of what you’ve done over the summer so that you can later narrow down a focus for the essay itself. Keep in mind that the best essay topics aren’t always on the most exciting activities an essay about getting stuck in traffic on the way to the airport on the way to Denver could work better than an essay on hiking the Grand Canyon and looking out at the incredible view.

Be Specific

Since you’re going to keep a record of your trip and come up with an outline before writing your essay, you should be able to put some detail into your essay. Be as specific as possible when it comes to your word choice. If you’re talking about some gelato that you ate in Italy, don’t say that it was “delicious.” Instead, say that it was “creamy and chocolatey, with a note of vanilla.”

Focus on Feelings About Your Trip, Not What You Did

If you spent the summer on the beach in Cape Cod, you shouldn’t write about what you did. You should write instead about how you felt while there. An essay that reads “I went to beach, then had lobster for dinner” is not quite as exciting as one that goes, “As I went for a walk on the beach, I thought about how lucky I was to be able to enjoy nature.” Feelings translate better into text than events, and you should try to place those feelings into context.

Stick to Writing About a Small Moment

With any essay you write especially a short one it’s important to focus a narrow moment in time. Don’t write about your entire week in Paris. Instead, write about the moment you got lost in the city at midnight and fumbled your way home in the dark. You don’t have to pick a particularly glamorous moment from your trip, but you should pick one that meant something to you.

Edit Your Essay Carefully

The shorter the essay, the more important precision is. Regardless of length, make sure to carefully read over what you’ve written to make sure every sentence conveys the message you most want displayed. The editing process matters just as much as the writing process, even if it seems less so.

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Many types of writing follow some version of the basic shape described above. This shape is most obvious in the form of the traditional five-paragraph essay: a model for college writing in which the writer argues his or her viewpoint (thesis) on a topic and uses three reasons or subtopics to support that position. In the five-paragraph model, as illustrated below, the introductory paragraph mentions the three main points or subtopics, and each body paragraph begins with a topic sentence dealing with one of those main points.

SAMPLE ESSAY USING THE FIVE-PARAGRAPH MODEL

Remember, this is a very simplistic model. It presents a basic idea of essay organization and may certainly be helpful in learning to structure an argument, but it should not be followed religiously as an ideal form.

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How to Write an Essay on How You Spent Your Summer Vacation

Last Updated: January 4, 2020

This article was co-authored by Alexander Peterman, MA . Alexander Peterman is a Private Tutor in Florida. He received his MA in Education from the University of Florida in 2017. This article has been viewed 52,795 times.

Writing an essay on how you spent your summer vacation is a classic way of starting a new school year. Think about this essay as an opportunity to tell a story about your summer while reflecting on the experiences you had. Choose a memorable moment you had this summer and start crafting your essay, giving as many details as possible.

Choosing a Topic

Step 1 Look back on mementos you kept from the summer.

  • These can also make nice visual aids if you are asked to present your essay.

Step 2 Make a list of the things you’ve done over summer vacation.

  • A list might be full of things like babysitting, attending a camp, working at a local store, taking a road trip, etc. This type of brainstorming can help you pick major events and other important moments from your summer.

Step 3 Write about a memorable moment.

  • For example, maybe you spent your summer traveling around Japan. Think of a memorable moment you had while traveling — maybe you walked up a mountain in the pouring rain — and write about this moment, adding lots of details.

Step 4 Create an outline...

  • For example, if you're writing about spending time at the beach, your outline could remind you to talk about the sandcastle building contest you entered, the dolphins you saw, and the ice cream you ate every day.
  • Details might be what the other sandcastles looked like, how far away the dolphins were, and what kind of toppings were on your ice cream.
  • Your outline is just to help you organize your thoughts — it can be written by hand or typed.

Crafting the Essay

Step 1 Focus on your feelings, interactions, and thoughts.

  • Instead of saying that you worked in a pet store, ate a PB&J sandwich, and walked home every day, talk about more than just your actions. You could talk about which pets are your favorites to work with, how it felt to eat the same sandwich every day, or what you thought about on your walk home.

Step 2 Use your 5 senses to explain your experiences.

  • Using sensory details like these will help your readers visualize and engage with your writing. These help your audience make your experiences feel real to them, even though they weren't there.

Step 3 Describe activities you did in each place you went.

  • For example, instead of saying “I went to the beach this summer,” try saying “I spent my summer swimming in the frigid water at Virginia Beach.” The more details you can provide, the more engaged your reader will be.

Step 4 Choose precise, descriptive adjectives.

  • Instead of saying “the burger was really good,” you could say, “the burger was juicy and filling.”

Step 5 Revise and edit your essay carefully.

  • Don't just rely on spellcheck. It will help catch some errors, but it will miss some things, too.
  • Ask a parent or other adult to read over your essay too, if you'd like.
  • Setting your essay aside for a little while will give you a fresher perspective when you go back to revise it.

Structuring Your Essay

Step 1 Start with a strong introduction.

  • Make sure your conclusion doesn’t just copy the introduction.

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15) describe the organization of the well planned vacation essay

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About This Article

Alexander Peterman, MA

If you need to write an essay on how you spent your summer vacation, there are simple ways to take your writing to the next level. Choose a moment that stands out to you, like playing at the park with your friends or watching a movie you enjoyed. Think about all the feelings and thoughts you had, and use them to write sensory descriptions that will take the reader on the journey with you. Use your introduction to set the scene and draw your reader in. Then, use each paragraph to explore different aspects of your favorite moment. For example, if you won a video game competition with your friends, you can talk about the rivalry between you, the rounds of the game, and how you celebrated. For more tips from our Education co-author, including how to edit your essay, read on! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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Purdue Online Writing Lab Purdue OWL® College of Liberal Arts

Organization and Structure

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There is no single organizational pattern that works well for all writing across all disciplines; rather, organization depends on what you’re writing, who you’re writing it for, and where your writing will be read. In order to communicate your ideas, you’ll need to use a logical and consistent organizational structure in all of your writing. We can think about organization at the global level (your entire paper or project) as well as at the local level (a chapter, section, or paragraph). For an American academic situation, this means that at all times, the goal of revising for organization and structure is to consciously design your writing projects to make them easy for readers to understand. In this context, you as the writer are always responsible for the reader's ability to understand your work; in other words, American academic writing is writer-responsible. A good goal is to make your writing accessible and comprehensible to someone who just reads sections of your writing rather than the entire piece. This handout provides strategies for revising your writing to help meet this goal.

Note that this resource focuses on writing for an American academic setting, specifically for graduate students. American academic writing is of course not the only standard for academic writing, and researchers around the globe will have different expectations for organization and structure. The OWL has some more resources about writing for American and international audiences here .

Whole-Essay Structure

While organization varies across and within disciplines, usually based on the genre, publication venue, and other rhetorical considerations of the writing, a great deal of academic writing can be described by the acronym IMRAD (or IMRaD): Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion. This structure is common across most of the sciences and is often used in the humanities for empirical research. This structure doesn't serve every purpose (for instance, it may be difficult to follow IMRAD in a proposal for a future study or in more exploratory writing in the humanities), and it is often tweaked or changed to fit a particular situation. Still, its wide use as a base for a great deal of scholarly writing makes it worthwhile to break down here.

  • Introduction : What is the purpose of the study? What were the research questions? What necessary background information should the reader understand to help contextualize the study? (Some disciplines include their literature review section as part of the introduction; some give the literature review its own heading on the same level as the other sections, i.e., ILMRAD.) Some writers use the CARS model to help craft their introductions more effectively.
  • Methods: What methods did the researchers use? How was the study conducted? If the study included participants, who were they, and how were they selected?
  • Results : This section lists the data. What did the researchers find as a result of their experiments (or, if the research is not experimental, what did the researchers learn from the study)? How were the research questions answered?
  • Discussion : This section places the data within the larger conversation of the field. What might the results mean? Do these results agree or disagree with other literature cited? What should researchers do in the future?

Depending on your discipline, this may be exactly the structure you should use in your writing; or, it may be a base that you can see under the surface of published pieces in your field, which then diverge from the IMRAD structure to meet the expectations of other scholars in the field. However, you should always check to see what's expected of you in a given situation; this might mean talking to the professor for your class, looking at a journal's submission guidelines, reading your field's style manual, examining published examples, or asking a trusted mentor. Every field is a little different.

Outlining & Reverse Outlining

One of the most effective ways to get your ideas organized is to write an outline. A traditional outline comes as the pre-writing or drafting stage of the writing process. As you make your outline, think about all of the concepts, topics, and ideas you will need to include in order to accomplish your goal for the piece of writing. This may also include important citations and key terms. Write down each of these, and then consider what information readers will need to know in order for each point to make sense. Try to arrange your ideas in a way that logically progresses, building from one key idea or point to the next.

Questions for Writing Outlines

  • What are the main points I am trying to make in this piece of writing?
  • What background information will my readers need to understand each point? What will novice readers vs. experienced readers need to know?
  • In what order do I want to present my ideas? Most important to least important, or least important to most important? Chronologically? Most complex to least complex? According to categories? Another order?

Reverse outlining comes at the drafting or revision stage of the writing process. After you have a complete draft of your project (or a section of your project), work alone or with a partner to read your project with the goal of understanding the main points you have made and the relationship of these points to one another. The OWL has another resource about reverse outlining here.

Questions for Writing Reverse Outlines

  • What topics are covered in this piece of writing?
  • In what order are the ideas presented? Is this order logical for both novice and experienced readers?
  • Is adequate background information provided for each point, making it easy to understand how one idea leads to the next?
  • What other points might the author include to further develop the writing project?

Organizing at the sentence and paragraph level

Signposting.

Signposting is the practice of using language specifically designed to help orient readers of your text. We call it signposting because this practice is like leaving road signs for a driver — it tells your reader where to go and what to expect up ahead. Signposting includes the use of transitional words and phrasing, and they may be explicit or more subtle. For example, an explicit signpost might say:

This section will cover Topic A­­ and Topic B­­­­­.

A more subtle signpost might look like this:

It's important to consider the impact of Topic A­­ and Topic B­­­­­.

The style of signpost you use will depend on the genre of your paper, the discipline in which you are writing, and your or your readers’ personal preferences. Regardless of the style of signpost you select, it’s important to include signposts regularly. They occur most frequently at the beginnings and endings of sections of your paper. It is often helpful to include signposts at mid-points in your project in order to remind readers of where you are in your argument.

Questions for Identifying and Evaluating Signposts

  • How and where does the author include a phrase, sentence, or short group of sentences that explains the purpose and contents of the paper?
  • How does each section of the paper provide a brief summary of what was covered earlier in the paper?
  • How does each section of the paper explain what will be covered in that section?
  • How does the author use transitional words and phrases to guide readers through ideas (e.g. however, in addition, similarly, nevertheless, another, while, because, first, second, next, then etc.)?

WORKS CONSULTED

Clark, I. (2006). Writing the successful thesis and dissertation: Entering the conversation . Prentice Hall Press.

Davis, M., Davis, K. J., & Dunagan, M. (2012). Scientific papers and presentations . Academic press.

15. describe the organization of the well planned vacation essay a. in order of interest b. chronological order of events c. through anecdotes d. a list of steps e. by topic

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15) describe the organization of the well planned vacation essay

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15) Describe the organization of the well-planned vacation essay. chronological order of events by topic in order of interest through anecdotes O O a list of steps

15) describe the organization of the well planned vacation essay

Answer is in the photo. I can't attach it here, but I uploaded it to a file hosting. link below! Good Luck!

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source text: from the sketch here given it will be seen, that our good grandmothers differed considerably in their ideas of a fine figure, from their scantily dressed descendants of the present day. a fine lady, in those times, waddled under more clothes even on a fair summer's day, than would have clad the whole bevy of a modern ball room. nor were they the less admired by the gentlemen in consequence thereof. on the contrary, the greatness of a lover's passion seemed to increase in proportion to the magnitude of its object—and a voluminous damsel, arrayed in a dozen of petticoats, was declared by a low-dutch sonnetteer of the province, to be radiant as a sunflower, and luxuriant as a full blown cabbage. certain it is, that in those days, the heart of a lover could not contain more than one lady at a time; whereas the heart of a modern gallant has often room enough to accommodate half a dozen - - the reason of which i conclude to be, either that the hearts of the gentlemen have grown larger, or the persons of the ladies smaller — this however is a question for physiologists to determine. add punctuation to the following excerpt. writing under the name of diedrich knickerbocker washington irving aimed his potent satire at as diverse topics as political rivals such as thomas jefferson to the very ideal of looking back on the past affectionately: a fine lady, in those times, waddled under more clothes even on a fair summer's day, than would have clad the whole bevy of a modern ball room. a voluminous damsel, arrayed in a dozen of petticoats, was declared by a low-dutch sonnetteer of the province, to be radiant as a sunflower, and luxuriant as a full blown cabbage. in those days, the heart of a lover could not contain more than one lady at a time; whereas the heart of a modern gallant has often room enough to accommodate half a dozen

- "he is a very real person and his intent isn't to influence us vonnegut addresses this towards the end of the letter when he says, if we choose to curse, that is by our own individual means."

15) describe the organization of the well planned vacation essay

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  1. 15. describe the organization of the well planned vacation essay a. in

    The organization of a well-planned vacation essay can vary depending on the writer's preference and the purpose of the essay. However, one effective approach is to organize the essay chronologically, following the order of events that occurred during the vacation.

  2. 9.3 Organizing Your Writing

    Exercise 3. On a separate sheet of paper, write a paragraph that discusses a passion of yours. Your passion could be music, a particular sport, filmmaking, and so on. Your paragraph should be built upon the reasons why you feel so strongly. Briefly discuss your reasons in the order of least to greatest importance.

  3. PDF Strategies for Essay Writing

    When you write an essay for a course you are taking, you are being asked not only to create a product (the essay) but, more importantly, to go through a process of thinking more deeply about a question or problem related to the course. By writing about a source or collection of sources, you will have the chance to wrestle with some of the

  4. 6.14: Essay Organization

    Topic Sentence (reason) #1: Workers need to learn how to deal with change. Topic Sentence (reason) #2: Because of dealing with such a rapidly changing work environment, 21st-century workers need to learn how to learn. Topic Sentence (reason) #3: Most of all, in order to negotiate rapid change and learning, workers in the 21st century need good ...

  5. Organizing an Essay

    method 1: hierarchical outline. This method usually begins by taking notes. Start by collecting potential points, as well as useful quotations and paraphrases of quotations, consecutively. As you accumulate notes, identify key points and start to arrange those key points into an outline.

  6. Organizing Your Writing

    Exercise 3. On a separate sheet of paper, write a paragraph that discusses a passion of yours. Your passion could be music, a particular sport, filmmaking, and so on. Your paragraph should be built upon the reasons why you feel so strongly. Briefly discuss your reasons in the order of least to greatest importance.

  7. Essay Organization

    Topic Sentence (reason) #1: Workers need to learn how to deal with change. Topic Sentence (reason) #2: Because of dealing with such a rapidly changing work environment, 21st-century workers need to learn how to learn. Topic Sentence (reason) #3: Most of all, in order to negotiate rapid change and learning, workers in the 21st century need good ...

  8. Tips for Writing a "What I Did on Vacation" Essay

    The key to success is to zero in on the experiences, people, or situations that made your vacation unique. Summer vacation can be busy or lazy, funny or serious. You may have traveled with your family, worked every day, fallen in love, or coped with a difficult situation. To start your essay, you'll need to choose a topic and tone.

  9. Planning the Perfect Vacation

    "There are some people who just by not connecting at all for a week or two weeks or even three days will actually become more stressed out thinking about all the things they're missing and ...

  10. Descriptive Organization

    A key component to an effective descriptive essay is organization. The order you choose will depend on how you wish to present the information, but the most important is that you intentionally choose an order. The images below are some of examples of how to organize your essay. ... Or, you could use the senses and describe how he looks, sounds ...

  11. How to Write a Summer Vacation Essay

    If you spent the summer on the beach in Cape Cod, you shouldn't write about what you did. You should write instead about how you felt while there. An essay that reads "I went to beach, then had lobster for dinner" is not quite as exciting as one that goes, "As I went for a walk on the beach, I thought about how lucky I was to be able to ...

  12. How to Organize an Essay (with Pictures)

    3. Determine your writing task. How you organize your essay will also depend on what your writing task is. This is usually in the assignment or prompt. Look for keywords like "describe," "analyze," "discuss," or "compare.". These will tell you what your writing "job" is -- what the essay needs to accomplish. [5]

  13. Organizing an Essay

    Organizing an Essay. Organizing ideas and information clearly and logically in an essay, so that readers will understand and be able to follow the writer's thinking, is an essential stage of the writing process, but one that often proves to be more difficult than it sounds. When people write, ideas tend to come out in whatever order they occur ...

  14. How to Write an Essay on How You Spent Your Summer Vacation

    2. Make a list of the things you've done over summer vacation. When trying to write an essay on your summer vacation, it's helpful to first write a list of the things you did. Once you create a list, it'll be easier to remember specific details about each event or moment.

  15. Organization and Structure

    We can think about organization at the global level (your entire paper or project) as well as at the local level (a chapter, section, or paragraph). For an American academic situation, this means that at all times, the goal of revising for organization and structure is to consciously design your writing projects to make them easy for readers to ...

  16. How to Write a Narrative Essay

    When applying for college, you might be asked to write a narrative essay that expresses something about your personal qualities. For example, this application prompt from Common App requires you to respond with a narrative essay. College application prompt. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure.

  17. 15. describe the organization of the well planned

    To describe the organization of the well-planned vacation essay, the most effective approach is to use a chronological order of events.<br /><br />This method involves presenting the events in the order in which they occurred, starting from the initial planning phase and progressing through each step of the journey.

  18. Personal Narrative Essay a Trip on Vacation

    As our vacation came to a close, I found myself reflecting on the profound impact that our trip had on me. I realized that my time in Bali had not only been a vacation but also a journey of personal growth. I had stepped out of my comfort zone, embraced a new culture, and forged meaningful connections with the people I met along the way.

  19. How to Plan a Vacation Trip: Correct Navigation of the Process

    Lastly, ensure that all necessary travel documents are in order. Check passport validity, visa requirements, and any other necessary paperwork well in advance to avoid any last-minute complications or delays. Conclusion. In conclusion to the essay, vacation trip planning involves careful consideration and organization.

  20. 15) Describe the organization of the well-planned vacation essay

    Correct answers: 1 question: 15) Describe the organization of the well-planned vacation essay. chronological order of events by topic in order of interest through anecdotes O O a list of steps

  21. My Best Vacation: a Memorable Experience That I Won't Forget

    It was about 5 months before the summer holidays began and I decided I wanted to go for a vacation to the sea. I told my uncles, and he agreed. Now I am going to describe my best vacation in this short essay. Here I recount the unforgettable experiences and cherished moments that made it the most remarkable journey of my life.