What is writing structure?
How can it help build a faster, better paper?
Writing structure is the term for how ideas build on one another. If you’re familiar with decluttering, sentences, and paragraphs, you’ve started to build an algorithm for writing strong, consistent papers.
It’s important to practice writing word by word, using verbs, nouns and your W5 + H approach. We’re about to find out why.
Calculate your Project
This ain’t art, it’s business. Let’s figure out what this project is going to cost you, and how to minimize the cost and maximize the profit.
Word Count
Let’s say you have a writing assignment of 6-8 pages, 12-pt font, double spaced, standard margins.* Your word processor will put 250-270 words onto a page in that format. The budget math, then, is:
250 x 6 = 1500 words
270 x 8 = 2160 words
So the word count will be somewhere between 1500 and 2160 words. The median (numerical midpoint) is around 1830 words. To make sure we’re accounting for all variables, let’s assume this will be an essay of 1800-1900 words.
Distribution of Word Count
This is like building something, fixing something on your car, or hand-making all your Christmas gifts. You only have so much time, and you know you’re limited by money for supplies, mental energy, and tools. We’re going to figure out how much to commit, and where.
A sentence, we now know, should be no more than 15 words, unless it’s a very clear list or a very clear set of dependent clauses.
A paragraph should be about 5 sentences.
15 x 5 = 75 words per paragraph.
1800 words / 75 words per paragraph = 24 paragraphs.
If you tend to run long, 2100 words / 75 words per paragraph = 28 paragraphs.
This isn’t a rule. It’s an estimate that allows you to very quickly create a template for your project, then check your word count to see if your writing is meeting style (decluttered, good verbs and nouns) and content (W5 + H) benchmarks that will result in a good grade.
Template Your Project
Now that you know how many paragraphs will fit in this project, it’s time to divide and conquer them.
- Allow 1-4 paragraphs for your opening summary.
- Allow 1-4 paragraphs for your closing summary.
- This leaves you with 16-22 paragraphs to allons-y all over this project.
- Divide the remaining space into the different ways you want to address your topic.
- If you want to do “for,” “against,” and “other considerations,” you only have 5-7 paragraphs for each.
- Subtract one paragraph to introduce the main idea of the section and another to conclude the section.
- You only have 3-5 paragraphs to cover an entire angle of your topic!
- If you want to reflect on six things you learned from an experience, you only have 2-4 paragraphs for each thing.
- If you want to look at five ways something has changed over time, you only have 3-5 paragraphs for each way it’s changed.
And in each case, you have to find space to introduce and summarize the list of things you want to present.
Insider Tip
Student writing isn’t hard because it takes so long. It’s hard because fitting your ideas into a short space requires self-control, faithfulness and patience. If you can find love and joy for either your topics or your processes, things become easier.
It’s difficult to write from a mind full of strife and dissension against itself, when envious of what seems easy for others, or with enmity towards the work involved. Every project is a Galatians 5 project.
Prepare Your Paragraphs
Copy and paste the W5 + H list as many times as you need paragraphs.
- Who?
- What?
- When?
- Where?
- Why?
- How?
Remember, we’re not going to use them all for every paragraph. Some of the W5 + H’s will get erased if they don’t apply to that paragraph.
You can also do this using cue cards (recipe cards), with one card for each paragraph. If the assignment is to pick your own topic, this is a useful way to begin collecting source material.
As you find good sources, write down the citations and fill in whichever parts of the W5 + H apply in your template. Do not write down entire sentences from others’ work unless you intend to use it as a quote. Note keywords. Use your own words and put the information together in your own way.
Example: Romans 1:16-17
- Who? “I” = Paul
- What?
- The gospel
- Unashamed
- When? When someone believes
Where?- Why? It’s powerful to save
- How?
- God’s righteousness revealed
- Live by faith
Now I know this paragraph can easily have five sentences describing the content of Rom. 1:16-17. It may or may not be necessary to include the “who,” depending on what I’m discussing.
However, there’s too much here for a single paragraph of summary. In that paragraph, I only have one main idea sentence, three detail sentences, and one summary/look forward sentence.
I’ll take this down to 1 to 3 points and move the others to the other paragraphs for this section of my paper.
Prepare the Opening Paragraph
Here’s the biggest key of all: Look at your assignment. Does it have any keywords that put a limit on what to write about? These are the clues to your opening and closing paragraphs.
A scripture passage or set of scriptures? This is a WHAT, sometimes a WHO or a WHY.
A time period? This is a WHEN.
A location? This is a WHERE.
A person or set of people? This is a WHO.
An interaction between people, cultures, or ideas? This is a HOW. (It is not a why.)
You can enter these keywords into the W5 + H lists for your introduction section. Once you know what your main idea is, you can choose which things will get the most attention in your 1 to 4 introduction paragraphs.
Does your assignment specify the type of writing? Are you meant to construct an argument for or against something? Reflect on an experience? Compare or contrast things?
If your assignment has none of these things,* then you’ll need to identify some options in your topic of interest. Based on your course, you may already be able to fill in the main idea for your paper (the who/what). You can then find the rest of your main idea by beginning to read primary sources.
Self-Evaluation:
As you begin to look through primary sources, are you able to identify some W5 + H information?
Can you identify the keywords in that information?
Can you fill it in on a cue card, smartphone note, or word processing document, knowing that it’s okay to rearrange it or discard it as your paper develops?
Can you skim the table of contents in a primary source to locate the chapters and sections which apply to your topic?
*Millar students: If you are in Mr. Teichrib’s Secular Trends class, this is you.
Words: 1175 | Time to read: 6 minutes | Time to write: 3 hours