Structure

As you have realized, genre often determines the overall structure of a text. For example, recall from Chapter 2 the Introduction-Methods-Results-Discussion (IMRD) research report structure.

A lot of academic writing generally requires an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. You may have been taught what’s called the five-paragraph theme version of this general structure in which the thesis lists three points about a topic, which are then discussed in three body paragraphs. That structure isn’t the only way to write a college writing project though, and it won’t get you very far, as the five-paragraph theme’s structure is usually arbitrary and its three points underdeveloped. Break out of the formulaic five-paragraph theme to employ new college-level structures for your writing.

Read about three common organizational patterns for college essays—chronological, order of importance, and spatial—in Rhetoric and Composition (Bay College).