Just as the individual paragraphs which make up an essay must be carefully organized to be persuasive, so, too, does the essay itself have to be organized in order to be coherent and persuasive. You need to keep your thesis sentence in mind throughout and to remember to select details from the plot to support that thesis but not to include anything which does not directly support the thesis. You need to think about all of the evidence which supports the thesis and to organize that evidence into logical categories. The categories will form the individual developmental paragraphs. These categories should be made clear to the reader in the introductory paragraph, and they will form the basis of the topic sentences in the developmental paragraphs.

The outline below should help you understand the principles of organizing an essay.

Remember that the number of developmental paragraphs in your essay will depend on the way in which you organize your material. Frequently the essay question will lend itself to organizing into a four-paragraph essay (introductory paragraph plus three developmental paragraphs); sometimes the most logical method will result in a three-paragraph essay (introductory paragraph plus two very full developmental paragraphs).

Consult your professor about a concluding paragraph. Most Presbyterian College English professors expect a concluding paragraph. Dr. Thompson, however, gives the following advice: Do not write a concluding paragraph. No matter what you have been taught in high school, don't write a conclusion. Spend your valuable time, instead, developing your topic sentences and proofreading the essay. You should, however, make the final sentence of your last paragraph draw your essay to a logical close to avoid ending your essay too abruptly. Do not make that sentence a separate paragraph; it must be a part of your final paragraph.

The organization of an essay should not pose any particular problems when you are writing on such subjects as the anthropomorphic nature of Zeus, the qualities of an ideal hero such as Achilles, or any other subject about a single figure. A problem may occur when you write about more than one character or when you are writing about more than one work, such as occurs if you are required to compare two or more characters or works or to contrast several figures or works. You may be tempted to devote a single paragraph to one figure, a second to another, and a third to still another; or, if you are writing an essay on more than one work, you may be tempted to treat one work in one paragraph and to treat another work in another paragraph. Such paragraphs rarely exhibit coherence. All you do is to write what you have to say about one character (or work) before you move on to write what you have to say about another character (or work). Although a skilled writer, using enough transitions and references, may be successful in treating figures or works separately, most writers fail because they lose the thread that should be tying their analyses of characters or works together.

If you are called upon to deal with several characters or works in an essay, you should find topics which will allow you to deal with several characters or works in the same paragraph. If, for example, you were writing an essay comparing villains in Shakespeare's plays, you would first need to decide which villains you want to treat; you would then need to decide what three or four qualities these villains have in common, and you would use each quality as the basis for a topic sentence. In each paragraph, then, you would deal with a particular quality and then treat each of the villains in such a way as to show how each demonstrates that quality. Finally, you would have to think carefully about your material in order to devise some logical pattern of development that would give the essay coherence.

Let us say, for example, that you have decided to write on such Shakespearean villains as King Richard in Richard III, Edmund in King Lear, and Iago in Othello. You would first have to consider what these characters do and say in their respective plays in order to determine what attitudes or qualities you see that these three have in common. You would certainly notice that all three sense that they have been wronged, either by circumstances beyond their control or by other people You might then begin a developmental paragraph with the following topic sentence: "Each of the three believes that he has been injured, either by nature or by some individual." In the sentences that follow, you would then cite and develop such examples as King Richard's physical deformity, Edmund's illegitimacy, and Iago's being unfairly passed over for promotion in Othello's army.

You might then move on to note that these three villains are extremely ambitious. You might, therefore, begin another developmental paragraph by writing, "All three figures are ambitious to improve their positions in society." The sentences that follow that topic sentence would explain what each figure seeks to achieve. You might then go on to notice that none of these characters have any scruples at all about hurting others, and you might then begin your next developmental paragraph by writing, "In their attempts to achieve their goals, the three villains make clear that they are altogether unconcerned about the suffering they may cause others." That paragraph should illustrate how each character is indifferent to those whom he injures.

You would no doubt develop and emphasize throughout your essay a logical pattern of coherence: (1) their villainy begins within themselves with a belief that each is in some way a victim; (2) because of this belief, they feel a need to prove themselves superior to others; and finally (3) they are so committed to proving themselves that they are indifferent to the harm they do to others. Some of the best writers make such patterns of coherence clear in their introductory paragraphs.