Writing · Writing: Essays and Literary Analysis

Organizing and Reviewing Essay Content: Patterns, Sentence Outlines and the Pre-Draft Check

1.4 1.5About 70 minutes

Learning goals

I can identify, sort and order main ideas and supporting details for an essay.
I can choose the organizational pattern best suited to my content and purpose and explain my choice.
I can write a sentence outline with a claim spine that makes sense on its own.
I can check, before drafting, whether my ideas and information are accurate, complete and interesting and whether they meet every requirement of the task.

Words to know

organizational pattern
The overall order of ideas in a piece: for example order of importance, chronological, compare and contrast, cause and effect, problem and solution.

sentence outline
An outline in which every main point is written as a full sentence (a claim), not a one-word topic.

claim spine
The thesis plus the topic sentences of every body paragraph; read alone, it should summarize the whole argument.

classical argument
An arrangement that moves from introduction and background, through reasons and evidence, to a counterargument and response, and a conclusion.

climactic order
Order of importance that saves the strongest point for last, so the essay builds.

gap
A main idea that has too little support, or a part of the task the plan does not yet answer.

Same bricks, different buildings

Give two writers the same notes and you can get two very different essays. One reads like a list: here is a point, here is another point, also this. The other reads like an argument: each paragraph prepares for the next, and the strongest point lands at the end. The content is the same. The organization is what changed.

Expectation 1.4 asks you to identify, sort and order main ideas and supporting details, selecting the organizational pattern best suited to the content and purpose. Expectation 1.5 asks you to check, before you draft, that your material is accurate, complete and interesting and that it effectively meets the requirements of the task. Together they are the bridge between a pile of notes and a first draft.

Remember from Grade 10

In Grade 10 you sorted notes under main ideas, chose patterns such as chronological, cause and effect and compare and contrast (block or point-by-point), used a parking lot for ideas that did not fit, and checked your plan for relevance, accuracy and completeness. Grade 11 adds the sentence outline, the claim spine, classical argument order, and an interesting test.

Step 1: Sort into claims, not topics

When you sort your notes, label each pile with a claim (a sentence someone could disagree with), not a topic word.

Topic label: Sleep. Claim label: Teenagers need more sleep than an early start allows.
Topic label: Imagery. Claim label: The poem's images of nature continuing indifferently make the soldiers' deaths feel more unnatural.

A claim label tells you what every detail in the pile must prove. A detail that proves nothing in any pile goes to the parking lot.

Step 2: Choose the pattern that fits the purpose

Order of importance (climactic order): for arguments. Put a strong reason first to earn trust, and your strongest reason last so the essay builds.
Text order: for literary essays that trace how something develops (a character changes; a symbol shifts meaning). Move from beginning to end of the text, but organize each paragraph around a claim, not a plot event.
Technique or idea order: for literary essays organized by technique (imagery, structure, diction) or by aspects of a theme.
Point-by-point comparison: for comparative essays; each paragraph discusses both texts on one point (you will use this in Literary Analysis III).
Classical argument: introduction and background, reasons with evidence, counterargument and response, conclusion.
Problem and solution and cause and effect: for policy arguments and explanations.

The choice should be deliberate: you should be able to say I chose order of importance because my third reason is the one most readers have not considered.

Each pattern suits a different purpose. Ask What does my reader need to see first, and what should they remember last?

Step 3: Write a sentence outline

A Grade 11 outline uses full sentences for the thesis and every topic sentence, with evidence listed underneath:

Thesis: Ontario high schools should start no earlier than 9:00 a.m., because the schedule should fit how much sleep teenagers need.

Topic sentence: Teenagers need more sleep than early start times allow.

Evidence: Canadian guidelines recommend 8 to 10 hours for ages 14 to 17.
Evidence: sleep researchers report that the body clock tends to shift later during adolescence.

Topic sentence: Better-rested students are more able to learn and stay safe.

Evidence: (to find: a credible study on attention or driving and sleep)

Topic sentence: The scheduling problems a later start creates can be solved.

Evidence: examples of bus scheduling changes; activities moved.
Counterargument: part-time jobs and sports.

Now read only the claim spine: the thesis and the three topic sentences. If they make a complete, logical argument on their own, your structure works. If they do not, fix the outline now, when it costs five minutes, not later, when it costs five hours.

The thesis and topic sentences form the spine. Evidence and explanation hang from each topic sentence. Notice that topic sentence 3 handles the strongest objection.

Step 4: The pre-draft check (expectation 1.5)

Before drafting, test your outline with four questions:

Accurate? Are facts, names, dates and quotations checked against the source and copied exactly? Is every statistic real and correctly reported?
Complete? Does every topic sentence have at least two pieces of specific evidence? Mark any gap (to find) and fill it before drafting. Is every part of the prompt answered?
Interesting? Would an intelligent reader learn something? Have you included at least one point, example or angle that is not the first one everybody thinks of?
Meets the requirements? Go back to your decoded prompt (Lesson 1). Form, length, number of quotations or sources, counterargument, citation style: is each one in the plan?

A plan that passes all four checks is ready to draft. A plan with a gap is a research or rereading task, not a writing task.

Worked example

Let's organize and check a literary essay plan

A student's notes for the Flanders prompt from Lesson 1 (to what extent does the speaker present the war as a cause worth continuing?) are below. Sort them, choose a pattern, build the claim spine and run the pre-draft check.

Notes: (a) the larks are still bravely singing (line 4); (b) We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow (line 7); (c) McCrae was a doctor; (d) Take up our quarrel with the foe (line 10); (e) The torch; be yours to hold it high (line 12); (f) If ye break faith with us who die / We shall not sleep (lines 13-14); (g) poppies are worn in Canada for Remembrance Day; (h) Loved and were loved (line 8).

Sort into claim piles. Pile 1, the Dead grieve ordinary life: (b), (h). Pile 2, the Dead issue a direct command: (d), (e). Pile 3, the demand is backed by a threat that troubles the reader: (f). Note (a) can support pile 1 (life continues around the dead).
Parking lot: (c) and (g) are true but do not prove anything about the speaker's presentation. One of them could appear briefly in the introduction as context.
Pattern: text order suits this poem, because the poem itself moves from grief (stanzas 1 and 2) to command (stanza 3). The essay can follow that movement while arguing about it.
Claim spine: Thesis: The Dead present continuing the war as a sacred duty, but their grief for ordinary life and their unsettling final threat show that the poem's call is driven as much by loss as by conviction. TS1: The Dead first define themselves by the ordinary lives they lost. TS2: In the third stanza, grief becomes command, and the torch turns the war into an inheritance. TS3: The closing threat makes the call feel less like inspiration and more like an obligation the living cannot refuse.
Pre-draft check. Accurate: quotations checked against the poem, line numbers correct. Complete: TS3 has only one quotation (a gap); the student adds break faith analysis plus the refrain In Flanders fields (line 15). Interesting: the claim that the call is driven by loss goes beyond the poem is patriotic. Requirements: at least four embedded quotations (the plan now has seven, counting the added refrain); about 1,000 words fits three body paragraphs.
Result: the claim spine reads as a complete argument, and the one gap is filled before drafting.

A text-order plan with three claim-based body paragraphs, one gap filled, two notes parked, and every requirement of the prompt checked.

Hands-on activity

Card-sort your argument on the kitchen table

You need: 12 to 15 index cards or scraps of paper, a pen, and a topic you know (a novel you have read, or an issue such as a later school start).

Write one idea, fact or quotation per card. Do not organize yet.
On a table, sort the cards into three or four piles. Write a claim (a full sentence) on a sticky note or card for each pile.
Put weak or unrelated cards in a parking lot off to the side.
Arrange the piles in the order that best suits your purpose. Say aloud why you chose that order.
Read only the claim cards in order, out loud, to a family member. Ask: Does that make sense as an argument?
Run the four-question pre-draft check and mark any gap.

What to look for: claim labels that are full sentences, a deliberate order you can justify, and at least one gap honestly identified.

Just for fun

An outline is the skeleton of an essay. That is why an essay written without one tends to come out a little... spineless.

Your turn

Rewrite this topic label as a claim label: Setting.

Which pattern suits an argument whose third reason is the most surprising and powerful? Why?

What is a claim spine, and how do you test it?

Name the four questions of the pre-draft check.

A student's outline has a topic sentence with one quotation under it. What should they do before drafting?

Why does text order suit an essay about how a character changes?

More practice: warm-up

What is a sentence outline?

Where does a detail that supports no claim go?

What does climactic order mean?

Which comparison method puts both texts in every body paragraph?

Name the four main parts of a classical argument.

More practice: on your own

A student's claim spine: Thesis: Phones should be allowed in class. TS1: Phones. TS2: Many students have phones. TS3: In conclusion, phones. Diagnose the problem and rewrite TS1.

Explain why The poem has fifteen lines fails the interesting check as a main point.

Your outline uses a statistic you remember from a video but cannot find again. Which check does it fail, and what should you do?

Choose a pattern for each and justify briefly: (a) an essay explaining why a town's main street lost its shops; (b) an essay proposing a fix for long cafeteria lines.

Write a three-sentence claim spine (thesis + two topic sentences) for an essay arguing that every Ontario high school should have a student-run food bank.

Challenge

Argue for one order of the three topic sentences in the school-start claim spine above and explain how a different order would change the essay's effect.

Explain the difference between complete and meets the requirements in the pre-draft check, with an example where a plan passes one but fails the other.

A student organizes a literary essay by plot events: paragraph 1 is the beginning, paragraph 2 the middle, paragraph 3 the end. How can they keep text order but turn it into an argument? Give a sample topic sentence.

Check your understanding

Quiz

Which is a claim label rather than a topic label?

Which pattern saves the strongest reason for last?

The claim spine is:

Which question belongs to the pre-draft check in expectation 1.5?

A comparative literary essay in which each body paragraph discusses both texts uses:

A topic sentence has only one piece of evidence under it. This is:

For parents and teachers

Big idea: Expectations 1.4 and 1.5 ask students to sort and order ideas using a pattern that fits their purpose and to check, before drafting, that their material is accurate, complete, interesting and meets the task. Many weak essays are really organization problems.

How to help: ask your teen to read you only their thesis and topic sentences. If you can follow the argument from those alone, the structure is sound. Index cards on a kitchen table are a genuinely useful tool; offer some. Ask Why is this paragraph first? Why is that one last?

Common difficulties: topic words instead of claims; plot-order literary essays that summarize; skipping the outline under time pressure; keeping a favourite fact that proves nothing; using a remembered statistic that cannot be verified. The school start time example uses a real Canadian guideline (the Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines for Children and Youth, 2016); any further statistics students use should come from sources they can cite.