How to Teach Four Critical Traits that Create Academic Writing Success

Organization and Coherence

Once again, we will look at organization and coherence together. Let’s begin by examining how Google/Oxford Dictionary defines them.

Organization

1. The structure or arrangement of related or connected items.
2. An efficient and orderly approach.

Coherence

1. The quality of being logical and consistent.
2. The quality of forming a unified whole.

Interestingly, coherence doesn’t exactly mean what we may think it means. Here is how I tend to think of the adjective version of the word:

• Coherent: Intelligible; understandable.
• Incoherent: Unintelligible; not understandable.

In short, the goal of organization and coherence is to connect ideas to form a unified whole and make writing intelligible. Briefly, here’s how Coherence and organization relate and interact:

1. Coherence requires organization to order and link ideas clearly to create reader understanding.

2. Organization refers to the structure of ideas, while Coherence ensures that those ideas connect and are communicated in a way that makes the ideas flow smoothly, logically, and intelligibly.

In an excellent article on coherence, Anita Brostoff makes this point:

The notion that incoherence lies in the failure to achieve continuity has been accepted since Alexander Bain. Upon this basis, I have defined incoherence as writing in which separate, unrelated ideas appear to be juxtaposed: they are next to, but not connected to, each other. Thus the reader can’t follow, or has difficulty reconstructing the underlying structure of the discourse. – Coherence: “Next to” Is Not “Connected to” (1981) by Anita Brostoff

In summary, Coherence and Organization relate to these five topics: 1) Order, 2) Unity, 3) Connection, 4) Showing Order, and 5) Showing Connection.

Organization, Coherence, and the Writing Process

I’m a big fan of organization. I like things orderly. However, the goal of organization is coherence. The reality of writing is that coherence is created through all three stages of the writing process:

1. Prewriting
2. Writing
3. Rewriting

Teachers often misuse the concept of Organization to teach students to create overly simplistic or formulaic writing pieces. Although this is part of the process of learning to write, the reality of writing about complex ideas is that the ideas become organized and coherent through a process. That process is called the WRITING PROCESS.

Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay teaches both organization and coherence, but it does so in the context of the writing process. The methodology is founded on a two-stage prewriting process that directly relates to and creates the structure for students’ writing. In short, it is the only writing curriculum that instills in students an intuitive understanding of how ideas connect in organized and natural writing. It uses the A, B, C Sentence ™ and Secret A, B, C Sentence ™ to build a practical mastery of the Hierarchy of Ideas in writing! Finally, once you get results, I teach you how to build on those results to become a highly effective writing teacher!

Organization and Coherence: Tools, Techniques, and Concepts

Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay doesn’t teach knowledge exactly. It creates skill. The goal of the curriculum, which you should accomplish in months, is to get beginning and struggling writers to create well-organized, coherent multi-paragraph writing quickly, easily, and naturally.

Admittedly, to build on those results, teachers must develop and understand additional tools, techniques, and concepts related to organization, coherence, and other traits. Therefore, let’s consider various ideas related to organization and coherence.

Let’s start with these five critical questions. These questions should guide every paragraph and every whole composition. These questions capture the essence of organization and coherence.

1. What am I trying to say?
2. How do I say it?
3. What is my point?
4. Does this idea or sentence fit in with what I am trying to say?
5. How does it fit in?

In writing, we must start with the end in mind—but often, we can’t begin with the end. It’s more accurate to say that we discover the end through the writing process. Writers frequently believe they know what they want to say when they begin writing but only discover their true or fuller message as they end.

That being said, here are fifteen concepts that can help teachers guide students in creating organized and coherent writing by thinking about and starting with the end in mind.

Fifteen Useful Organization and Coherence Concepts and Tools

1. Beginning, Middle, and Ending
2. Parts and Whole
3. Division
4. Main Points with Proof and Support
5. Logical Connection
6. Logical Order
7. Patterns and Formulas
8. Outlines
9. Graphic Organizers
10. Prewriting
11. Asking and Answering Questions
12. Hierarchy of Ideas
13. Continuation: Logically, What Comes Next?
14. Unity
15. Emphasis: Topic Sentences, Concluding Sentences, and Transitions

At a minimum, writers should create a tentative or working organizational plan through prewriting. But keep this in mind: We organize our writing and create coherence three times: 1) while prewriting, 2) while writing, and 3) while rewriting. The writing process is recursive. It’s round and round until you get it right or decide to publish or quit.

Coherence Concepts

Writing that is unintelligible is incoherent. A piece of writing is coherent and intelligible when the order, the connections, and the relationships of the ideas are clear and logical. We create coherence by using many strategies and techniques. Here are four critical concepts that are the foundation of the techniques and strategies that create coherence.

1. Unity: A paragraph and whole composition must have unity to have perfect coherence, as any sentence that does not belong creates confusion and harms understanding. In short, the reader must stop reading and attempt to figure out the relationship between the ideas. Of course, we can mark digressions as digressions, which may not harm coherence but does harm the flow.

2. Common Thought Patterns and Structures: The structure of a paragraph and a whole composition often uses common and natural thought patterns that the reader already understands: e.g., time order, cause-effect, problem-solution, claim and proof, compare-contrast, topic sentence (beginning), concluding sentence (ending), etc. These patterns and structures have built-in coherence because our brains automatically grasp them.

3. Textual Cues: Transitional words and phrases, signal words, synonyms, pronouns, and repetition of keywords all help create coherence. They all create links and connections within a text. Think back to the previously mentioned article ‘“Coherence: ‘Next to’ Is Not ‘Connected to.”’ If sentences next to each other are not connected, no textual cue can show how they are connected. However, sometimes a connection exists but is not obvious—we must make that connection clear through a textual cue.

4. Hierarchy of Ideas: Textual cues and text structures help create and communicate a hierarchy of ideas, which creates coherence: e.g., thesis statement, topic sentence, major details, minor details, elaboration, etc. Once upon a time, I was naive and believed that topic sentences clearly marked this hierarchy of ideas. Well, topic sentences are implied at least half of the time in professional writing. In short, readers must constantly ask, “What’s the writer’s point?” This doesn’t make a hierarchy of ideas less important—it makes it more important—for both readers and writers.

Once again, the goal of organization is coherence. The Six Traits treats organization as the goal. However, to be effective writers, we must understand the purpose of organization in writing, or we end up with a bland formula.

To be clear, I’m all for organization! I love it! I love the word itself! Still, I know that coherence is the goal. Also, to be fair to Organization, Organization is the more popular and common writing term. Let’s take a closer look at it.

Organization: Methods of Development, Arrangement, Pattern, Formula, Types of Paragraphs, etc.

As the heading indicates, many vital words surround the topic of Organization. Although the words in the heading differ, their purpose is essentially the same.

Organization is necessary to express and support important, complex ideas and to do so coherently. Of course, a well-organized piece of writing is not necessarily good if the ideas are not important and interesting. For this reason, getting ideas and organizing ideas are two sides of the same coin. In fact, many of Aristotle’s (384 BC – 322 BC) Topics of Invention (getting ideas) are now a foundation for many common patterns of organization.

Organization in writing comes from four sources:

1. Formula

Formula puts the horse in front of the cart. A formula begins with an organizational structure; a writer only needs to get ideas to fill in the blanks. As a tool for teaching writing, formulas teach specific ways of logical thinking and presenting ideas.

I’ve never seen a teacher who was against a formula that wasn’t teaching a formula. For example, the topic sentence as the first sentence of a paragraph is a formula. To be clear, that’s not how professional writers write. Be sure to read The Truth About Topic Sentences, Main Ideas, and Paragraphs. Having said that, K-12 writing teachers are not teaching professional writers. Their goal should be to develop the habits of clear and organized thinking and expression using whatever tools work.

2. Patterns

Patterns can be human-made or natural patterns of thinking. Patterns in paragraphs and whole compositions serve as guiding principles. Many natural patterns of thought have existed, possibly forever. These patterns are how we understand the world. For example, we have a problem—we begin thinking about a solution. Take a topic like global warming—any number of organization structures exist naturally within the topic: cause-effect, problem-solution, compare-contrast, before-after, claim and proof, etc.

3. Asking and Answering Questions

The heart of every paragraph and whole composition is a question and answer. To be clear, writers rarely place the question in word form. The question that is answered is usually implied. Every paragraph and whole composition should answer one particular question. Topic sentences and thesis statements answer that question in a single sentence.

Question-and-answer provides a natural organizational structure. Of course, the list of possible questions is endless, so I will list just a few:

Questions We Ask and Answer: Who? What? Where? Why? When? How? For how long? From what cause? In what way? For what purpose? For what reason? Compared to what? What’s it like? What proof is there? How do we know? How is it done? What’s the problem? What’s the solution? What’s the probability? Who says? What’s next? How did it begin? What’s good or bad about it? What should we do?

4. Logic

Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines logic as “A proper or reasonable way of thinking about or understanding something.” What is the structure of logic? Let’s look at a few logical concepts related to organization.

Formulas and patterns of thought are either pure logic or grounded in logic. A question and a proper answer to that question are also grounded in logic. A continuation of thought is logical; a hierarchy of ideas is logical; deductive and inductive reasoning are logical.

A Final Note on Organization in Writing

A reader should be able to examine a paragraph, whole composition, chapter, section, and even a book and understand its structure. A person should be able to see how each sentence relates to and connects to the other sentences. Having said that, it takes understanding many ways of thinking to see relationships and connections. Still, excellent academic writing is always organized writing.

Logic and Reasoning

We discussed Organization and Coherence together, and now we will explore Logic and Reasoning together. I’m sure we could list many topics that help create effective Logic and Reasoning. Here are four that are critical:

Logic and Reasoning = 1. Ideas + 2. Organization + 3. Relationship + Order.

Every paragraph and whole composition should form a single piece of unified and coherent logic and reasoning. Of course, that whole piece of logic and reasoning is composed of smaller pieces of logic and reasoning.

What exactly is Logic and Reasoning? How are they related? Here are a few definitions from Google/Oxford Dictionary and Merriam-Webster Dictionary. The first definition shows how the two terms are different, and the second definition shows how the two terms are similar.

Logic

1. Reasoning conducted or assessed according to strict principles of validity (Google/Oxford Dictionary)
2. A proper or reasonable way of thinking about or understanding something (Merriam Webster)

Reasoning

1. The use of reason; especially the drawing of inferences or conclusions through the use of reason (Merriam-Webster)
2. The action of thinking about something in a logical, sensible way. (Google/Oxford Dictionary)

Logic and Reasoning are indeed related to Organization and Coherence. However, creating an organized and coherent piece of writing does not mean it is logical and well-reasoned.

Here’s an example that most people can identify with. When we read a narrative story or watch a movie or TV show, we are willing to suspend disbelief—to a certain degree. But there comes a point where we just say, “No! I don’t buy any of this! No one would do that! That would never happen!”

In short, if a person is one way, they should act and react in line with who they are. It’s only logical. Even in the sci-fi and horror genres, writers create rules and a world in which the story exists. If we accept the rules and the world, then we must accept what follows. However, writers can’t break or defy the rules. The rules are the rules and create a certain logic!

In the above narrative example, we are not confused by what is happening (which would be an organization and coherence problem)—we just don’t buy it. It’s not logical. The point is that even narrative stories must adhere to the rules of logic and reasoning. Almost by definition, arguments and expository writing must comply with the rules of logic and reasoning.

How can you tell if a set of ideas are logical? Here is an excellent start:

Four Signs of Logical Reasoning in Writing

1. Omits logical fallacies.
2. Creates clear, coherent, and effective lines of thought.
3. Uses factually correct information and authoritative evidence.
4. Conclusions are drawn directly from the evidence, support, and reasoning presented.

Why Can’t We Always Come to an Agreement Using Logic?

Let’s say that two people have a different opinion on an issue. Both people create an excellent logical argument for why their position is correct. After reading each other’s argument, neither person changes their position. How can this be? Both arguments are logical, well-reasoned, and factually correct.

Well, for one thing, people are not all that logical. In Star Trek, Spock repeatedly makes that point clear, and even Spock cannot always act logically. Here are a few human attributes that relate to why logic so often fails us humans:

1) Beliefs, 2) Values, 3) Emotions, 4) Self-Interest, 5) Biases, 6) Interpretations, 7) Personality, 8) Life Experiences

Have you heard this fable? A scorpion asks a frog to carry him across a river. The frog hesitates, fearing the scorpion will sting him. The scorpion promises not to since they’d both drown. Midway across, the scorpion stings the frog. As they sink, the frog asks why—it’s not logical. The scorpion replies, “I’m a scorpion. It’s in my nature.”

I urge everyone to check out Academic Vocabulary for Critical Thinking, Logical Arguments, and Effective Communication. Learn the language of logical and rational thought! Don’t be a scorpion!

Life Often Defies Logic, and Probability is Not Certainty

Math and science have become powerful forces in our world because they are our best tools for approaching certainty. We can build a 100-story skyscraper and have relative certainty that it won’t fall down. We wouldn’t build one if we didn’t have a large degree of certainty. Of course, we don’t have absolute certainty.

Practically speaking, math and science can prove certain things true, but everything else is debatable and unprovable. As a rule, we don’t know the future. Of course, if we plan to drop an apple here on Earth, we can be scientifically and mathematically certain that it will fall to the ground.

In short, people are terrible at estimating probability and overcoming biases in real life. This is one reason why history is filled with such turmoil. Richard Feynman, the famous physicist who helped discover the cause of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, was dismayed at NASA’s lack of ability to determine the probability of a catastrophic failure. Feynman wrote, “The management of NASA exaggerates the reliability of its product to the point of fantasy.”

Here are a few missing words and concepts from many people’s thinking and decision-making process:

Risk, reward, probability, expected value, outcome probability, magnitude, trade-offs, sunk costs, opportunity costs, benefits, consequences, estimate, risk tolerance, acceptable and unacceptable loss, catastrophic loss, incremental changes, compounding, the snowball effect, momentum, the butterfly effect, the tipping point, the point of no return, a bird in the hand, fixed costs, marginal costs, permanency.

Speaking Rationally and Logically

I’ve read many books on biases, probability, and decision-making, but I still check my own thinking. I know how fallible my thinking can be—as I am human.

I also read and listen with a healthy amount of critical thinking and skepticism. When I watch the news or listen to a politician speak, I am often forced to roll my eyes in dismay at what I hear. Even in the academic world, much speculation is presented as fact. Having said that, many rational people provide constant hedging and qualification in their prose. Still, audiences often ignore the hedging. Sadly, people like to follow people who speak with conviction, even if it is an erroneous conviction.

On the other hand, we would all speak like Spock, and discourse would move at a snail’s pace if we identified every lack of certainty or personal opinion. In fact, all writers (students and professionals) are instructed not to label most opinions as opinions in their writing. When a writer states, “We must save the puppies!”— the reader is supposed to know that this is an opinion. If a writer states that there are three primary causes for the Revolutionary War, the reader is supposed to know that the topic is more complicated than this—and that this is a simplification. Note: At least in this example, the author appropriately hedged with the word primary. Many writers wouldn’t even do that.