Journal 9: Chapter 11 Reflection

This chapter is very helpful. It says that now after you have gathered all of your information for you paper, that it is time to learn how to arrange your argument to gear towards your audience. I learned that first you have to decide on a pattern of argument and then determine how to organize your argument in most important to least important, least important to most important, or chronological. I also learned that once you identify your thesis and reasons you should consider doing some listing or clustering of your ideas to organize them more efficiently. Then you have to decide on your argument pattern, there are four types: evaluations, definitions, proposals, and cause-and-effect arguments. After you chose one of those methods you should create an outline to help you organize all of that information. I learned a smart trick in this chapter. The book states that it is often times helpful to revise your introduction and conclusion last. This way you will be sure to make sure that they are perfect, considering they are some of the most important parts of the entire paper. You should make sure you are grabbing your audiences attention in the introduction. I learned that ancient rhetors stated that there are three possible sections for an introduction. They are,; you should prepare the audience for receiving the message, include a brief history of the topic, and outline the argument. You can chose to do one or all three of these things in your introduction. Your conclusion is just as important when writing your paper. You should make sure that your conclusion includes; the issue that was raised in your argument, the effects of this issue, how the issue violates the community, and a few other things. I have never heard of the term "IMRAD" before and i think that is very helpful when writing a paper effectively. I think this chapter was very helpful and i will most likely look back on it when i am revising my research paper.