Student's guide to writing college papers, Fourth edition - Kate L. Turabian 2010

Make sure the body of your report is coherent
Revising your draft
Writing your paper

Once you frame your report clearly, check its body. Readers will think your report is coherent when they see the following:

✵ the key terms that run through your whole report

✵ where each section ends and the next begins

✵ how each section relates to the one before it

✵ what role each section plays in the whole

✵ what sentence in each section and subsection states its point

✵ what distinctive key terms run through each section

To be sure that your readers see those features, check for the following:

1. Did you repeat key terms through your whole report?

If readers don't see key terms on each page, they may think your report wanders. If you can't find them, neither will your readers.

✵ Circle the key terms in the claim in your introduction and in your conclusion (review 7.2.3).

✵ Circle those same terms in the body of your report.

✵ Underline other words related to the ideas named by those circled terms.

Revise by working those terms into parts that lack them. If you underlined many more words than you circled, change some of them to the circled key terms. If you don't find on every page three or four terms either underlined or circled, you may have strayed too far from your line of reasoning. If so, you have more extensive revising to do.

2. Did you clearly signal the beginning of each section and subsection?

If your paper is longer than three or four pages, it will have distinct sections. Even if each section is only two or three paragraphs long, readers must clearly see where one ends and the next begins. For a longer paper, you can use subheads or an extra space to signal new sections.

3. Did you begin each major section with words that signal how that section relates to the one before it?

Readers must not only recognize where a section begins and ends, but understand why it is where it is (see 7.2.5—7.2.6). Be sure that you signaled the logic of your order with words such as First, Second, More important, The next issue, Some have objected that, and so on.

4. Did you make clear how each section is relevant to the whole?

For each section, ask: What question does this section answer? If a section doesn't help answer one of the questions of argument (review 6.2), ask whether it is relevant. Does it create a context, explain a background concept or issue, or help readers in some other way? If you can't explain how a section relates to your claim, cut it.

5. Did you state the point of each section at the end of a brief opening (or at the end of the section)?

If you have a choice, state the point of a section at the end of its opening. Under no circumstances bury the point of a section in its middle. If a section is longer than three or four pages, you might restate the point at its end.

6. Did you distinguish each section by running key terms through it?

Just as some key terms unify your whole report, other key terms unify its sections. To find those terms, repeat step 1 for each section. Find the sentence that expresses its point and identify the key terms that distinguish that section from the others. Then check whether those terms run through that section. If you find none, then your readers might not see what distinct ideas that section contributes to the whole. (You can use those key terms in headings.)