Minutes a day n e w y o r k

T h e   A s s e r t i o n  
➞
S u p p o r t   S t r u c t u r e
Before discussing common organizational strategies, it’s important to consider the underlying structure of essays.
Whether an essay is organized by chronology, comparison and contrast, cause and effect, or some other strategy,
every essay has the same underlying structure: assertion 
➞ support. That is, the essay asserts an idea (its thesis)
and then supports the thesis with specific examples, evidence, and details.
This assertion 
➞ support structure is then repeated throughout the essay on many levels. The ideas that pro-
vide support for the thesis (major support) are assertions themselves, and therefore need support. The structure
then looks something like this:
L E S S O N
Outlining and
Organizational
Strategies