1. Project #2: Analyzing Rhetorically: From Thesis To Organization
English 111
Oct. 2, 2014

2. Organic Arrangement?
The word ‘organic’ suggests that something is ‘in nature, or ‘natural.’ Likewise, Organic Arrangement involves looking for a way to organize a composition that is “natural,” given the subject matter and the thesis. When someone follows a principle of Organic Arrangement, rather than applying an arbitrary organizational pattern, they instead attempt to find an organizational pattern that logically fits the topic and focus of the composition, usually by analyzing their own thesis, breaking that thesis into parts, and making each part an area of concentration with body of their draft.

3. Organic arrangement: Examples
The following slides show thesis statements from the two sample rhetorical analyses offered in this course.
Looking at each thesis, try to answer the following:
How can each thesis be broken into logical parts that can then be elaborated and developed in the body paragraphs?
What does each thesis suggest about how the following body paragraphs will be organized?

4. How can the thesis be broken into logical parts?
What does the thesis suggest about how the following body paragraphs will be organized?
Organic arrangement:
Sometimes, numerical references in your thesis, can give a clue about organic arrangement. If you identify a certain number of points or points of reference, these may be used to organize the composition.
Samantha Schwartz’s “Silent Music: Poster Advertisements”
Thesis: The following three artifacts have been read and examined thoroughly, and all three advertise the musical genre in some way, shape, or form. From description and examination of these three separate posters, I will show how visual representations on a poster will attract more audience members than a simple listing of words
Other language in your thesis can suggest that you will show your readers certain information or kinds of content. These can also be used to organically arrange your composition based on the thesis.

5. How can the thesis be broken into logical parts?
What does the thesis suggest about how the following body paragraphs will be organized?
Organic arrangement:
Samantha Schwartz’s “Silent Music: Poster Advertisements”
Thesis: The following three artifacts have been read and examined thoroughly, and all three advertise the musical genre in some way, shape, or form. From description and examination of these three separate posters, I will show how visual representations on a poster will attract more audience members than a simple listing of words
Take a look at the body paragraphs of Schwartz’s essay (
You’ll notice that…
she has three main sections in her body
each section focused on one of the three artifacts
each section follows the same organization: first the artifact is described, then the artifact is examined or analyzed.

6. How can the thesis be broken into logical parts?
What does the thesis suggest about how the following body paragraphs will be organized?
Organic arrangement:
Jacob Starr’s “The Influence of Guilt on Charitable Decision Making”
Thesis: Singer, through his hypothetical narrations, the juggling of facts and statistics, and comparisons of middle class luxuries to human necessities, appeals to the guilt of affluent Americans, convincing them that the attainment of luxuries is petty and selfish compared to the needs of the world’s poor.
Like in the previous thesis, this one lists kinds of content that can be examined and analyzed in the body paragraphs, basically listing in the thesis the aspects of the topic that will be discussed.

7. How can each thesis be broken into logical parts?
What does each thesis suggest about how the following body paragraphs will be organized?
Organic arrangement:
Jacob Starr’s “The Influence of Guilt on Charitable Decision Making”
Thesis: Singer, through his hypothetical narrations, the juggling of facts and statistics, and comparisons of middle class luxuries to human necessities, appeals to the guilt of affluent Americans, convincing them that the attainment of luxuries is petty and selfish compared to the needs of the world’s poor.
Take a look at the body paragraphs of Starr’s essay (
You’ll notice that…
he has three main sections in his body
each section focused on one of the writing strategies listed in his thesis: a paragraph on hypothetical narrations, one on the use of facts and statistics, and one on the use of comparisons.
each paragraph provides examples from the essay as evidence and explains how each piece of evidence supports the analysis in that paragraph.