what is organizational development essay

Organizational Development: An Easy Introduction

Organizational Development is a planned effort to change the culture, behaviors, ways of working and other “people” factors of an organization to enable it to effectively meet its strategic objectives. Summary by The World of Work Project

Organizational Development

Organizational development, often referred to as “OD”, is a broad phrase that captures many things. Fundamentally though, organizational development can be thought of as intentional work designed to change and improve an organization so that it is better at what it does.

Most of the time this work focuses on the human factors at play in an organization. After all, organizations are complicated systems of intertwined processes and streams of work. And at their cores lie people.

In many instances the social systems, ways of working, cultures, methods of communication, relationships, human knowledge and behaviors within organizations determine how effective and competitive they are. They also determine what those organizations are like to work for and how fulfilling and rewarding the individuals who work for them find them to be.

The fundamental premise of organizational development, which derives many of its roots from organizational psychology, sociology and change management, is that by designing and delivering “interventions” that change the social systems, ways of working and cultures within organizations, it’s possible to both improve their competitiveness, and make them better places for people to work.

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A Brief History of Organizational Development

Organizational development evolved in roughly the 1930s, primarily from the world of Psychology.

The founding father of Organizational Development is considered to be Kurt Lewin, an MIT professor who worked across a wide range of areas including organizational psychology and change as well as group dynamics. In fact, he set up MIT’s Research Center for Group Dynamics in 1944, shortly before his death in 1947. Kurt Lewin contributed hugely to the world of business and merits further research if you have time, we certainly regularly reference him and his work throughout what we do.

While Kurt is considered the founding father of Organizational Development, he never actually used that phrase himself. Instead, the phrase was formed by another giant of the profession, Richard Beckhard, who coined the term in the 1950s while working at Bell Labs. He later published a seminal work on the subject, “Organization Development: Strategies and Models”. He too was a professor at MIT.

From the 1960s on-wards, Organizational Development really started to take off, though perhaps not by that name. Management sciences became more professional and important as organizations searched for increasing competitive advantages and focused more on the engagement and productivity of their employees. In this period things like employee surveys were introduced and organizations started to deliver specific interventions designed to increase engagement. This ability to quantify and evidence changes in in employee opinion or engagement helped move these practices into the mainstream.

The Rise of the Term “OD”

While Organizational Development has grown significantly in recent decades, the term has only really become popular in the near past.

Prior to this, various areas of HR delivered Organizational Development initiatives under different names, wrapped up in learning and development, personnel, organizational change and performance and engagement teams.

Why Organizational Development Matters

Focusing on the people within an organization is an effective way to increase competitiveness.

Creating great places to work is important for improving competitiveness in all industries, but it’s particularly important in industries that require people to be creative, innovative, solve problems, manage complexity or otherwise perform more complex mental tasks. In these industries, being a great organization to work for really is a significant competitive advantage.

Organizational Development is one of the few fields of work in which it is really possible to create great outcomes for both individuals and organizations. To create lasting change though, organizations need to ensure that the benefits of organizational development programs are shared with employees, not simply captured as cost savings for the organization.

Learning More

Organizational development is a form of organizational change . These programs are often focused on changing a culture , improving employee engagement or changing the employee experience . Many successful organizational development programs have similarities.

As with much change, co-creation is helpful in OD programs and we should consider the emotional impacts of change on people. It might also be worth using Force Field Analysis to assess how likely it is for an OD program will succeed.

You can listen to a podcast we’ve recorded on the role of story-telling in organizational change and development:

The World of Work Project View

In our view, organizational development is one of the most important things that leaders can do.

We don’t really care about the name OD, or the fact that it changes a lot. But we do care about the conscious effort to understand and improve how people feel and work together in an organization.

We genuinely believe that improving the human aspect of work leads to better outcomes for organizations and individuals involved, and think this is important and powerful.

In our view, all leaders should have an understanding of organizational development.

Our Podcast . 

Our Podcast is a great way to learn more about hundreds of fascinating topics from around the world of work.

In this instance we’re talking about a field of work and not a theory. Given this, we think a good starting point for reading might be Richard Beckhard’s book. Beckhard, R. (1969). Organization development: strategies and models. Reading, Mass: Addison-Wesley.  

The World of Work Project: Organizational Development: An Easy Introduction

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Organization Development: Theory, Research, and Practice

To him who devotes his life to science, nothing can give more happiness than increasing the number of discoveries. But his cup of joy is full when the results of his studies immediately find practical application. There are not two sciences. There is only one science and the application of science, and these two activities are linked as the fruit is to the tree. Louis Pasteur Organization Development (OD) is the practical application of organization science. Drawing from several disciplines for its models, strategies, and techniques, OD focuses on the planned change of human systems and contributes to organization science through the knowledge gained from its study of complex change dynamics. The field follows Kurt Lewin’s two dicta, “In order to truly understand something, try changing it.” and “There is nothing as practical as a good theory.” The interplay between scientific theory development and its application makes OD an exciting and vibrant part of organization studies. Although a substantial number of important contributions have been made, the field has had its problems, some of which have plagued it from the beginning. Many of OD’s problems relate to its relative newness as an academic field; it has been in existence slightly more than three decades. Some derive from the enormous complexity that exists in the processes OD attempts to map. Consequently, OD’s theoretical base is unsettled; there are blurred conceptualizations of the OD process and inadequate understandings of its underlying change mechanisms. In add ion, significant questions about the robustness of OD research methods cast doubt on the validity of many research findings. Moreover, the tendency to emphasize action over systematic evaluation of OD’s — effects results in a less than desired data base for the field. Finally, the field has, for some, a “messianic” rather than scientific flavor because of its normative humanistic value-based roots. These factors make the field a difficult as well as challenging arena for both research and practice. The purpose of this chapter is to capture some of the vitality and complexity of OD and to present its theory, practice, and research in such a way that the reader can better comprehend the essence of the field, where it is now, and where it is headed. We begin with brief introductory comments on organizational change as a construct and a definition of Organization Development. We expand on this definition by presenting a perspective on organizational change based on Porras’ (Porras, 1986, 1987; Porras & Silvers, 199 1) organizational framework. A discussion of OD theory follows, concentrating on two types, change process theory and change implementation theory. Next, we broadly describe the vast array of intervention techniques currently popular in the field and discuss a few in depth. Then, we describe research findings on the effects of OD, and discuss what OD does and does

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112 Organization Development Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

🏆 best organization development topic ideas & essay examples, 👍 good essay topics on organization development, 💡 interesting topics to write about organization development, ❓ essay questions about organization development.

• Organization Development: Define Open and Closed Systems The organization prefers a closed system in order to conserve its information. This system ensures the organization safeguards its information and data.
• Organizational Development Case Study The results of the feedback were presented by the two professors to the top management of the company for consideration and formulation of suggestions and recommendations on the possible solutions to the actual problem. We will write a custom essay specifically for you by our professional experts 808 writers online Learn More
• Organizational Development in Health Care Organization The OD intervention is the main planned mechanism to address the existing problems and gaps in the team of the hospital in question.
• Organizational Development Practitioners and Types While the internal organizational development practitioners are part of the organization they work for, the external Practitioners are not in any way associated with the client that they work for.
• Diagnostic Approach in Organizational Development The issues surrounding the underperformance of the department might be related to leadership hence the understanding of the headship styles employed in the running of the department is critical.
• Microsoft: Organization Design and Organization Development With the appointment of Satya Nadella in 2014, the scope and goals of the company have been redefined with the emphasis on customer participation, inclusion and autonomy.
• Organizational Development Paper The organizational development process assures the establishment of favorable relationship within a work environment and outside it and provides groups with the possibility to initiate and manage change.
• Honda A – Organizational Change & Development The main subject discussed is change management, the need for change, and how Honda could adjust its strategy to become a stronger competitor in the market.
• Interpersonal Interventions in Organizational Development The group interpersonal interventions are designed as mass discussions of certain subject matters that are aimed at the exertion and analysis of personal opinions.
• Holiday Inn Hotels Organizational Development The rapid development of new means of transport and the reduction in prices for travel stipulated the appearance of a new beneficial environment for the development of the international hospitality and tourism sector.
• Nokia Corporation Organization Development and Change In 1967, Nokia Corporation had expanded and had the capacity to sell its products outside the home country of Finland.
• Organizational Development and Interventions Interruptions are deliberate and may cause discomfort, and people may start resisting the changes, so assessing the readiness of the organization for change is one of the most significant parts of intervention planning.
• University Registrar’s Organizational Development The project will also look at the overall objectives of the office of the registrar to find out if they address its long term needs in the industry.
• Organizational Development Practitioner: Roles and Style One of the main roles of the OD practitioner in the modern context is to aid organizational leaders to foster effective organizational alignment. It is also important to note that the OD practitioner helps in […]
• DuPont Company’s Organizational Development Tom identified the best ideas in order to improve the productivity of its employees. He also embraced the best organizational skills in order to support the targeted change.
• Performance Appraisal as a Tool for Achieving Organizational and Employee Development To determine the perception of subordinate employees on performance appraisal program at RMRDC To examine the strengths and weaknesses of performance appraisal program used by RMRDC To examine the goal and outcome of performance appraisal […]
• Organizational Change and Development: The Stanley Works Corporation In this case, the company engaged in the promotion of workers from the sales department to the management department. As part of the technological changes, the company embraced ADAM’s digital toolkit, with the aim of […]
• Power and Politics in Organizational Learning and Development From the perspective of OL&D, organizational politics is a framework that can be employed to improve the process of generating and transferring knowledge. They influence the distribution of authority, relations between employees, and their readiness […]
• Functional and Organizational Management and Planning for Development Thus, a group of people are directed and controlled by the involvement of management, which has been considered as another important definition of this term.
• Action Research and Organizational Development This would be appropriate in the case of my past organization as the issues affected documents and communication the most. Lurey and Griffin describe the feedback phase as a cooperative one, where the organizational development […]
• The Role of Technology in Organization Development The authors believe that technologies define how information is spread and can influence the development of an organization, prove that employees and workers should spend more time to benefit from the information available, and use […]
• Macy’s Department Store Organization Development For instance, the traditional location in the city center attracts tourists yet frightens residents due to the lack of parking, and the large sales areas as well as the organization of the shopping space that […]
• Responsibility for Organizational Development Activities Thus, the main aim of every employee and employer is to advance the functioning of the organization’s operations and enhance the working settings for the teams.
• Cape Coral Hospital’s Training and Organizational Development The success of the programs will require the organization to have a chief diversity officer to steer the training in the direction it needs to go.
• Organizational Development Consultants in Business Organizational development seeks to enhance the efficiency of the company; therefore, an OD specialist’s main duty lies in strengthening the relations with and between people and firms in order to achieve the objective.
• Understanding of the Organizational Development Change Process The systematic process requires the implementation of OD tools at the stage of working with an external consultant as well as throughout all the further working processes.
• Planning and Implementing Organizational Development Interventions When defining the structure of interventions, it is essential to analyze such aspects as stakeholders, clarity of purpose, the realism of expectations, employees’ readiness to study and work together.
• Reestablishing the Vector of Organizational Development Eventually, the key idea of the current proposal was that the outcomes of disaster management initiatives could be improved and made less complex with the help of streamlining strategies that would welcome the contributions made […]
• Organization Development in Career Path Choice In other words, when choosing a profession, OD plays an important role, but the most important points in choosing a career path are the education received, interest in professional activity, the location of the office […]
• Organizational Development Intervention for City Center Hospital In the city center hospital case, the CEO is concerned about the risk of losing the team of qualified physicians due to the lack of leadership expertise of the unit managers.
• HTC Case Study: Organizational Development The problems of HTC Corporation include weak organizational structure, misplaced objectives, and employee’s performance (Triggs 2013).
• W&RL: A Training and Organizational Development Proposal This is a training and Organizational Development (OD) proposal for senior management at W&RL. The aim of the proposal is to improve diversity training within W&RL.
• Organizational Improvement and Development: IT Perspective IT department is the area where numerous innovations and achievements are used to promote the use of operating systems.
• Apex Furnishers: Organizational Development From its humble beginnings in Atlanta, Georgia, the Apex Furniture is now found in over 20 countries, mainly in America, Europe and Asia.
• The Definition of Organizational Development Throughout the evolution of the concept of the organization, the definition of organizational development changed accordingly. In this way, the consultant will be able to determine the amount of work to be done as well […]
• Disasters Organizational and Interorganizational Development It is very difficult to predict disasters in large organizations because of the complexity of tasks and processes that are pursued daily in the attainment of goals and objectives.
• Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development The second approach is institutional, which focuses on the “unconscious enforcement” In most cases, the focus of the policies against bribery is on the actions of the state.
• Report to a Senior Manager of a Real Organization E-Business Strategy Development. One of the most important steps in successful business running is to develop appropriate strategies and steps to follow; e-business can widen the company opportunities and become the beneficial method of cooperation with the partners.
• “Applying Organization Development Tools in Scenario Planning” by T.Marshall As it is implied from designation, scenario planning constructs alternative options of the future development of the external environment of the organization, which allows the managers and the heads of the organization to conduct an […]
• Organizational Development of The Exley Chemical Company, The OD Letters, The Sundale Club The effect of the implementation of a new department created conflict between the product development team and the marketing team. The goals of the marketing and product development teams were conflicting.
• Organizational Development Intervention Stages The lack of motivation is a sign that the management is failing to meet the basic needs of its employees. In this paper, the researcher seeks to apply the concept of organizational development to address […]
• Dubai Aviation Engineering Projects: Organizational Development Organizations consider organizational development when there is a need to make a systematic change in the attitudes and values of the personnel.
• Organization Development Intervention and Its Stages In other words, the essence of the organizational development of an enterprise is in the constant improvement of the organization of labor, production, and management.
• Organizational Development and Change The identified missed step, data feedback and confrontation, added to the failure of the intervention as the consultant did not resolve some of the disputes in the data collection process.
• Organization Design and Development In particular, the authors mention such essential points as team orientations and commitments, which emphasize the need for the whole team to participate in the implementation of certain changes. The manager and the controlling person […]
• Fresno University’s Organization Development Outcomes Through the implementation of the strategy of increasing enrollment rates, it is expected that Fresno University will increase its capability to raise the necessary financial resources to cater for its expansion to accommodate more degree […]
• Organizational Development: Process and Change I was able to communicate the expected positive outcomes to the management, which led me to assume that the employees share the readiness and commitment to change.
• Organizational Development and Behavioral Science Organization development can be defined as a planned and concise effort to implement changes at different levels of the company aimed at improving the company’s “ability to survive” and making the company competitive and flexible […]
• Change Management and Organizational Development This model of change emphatically posits that change management is a highly intricate and dynamic process that calls for the introduction of a dynamic stability system if full efficacy is to be facilitated in an […]
• Bank of America: Organizational Development It is one of the most successful financial institutions in the global market and is currently considered one of the industry leaders.
• Personal and Organizational Development in Banking My career plan is as in the figure below: – My career goal is to find a job in a bank and gradually grow through the ranks as I gain financial management related skills and […]
• Alaska Airlines: Organization Development With the improved quality of service, it should be possible for Alaska Airlines to retain their clients and find new customers in the market.
• Organizational Design and Development The further evolution of the theoretical framework resulted in the increased importance of management and reconsideration of the role of people.
• The Organizational Development Interventions The authors propose the concept of organizational development as a framework for the evaluation and improvement of the school system in the area.
• Organizational Development in Stages In the majority of cases, OD runs in accordance with the following model: identification of the problem, assessment, planning, plan implementation, data collection, results in analysis, feedback, and sustaining. Acting on evaluation results and adjusting […]
• Quay International Convention Centre’s Organizational Development It will be argued that an underlying problem within the operations department of the company is the lack of effective leadership, which manifests in a variety of other issues such as a stultifying hierarchy, poor […]
• Tarmac Organization, Its Environment and Development Specifically, the effects of the recession of the late 1990s are still observable in the industry and impact the decisions of the financial institutions involved.
• The Cut Restaurant’s Organizational Development Issues The ideas that are developed throughout the report revolve around the idea that there is a critical need to transform the approach to leadership and change the way of how the members of the team […]
• Skoda’s SWOT Analysis and Organizational Development These efforts are exerted by the management of the organization to improve on the feasibility and effectiveness of the organization in the constantly mutating business environment.
• Action Research in Public Organization Development These are the importance of context understanding, the quality of collaboration between researchers and employees, the quality of the process itself, and the development of collaboration from learning by practice.
• Multicultural Organization Development The first goal is to develop and continuously enhance the curricular environment so that students would be aware of the importance of diversity and prepared to enter the global community.
• New Nursing Educational Organization’s Development In this case, the establishment of the Northway College of Nursing is essential for the provision of educational nursing programs to the community surrounding the institution and beyond.
• Raju Omlet Restaurant: Organization Development One of the greatest expectations that customers seek in a restaurant such as Raju Omlet is the readiness of staff to attend to them.
• J.P. Hunt Company: Organizational Development The rate of employee turnover is capable of affecting the performance of every business organization. The practice increases the level of employee turnover.
• Organization Development Approaches and Procedures There is need to have knowledge about the current problem to be able to effectively solve the problem since it is not possible to solve a problem that one is not aware of its existence […]
• Organizational Development Planning and Evaluation The management is instrumental in formulating and implementing policies that govern and define Google’s actions in relation to market forces. Google’s performance in the stock market is indicative of its popularity and success among internet […]
• Organizational Change and Development: Mr. Carlos Ghosn For coordinating one of the most violent downscaling movements and leading the turnabout of Nissan Company at the verge of bankruptcy, Carlos attained his celebrity standing.
• Leadership and Organization Development at RCDP The establishment of ‘College Council’, as the institution’s main governing body, the members of which will be in the position to partake in the making of executive decisions, concerned with the College’s functioning.
• Theoretical Approaches to the Organizational Development The systems approach has affected the field of organizational development by making organizations understand that each part of the organization is important for the functioning of the whole.
• Organizational Development Model The major problem facing the company is the increase in technological complexity of the organization. In this step, the company establishes the design failure that is used in solving the problem.
• Application of Organization Development Principles It is worth noting that the organization development will be essential in conflict management. In essence, the OD principles will be applied in the creation of a collaborative environment regarded useful for organization effectiveness and […]
• Organization Development: Principles, Processes, Performance The essence of control is the alignment of objective to the desired plans of an organization. Control therefore plays the role of comparing the actual realization of the organization and the planned or ideal situations […]
• Leadership and Career Development Interventions The second aspect is leadership development that bridges the routine, policy and science of leadership development by highlighting the importance of enhancing both physical and social capital in organizations.
• Capacity Development in Practice. Organizational Development Model and Plan The only evidence that I have to provide that the company is regressing in its ability to keep students engaged into the program is fabrication of scores on test and attendance.
• Organizational Development: Motivation, Communication, and Innovation Considering the latest restructuring measures in the company, the modes of operation and employee relations changed, prompting the workers and management to adjust to the new production system.
• Leadership & Organization Development by Lok, Peter and John Crawford In this article, the researchers attempt to describe the relationship between organizational commitment, culture and subculture and their impacts on leadership style and job satisfaction in organizational development and change.
• Yahoo: Organizational Development and Change Other products and services include the following: Yahoo associates with several content suppliers in products like Yahoo Sports, Yahoo Music, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Movies, Yahoo Answers, Yahoo Games and Yahoo News to offer news and […]
• Organizational Development and Change Implementation It is therefore necessary for business leaders and government sectors as well to understand organisational development elements so as to link the desired novel behaviours to the key performing task requirements of the organisation and […]
• Organizational Development in the Retail Store Organizational development will be applied to tackle and overcome problems in the retail store scenario of an important customer leaving the business and relocating to Mexico.
• Procedures in Implementing Organizational Development Process This implies that the implementation of reforms should not happen without first consulting the employees because whatever consequences follow will affect them direct, and if they learn that the management ignored their interests they will […]
• Organizational Development: Concepts & Theories Before the establishment of the company, Japanese armies relied on imported trucks, and as a result of depression that affected the world and the country at the same time, resources to import trucks became scarce.
• What Is Organizational Development? Some of the organizational development needs in the finance industry involve its public relations, a department that is given the mandate to create a very positive image of the organization.
• What Are the Four Steps of Organization Development?
• What Are the Traditional Forms of Organizational Development?
• What Are the Characteristics of Organization Development?
• What Is Organization Development in HR?
• What Are Core Skills in Organization Development?
• How Does a Company Choose an Organization Development Professional?
• What Is Organization Development Effectiveness?
• What Are Organization Development Interventions?
• What Is the Role of Organization Development?
• What Are OrganizationnDevelopment Strategies?
• What Is the Difference Between HR and Organization Development?
• What Can People Do With a Masters in Organization Development?
• What Does an Organization Development Manager Do?
• What Is Head of Organization Development?
• Is Organization Development a Good Job?
• What Are the Elements of Organization Development?
• What Is Coca-Cola’s Organization Development Problem?
• What Is Organization Development of Seventh-Day Adventist?
• What Are Examples of Organization Development?
• What Are the Strengths of Organization Development Consultant?
• What Knowledge Should Organization Development Practitioners Possess?
• How Can HR and Organization Development Work Together?
• What Are the Tools Used in Organization Development?
• What Are the Goals of Organization Development?
• What Is Laboratory Training in Organization Development?
• What Is Socio-Clinical Approach in Organization Development?
• What Is Tesla’s Organizational Deveopment Style?
• What Is Innovation in Organizational Development?
• What Is Organizational Development’s Difference from Traditional Approaches?
• What Are Organization Development Skills?
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7.2: Use patterns of organization and development

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Patterns of organization can help your readers follow the ideas within your essay and your paragraphs, but they can also work as methods of development to help you recognize and further develop ideas and relationships in your writing. Here are some strategies that can help you with both organization and development in your essays.

Major Patterns of Organization

Read the following sentences:

• Now take the pie out of the oven and let it cool on the stovetop.
• Mix the dry ingredients with the liquid ingredients.
• Set the pie crust aside while you make the filling.

How did it feel to read the above list? A bit confusing, I would guess. That’s because the steps for making a pie were not well organized, and the steps don’t include enough detail for us to know exactly what we should do. (Like what are the dry and liquid ingredients?) We all know that starting instructions from the beginning and giving each detailed step in the order it should happen is vital to having a good outcome, in this case a yummy pie! But it’s not always so simple to know how to organize or develop ideas, and sometimes there’s more than one way, which complicates things even further.

First, let’s take a look at a couple of ways to think about organization.

General to Specific or Specific to General

It might be useful to think about organizing your topic like a triangle:

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\)

The first triangle represents starting with the most general, big picture information first, moving then to more detailed and often more personal information later in the paper. The second triangle represents an organizational structure that starts with the specific, small scale information first and then moves to the more global, big picture stuff.

For example, if your topic is air pollution in Portland, Oregon, an essay that uses the general-to-specific organizational structure might begin this way:

Many people consider Portland, Oregon, to be an environmentally friendly, pollution-free place to live. They would be shocked to know how many pollutants are in the air causing a multitude of health problems in Portland’s citizens.

An essay that uses the specific-to-general structure might start like this:

When Nancy moved to Portland, Oregon, with her husband and two kids, she expected to find a clean, pollution-free city. She was shocked and angered when her daughter was diagnosed with asthma caused by air pollution.

What’s the difference between these two introductions? And how might they appeal to the intended audience for this essay (Portland voters) in different ways? The first introduction is looking at the big picture of the problem and mentions pollution’s impact on all citizens in Portland, while the second introduction focuses on one specific family. The first helps readers see how vast the problem really is, and the second helps connect readers to a real family, making an emotional appeal from the very beginning. Neither introduction is necessarily better. You’ll choose one over the other based on the kind of tone you’d like to create and how you’d like to affect your audience. It’s completely up to you to make this decision.

Does the Triangle Mean the Essay Keeps Getting More Specific or More Broad until the Very End?

The triangle is kind of a general guide, meaning you’re allowed to move around within it all you want. For example, it’s possible that each of your paragraphs will be its own triangle, starting with the general or specific and moving out or in. However, if you begin very broadly, it might be effective to end your essay in a more specific, personal way. And if you begin with a personal story, consider ending your essay by touching on the global impact and importance of your topic.

Are There Other Ways to Think about Organizing My Ideas?

Yes! Rather than thinking about which of your ideas are most specific or personal or which are more broad or universal, you might consider one of the following ways of organizing your ideas:

• Most important information first (consider what you want readers to focus on first)
• Chronological order (the order in time that events take place)
• Compare and contrast (ideas are organized together because of their relationship to each other)

The section on Methods of Development, below, offers more detail about some of these organizational patterns, along with some others.

Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\)

Choose one of the following topics, and practice writing a few opening sentences like we did above, once using the general-to-specific format and once using the specific-to-general. Which do you like better? What audience would be attracted to which one? Share with peers to see how others tackled this challenge. How would you rewrite their sentences? Why? Discuss your changes and listen to how your peers have revised your sentences. Taking in other people’s ideas will help you see new ways to approach your own writing and thinking.

• Facing fears
• Safety in sports
• Community policing
• Educating prisoners
• Sex education
• A book or movie that impacted you
• One thing you would change about your community
• Beauty standards
• Toxic masculinity
• How the media affects identity formation
• Gender roles
• Race in America
• The value of art in society
• Travel as part of a well-rounded education
• Drugs and alcohol
• Advice to new parents
• Advice to teachers
• The value of making mistakes
• How you’d spend a million dollars
• What a tough day at work taught you about yourself or others.

Methods of Development

The methods of development covered here are best used as ways to look at what’s already happening in your draft and to consider how you might emphasize or expand on any existing patterns. You might already be familiar with some of these patterns because teachers will sometimes assign them as the purpose for writing an essay. For example, you might have been asked to write a cause-and-effect essay or a comparison-and-contrast essay.

It’s important to emphasize here that patterns of organization or methods of developing content usually happen naturally as a consequence of the way the writer engages with and organizes information while writing. That is to say, most writers don’t sit down and say, “I think I’ll write a cause-and-effect essay today.” Instead, a writer might be more likely to be interested in a topic, say, the state of drinking water in the local community, and as the writer begins to explore the topic, certain cause-and-effect relationships between environmental pollutants and the community water supply may begin to emerge.

So if these patterns just occur naturally in writing, what’s the use in knowing about them? Well, sometimes you might be revising a draft and notice that some of your paragraphs are a bit underdeveloped. Maybe they lack a clear topic, or maybe they lack support. In either case, you can look to these common methods of development to find ways to sharpen those vague topics or to add support where needed. Do you have a clear cause statement somewhere but you haven’t explored the effects? Are you lacking detail somewhere where a narrative story or historical chronology can help build reader interest and add support? Are you struggling to define an idea that might benefit from some comparison or contrast? Read on to consider some of the ways that these strategies can help you in revision. And if you want to learn more, check out what the New York Times has to say in their learning blog article, “ Compare-Contrast, Cause-Effect, Problem Solution: Common ‘Text Types’ in The Times .”

Cause and Effect (or Effect and Cause)

Do you see a potential cause-and-effect relationship developing in your draft? The cause-and-effect pattern may be used to identify one or more causes followed by one or more effects or results. Or you may reverse this sequence and describe effects first and then the cause or causes. For example, the causes of water pollution might be followed by its effects on both humans and animals. You may use obvious transitions to clarify cause and effect, such as “What are the results? Here are some of them…” or you might simply use the words cause , effect , and result , to cue the reader about your about the relationships that you’re establishing.

Here’s an example article from the New York times, “ Rough Times Take Bloom Off a New Year’s Rite, the Rose Parade ,” that explores the cause and effect relationship (from 2011) between Pasadena’s budgetary challenges and the ability of their Rose Parade floats to deck themselves out in full bloom.

Problem-Solution

At some point does your essay explore a problem or suggest a solution? The problem-solution pattern is commonly used in identifying something that’s wrong and in contemplating what might be done to remedy the situation. There are probably more ways to organize a problem-solution approach, but but here are three possibilities:

• Describe the problem, followed by the solution.
• Propose the solution first and then describe the problems that motivated it.
• Or a problem may be followed by several solutions, one of which is selected as the best.

When the solution is stated at the end of the paper, the pattern is sometimes called the delayed proposal. For a hostile audience, it may be effective to describe the problem, show why other solutions do not work, and finally suggest the favored solution. You can emphasize the words problem and solution to signal these sections of your paper for your reader.

Here’s an example article from the New York times, “ Monks Embrace Web to Reach Recruits ,” that highlights an unexpected approach by a group of Benedictine monks in Rhode Island; they’ve turned to social media to grow their dwindling membership. Monks on Facebook? Who knew?

Chronology or Narrative

Do you need to develop support for a topic where telling a story can illustrate some important concept for your readers? Material arranged chronologically is explained as it occurs in time. A chronological or narrative method of development might help you find a way to add both interest and content to your essay. Material arranged chronologically is explained as it occurs in time. This pattern may be used to establish what has happened. Chronology or narrative can be a great way to introduce your essay by providing a background or history behind your topic. Or you may want to tell a story to develop one or more points in the body of your essay. You can use transitional words like then , next , and finally to make the parts of the chronology clear.

Here’s an example article from the Center for Media Literacy (originally published in the journal Media & Values ): “ From Savers to Spenders: How Children Became a Consumer Market .” To encourage his readers to think about why and how children are being marketed to by advertisers, the author uses a historical chronology of how the spending habits of children changed over a number of decades.

Comparison and Contrast

Are you trying to define something? Do you need your readers to understand what something is and what it is not? The comparison-and-contrast method of development is particularly useful in extending a definition, or anywhere you need to show how a subject is like or unlike another subject. For example, the statement is often made that drug abuse is a medical problem instead of a criminal justice issue. An author might attempt to prove this point by comparing drug addiction to AIDS, cancer, or heart disease to redefine the term “addiction” as a medical problem. A statement in opposition to this idea could just as easily establish contrast by explaining all the ways that addiction is different from what we traditionally understand as an illness. In seeking to establish comparison or contrast in your writing, some words or terms that might be useful are by contrast , in comparison , while , some , and others .

Here’s an example article from the New York times: “ Who Wants to Shop in a Big Box Store, Anyway? ” The author explores some interesting differences between the average American and average Indian consumer to contemplate the potential success of big box stores in India and also to contemplate why these giant big box corporations, like Walmart or Target, might have to rethink their business model.

These four methods of development—cause and effect, problem-solution, chronology or narrative, and comparison and contrast—are just a few ways to organize and develop ideas and content in your essays. It’s important to note that they should not be a starting point for writers who want to write something authentic—something that they care deeply about. Instead, they can be a great way to help you look for what’s already happening with your topic or in a draft, to help you to write more, or to help you reorganize some parts of an essay that seem to lack connection or feel disjointed. Look for organizational patterns when you’re reading work by professional writers. Notice where they combine strategies (e.g a problem-solution pattern that uses cause-and-effect organization, or a comparison-contrast pattern that uses narrative or chronology to develop similarities or differences). Pay attention to how different writers emphasize and develop their main ideas, and use what you find to inspire you in your own writing. Better yet, work on developing completely new patterns of your own.

Organizational Development 

In the 1980s, business leaders were fascinated by “Kaizen”, a Japanese term meaning “continuous improvement”. Kaizen was one of the secrets behind the incredible industrial success of Japan at the time. Although Kaizen is no longer discussed in boardrooms, its older iteration – organizational development – is still essential for companies willing to go the extra mile to achieve excellence. 

What Is Organizational Development?

Organizational development (“OD”, also known as “organization development”) attempts to improve an organization’s capabilities by coordinating the optimization of strategy, workplace skills , structure, motivation, management, and assessment processes. 

Organizational development involves numerous disciplines such as learning and development , psychology, social sciences, human resource management, innovation, research design, and organizational behavior. OD is a long-term effort, and although it is a linear process, most organizational development programs incorporate feedback loops that involve a continuous cycle that returns to the initial phase.   

Why Is Organizational Development Important?

Organizational development requires the cooperation of a company at every level, with a focus on detecting and resolving problems. This unrelenting effort can result in many advantages.  

Constant strategic adaptation

There is truth to the maxim: “The only constant is change”. Whereas some organizations tend to review strategy on a periodic basis, a company involved in organizational development will frequently update its strategy to reflect a constant flow of recommendations that emerge from the process. This mindset will result in an organization that has change management as a familiar initiative, as opposed to companies that need to implement change management quickly (and therefore less effectively).  

Increased communication

Organizational development affects everyone from production line workers to senior executives. Along the entire organizational hierarchy, staff members provide input regarding potential areas of improvement. This flow of information can benefit communication throughout the company. 

Growth of skill levels

Organizational deficiencies are sometimes a matter of insufficient training, and many OD programs lead to the implementation of learning and development initiatives. In themselves, such initiatives increase the competency level of workers. Additionally, L&D programs increase employee satisfaction and retention.

Improved output

Whether an organization sells a product or service, an effective organizational development program can result in a higher level of output, both in terms of quantity and value. 

Trends in Organizational Development

As the nature of business is constantly evolving, so the methods and ideas behind OD are changing. Here are a few major trends currently affecting OD implementation:

AI and data analytics

Recognizing patterns in how a company operates is an essential aspect of improvement. Combined with artificial intelligence, data analytics has the ability to search for trends in massive amounts of information collected by the company. In addition, there are specific analytical tools for different types of activities. For instance, HR teams can use people analytics to support the personnel-related functions of a change program.

The remote workplace

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics , approximately 28% of employees work from home (WFH) at least on a part-time basis. This represents a significant challenge for an OD process. Because it is a new pattern of work, the effect of WFH on productivity has yet to be determined. Similarly, any changes that a company suggests for or against WFH are likely to be based on speculation instead of facts because long-term consequences are not yet known.

Agile methodologies

Although they were first created for software development, agile methodologies are now being applied to a wide range of business functions. By incorporating agile into OD, companies can adapt quickly, try new concepts and strategies rapidly, and deal with challenges more effectively. The human resources department is no exception, with agile concepts enabling HR to collect feedback and make staffing changes faster than ever before.     

What Are the Main Challenges of OD, and Their Solutions?

As with any change-oriented process, organizational development faces a number of challenges:

One of the main reasons for organizational development is to move the company to a higher level of productivity and skills. However, there will always be employees who resist that change, both openly and passively. OD can also result in interpersonal conflict. Both of these issues require the close participation of management.

According to the Harvard Business Review , the average employee in 2022 underwent 10 planned enterprise changes, whereas in 2016, this number was 2. As a result, only 43% of employees supported enterprise change in 2022, compared to 74% in 2016. This is called a “ transformation deficit ”, where constant organizational change creates a sense of fatigue and frustration. Besides being a detriment to an organizational development process, a transformation deficit can also lead to poor engagement rates and even an increase in employee turnover.  

A main source of transformation deficit is that companies don’t explain the reasons for a change. This is reflected by survey results from Oak Engage , which show that the main factor behind resistance is lack of trust (41%). To address this, organizations should be open about why changes are being made and include employees in the process. 

Unless there is a serious crisis that requires an immediate overhaul, organizational development can cause disruptions to the standard working day. A poorly implemented organizational development process adds hours to the schedule and can misdirect employee efforts towards areas unconnected to productivity. 

The consequence of this can be seen through the transformation deficit. When workers get tired of constant changes, they start thinking about moving elsewhere (54%), while approximately half of them also feel tired and under stress. 

To avoid these effects, organizations should make sure that employees take advantage of “ proactive rest .” The HR team should arrange for initiatives such as:

• Days without any scheduled meetings
• Solidly fixed working hours
• Temporary breaks from intense projects
• Organization-wide days off work

Plus, these measures need to be promoted by leaders and appropriate for the individual needs of employees. If a company-wide break is held while certain employees are at a conference, then those employees should still get a day off when they return.

Effectiveness

A change initiative might start at the top, but getting the message through to all levels can be difficult. It is important to constantly monitor the status of the organizational development process to ensure it is working as intended. 

At the heart of this issue are managers. Various messages can come from senior executives, but it is the direct managers who are in constant contact with employees, and who are optimal for discussing organizational development initiatives. In addition, direct managers have the best ability to designate change-related tasks to various team members because they tend to know what skills each person has. 

Given enough time (because managers also feel pressure during periods of change), managers who enable their people to deal with the organizational development process can increase the “sustainable performance” of teams by 29% . 

How to Create an Organizational Development Program

The first stage of an organizational development program involves setting up the organizational infrastructure that will manage the process. There are organizational development specialists who can administer such programs, although many companies employ their own human resources staff for this purpose. In either case, the outline of the organizational development program must be presented early in the process to management in order to receive their approval and commitment to provide resources. The outline will touch on subjects including the hypothetical organizational problem (subject to change during a later phase), a timeline for program execution, resource requirements, and personnel involved. Once this initial phase is complete, most organizational development programs follow this process:

First, the collection of data is based on the initial definition of the problem. Interviews are conducted with stakeholders throughout the organization, as well as accounting personnel who can provide a quantitative description of the problem. 

At this point, the organizational development manager might discover that the original problem definition was not valid. This might require revision of the first program stage, and almost certainly the assessment phase. 

In any case, one critical aspect of any OD process is goal setting. Simply stated, the objective of organizational development is to solve a problem. But when does the team know that the problem has been solved? Considering that some organizational changes take years to complete, goal evaluation can take a long time. In such complex situations, it is advisable to use (see below for more information):

• Popular organizational development models
• The services of an OD consulting firm
• An employee who is a certified organizational development practitioner

Formulation

Data from the assessment phase is processed and analyzed, and a plan of implementation is developed. Refinements to the initial organizational development project plan might be required. At the end of this phase, the OD team should have an action plan ready, as well as a set of current performance benchmarks and future goals. 

Implementation

The resources for the action plan are sourced and the development initiatives are carried out. Coaches, mentors, and trainers are identified and set to work observing, recommending, and instructing. Experts and consultants can be hired to assess current methodologies and provide recommendations. Change plans are organized to cover, for instance, communication , roles and responsibilities, training, and risk management. Changes can be affected through ‘interventions’, where the development needs of the individual, group, and organization are addressed and corrected. This can include, for example, production problems, skill gaps, organizational changes, and pending opportunities. 

Next comes a continuous process of evaluating the efficacy of the organizational development program. This is a common juncture for the occurrence of feedback loops by which stakeholders analyze progress to date and, if required, repeat the organizational development process for remaining areas of weakness or new issues. 

What Is Organizational Development in HR?

The human resources department plays a crucial role during the various steps of an organizational development program. HR is usually in charge of L&D programs that improve professional skills. An organizational development program will also affect setups related to people management issues like motivation and assessment. Finally, on a macro level, any recommended changes to organizational behavior resulting from an OD initiative will be the responsibility of HR.

An OD Practitioner’s Required Skills

Organizational development is dedicated to improving specific aspects of a company’s abilities. Whenever challenges are encountered, they are addressed through change management. This is a skill in itself and carries with it numerous skill elements. These include communication skills, problem-solving , critical thinking , and time management .  

Organizational Development Certification

The necessity of constant change has led HR-based learning institutions to provide courses in OD process management, leading to certification. By obtaining professional-level instruction, experts can turn their organizational development initiative into a competitive advantage. Some of the leading OD certification courses include those provided by AIHR , the Institute of Organization Development , and the Association for Talent Development .

Top Organizational Development Consultants

Even though OD can be a continuous process, it often helps to at least get started with a specialist consulting firm. These range in size from multinational companies such as PwC, Bain & Company, and Boston Consulting Group, all the way to local firms that specialize in certain industries. Keep in mind that OD can be an intense and long-term process, so working with an affordable and responsive consultant is essential. However, as technology-based solutions become more common, and once you have an idea of how the process works, it becomes easier to handle OD independently. 

Examples of Organizational Development

Each organizational development initiative is focused on a major company function, which in turn, affects basically everything that the company does. Here are some of the main tasks that can be the subject of organizational development:

A revised R&D process

This can be an effort to implement new techniques, a requirement for the invention of a new product, or a way of troubleshooting issues that arise over time.

A new organizational culture

Especially with the influence of younger generations , companies are realizing the benefits of consciously adopting an organizational culture that fits their operational and moral goals. 

Reskilling and upskilling

L&D programs are an integral part of OD and are a classic example of a long-term objective that empowers an organization with a solid core of skills.

A Note on Skills

Almost any organizational change will require new skills. For instance, a revised R&D process might demand a new programming language or learning how to use a certain technology. Similarly, changing organizational culture will almost definitely involve upgrading soft skills. Finally, because change is led by managers, it is likely that leadership development programs that focus on abilities related to change management will need to be implemented. This is even more so if OD is continuous, in which case a continuous professional development ( CPD ) program should be set up.  

OD Interventions and Examples

The ‘vehicle’ for implementing OD is called an intervention. This is a structured process where the building blocks of an OD plan are made. There are four basic examples of OD interventions:

Human resources

This involves changes to organizational functions that are essentially the domain of HR, such as issues related to DEI, employee development , and employee assessment.

Human processes

The goal of an intervention in this case seeks to improve interpersonal communications and dynamics.

Technological structure

These are aimed at altering the way people interact with the technological aspects of their work by, for example, changing workflows.

This is a transformational change that can result, for instance, from a merger or a restructuring.

Organizational Development Models

The extent of an OD program can easily lead to disorder. To keep things manageable, several models have been developed to keep practitioners and the organization on track. These are some of the most commonly used models:

Greiner’s Sequences

Greiner outlined OD as a process that occurs in a certain order. It also happens as a sort of stimulus-response cycle, where external pressure forces the organization to change, which in turn causes various changes within the company.

Lewin’s Three Stages

Also used in change management, Lewin’s model proposes that an organization stop a certain process, analyze and adapt it, and then make it a fixed element again within its operations.

Leavitt’s Interactive

In this organizational development model, organizations consist of four subsystems (people, structure, technology, and tasks), which are all affected when one element is changed. 

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The Participative Model of Organizational Development

Today’s rapidly growing business segment makes all the enterprises stand out in order to remain relevant in a certain market and keep target audience engaged in the service supply. For this reason, organizational development, which stands for the concept of constant improvement and innovation within the enterprise, has become one of the primary concerns of the top management. In fact, researchers claim that modern approaches to organizational development reflect the overall social hierarchy, emphasizing the necessity of collectiveness, participation, relevance, and intelligence within the unit (Achterbergh & Vriens, 2019). Thus, the efficient combination of the aforementioned approaches to address the issues of development and environment within the company might ensure the overall positive development tendencies.

To begin with, the correlation between participation and collectiveness should be established in order to define its value to the enterprise. Thus, the participative model of organizational development is primarily focused on allowing employees to take an active part in the life of a company despite their professional status (Chan, 2019). As a result, the enterprise’s staff begins to feel like a team, feeling responsible for their own contribution to the business’s development and establishment in the market. Moreover, while everyone is involved in the process, it becomes easier to outline every slight problem tackling the organization, making it possible to be more solution-oriented in terms of the work process. Finally, when every employee participates in the decision-making process, he or she feels extremely responsible for the area of individual influence, and, as a result, ensures constant development in terms of expertise and competence in the field. Taking everything into consideration, it might be concluded that absolutely all organizations are to pay much attention to the aspects of development within the company while making sure that all of them work in symbiosis to secure even better results in the future.

Achterbergh, J., & Vriens, D. (2019). Organizational development: Designing episodic interventions . Routledge.

Chan, S. C. (2019). Participative leadership and job satisfaction. Leadership & Organization Development Journal , 40 (3).

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Patterns of Organization and Methods of Development

Patterns of organization can help your readers follow the ideas within your essay and your paragraphs, but they can also work as methods of development to help you recognize and further develop ideas and relationships in your writing. Here are some strategies that can help you with both organization and development in your essays.

Major Patterns of Organization

Read the following sentences:

• Now take the pie out of the oven and let it cool on the stovetop.
• Mix the dry ingredients with the liquid ingredients.
• Set the pie crust aside while you make the filling.

How did it feel to read the above list? A bit confusing, I would guess. That’s because the steps for making a pie were not well organized, and the steps don’t include enough detail for us to know exactly what we should do. (Like what are the dry and liquid ingredients?) We all know that starting instructions from the beginning and giving each detailed step in the order it should happen is vital to having a good outcome, in this case a yummy pie! But it’s not always so simple to know how to organize or develop ideas, and sometimes there’s more than one way, which complicates things even further.

First, let’s take a look at a couple of ways to think about organization.

General to Specific or Specific to General

It might be useful to think about organizing your topic like a triangle:

The first triangle represents starting with the most general, big picture information first, moving then to more detailed and often more personal information later in the paper. The second triangle represents an organizational structure that starts with the specific, small scale information first and then moves to the more global, big picture stuff.

For example, if your topic is air pollution in Portland, Oregon, an essay that uses the general-to-specific organizational structure might begin this way:

Many people consider Portland, Oregon, to be an environmentally friendly, pollution-free place to live. They would be shocked to know how many pollutants are in the air causing a multitude of health problems in Portland’s citizens.

An essay that uses the specific-to-general structure might start like this:

When Nancy moved to Portland, Oregon, with her husband and two kids, she expected to find a clean, pollution-free city. She was shocked and angered when her daughter was diagnosed with asthma caused by air pollution.

What’s the difference between these two introductions? And how might they appeal to the intended audience for this essay (Portland voters) in different ways? The first introduction is looking at the big picture of the problem and mentions pollution’s impact on all citizens in Portland, while the second introduction focuses on one specific family. The first helps readers see how vast the problem really is, and the second helps connect readers to a real family, making an emotional appeal from the very beginning. Neither introduction is necessarily better. You’ll choose one over the other based on the kind of tone you’d like to create and how you’d like to affect your audience. It’s completely up to you to make this decision.

Does the Triangle Mean the Essay Keeps Getting More Specific or More Broad until the Very End?

The triangle is kind of a general guide, meaning you’re allowed to move around within it all you want. For example, it’s possible that each of your paragraphs will be its own triangle, starting with the general or specific and moving out or in. However, if you begin very broadly, it might be effective to end your essay in a more specific, personal way. And if you begin with a personal story, consider ending your essay by touching on the global impact and importance of your topic.

Are There Other Ways to Think about Organizing My Ideas?

Yes! Rather than thinking about which of your ideas are most specific or personal or which are more broad or universal, you might consider one of the following ways of organizing your ideas:

• Most important information first (consider what you want readers to focus on first)
• Chronological order (the order in time that events take place)
• Compare and contrast (ideas are organized together because of their relationship to each other)

The section on Methods of Development, below, offers more detail about some of these organizational patterns, along with some others.

Choose one of the following topics, and practice writing a few opening sentences like we did above, once using the general-to-specific format and once using the specific-to-general. Which do you like better? What audience would be attracted to which one? Share with peers to see how others tackled this challenge. How would you rewrite their sentences? Why? Discuss your changes and listen to how your peers have revised your sentences. Taking in other people’s ideas will help you see new ways to approach your own writing and thinking.

• Facing fears
• Safety in sports
• Community policing
• Educating prisoners
• Sex education
• A book or movie that impacted you
• One thing you would change about your community
• Beauty standards
• Toxic masculinity
• How the media affects identity formation
• Gender roles
• Race in America
• The value of art in society
• Travel as part of a well-rounded education
• Drugs and alcohol
• Advice to new parents
• Advice to teachers
• The value of making mistakes
• How you’d spend a million dollars
• What a tough day at work taught you about yourself or others.

Methods of Development

The methods of development covered here are best used as ways to look at what’s already happening in your draft and to consider how you might emphasize or expand on any existing patterns. You might already be familiar with some of these patterns because teachers will sometimes assign them as the purpose for writing an essay. For example, you might have been asked to write a cause-and-effect essay or a comparison-and-contrast essay.

It’s important to emphasize here that patterns of organization or methods of developing content usually happen naturally as a consequence of the way the writer engages with and organizes information while writing. That is to say, most writers don’t sit down and say, “I think I’ll write a cause-and-effect essay today.”  Instead, a writer might be more likely to be interested in a topic, say, the state of drinking water in the local community, and as the writer begins to explore the topic, certain cause-and-effect relationships between environmental pollutants and the community water supply may begin to emerge.

So if these patterns just occur naturally in writing, what’s the use in knowing about them?  Well, sometimes you might be revising a draft and notice that some of your paragraphs are a bit underdeveloped. Maybe they lack a clear topic, or maybe they lack support. In either case, you can look to these common methods of development to find ways to sharpen those vague topics or to add support where needed. Do you have a clear cause statement somewhere but you haven’t explored the effects?  Are you lacking detail somewhere where a narrative story or historical chronology can help build reader interest and add support?  Are you struggling to define an idea that might benefit from some comparison or contrast?  Read on to consider some of the ways that these strategies can help you in revision. And if you want to learn more, check out what the New York Times has to say in their learning blog article, “ Compare-Contrast, Cause-Effect, Problem Solution: Common ‘Text Types’ in The Times .”

Cause and Effect (or Effect and Cause)

Do you see a potential cause-and-effect relationship developing in your draft?  The cause-and-effect pattern may be used to identify one or more causes followed by one or more effects or results. Or you may reverse this sequence and describe effects first and then the cause or causes. For example, the causes of water pollution might be followed by its effects on both humans and animals. You may use obvious transitions to clarify cause and effect, such as “What are the results? Here are some of them…” or you might simply use the words cause , effect , and result , to cue the reader about your about the relationships that you’re establishing.

Here’s an example article from the New York times, “ Rough Times Take Bloom Off a New Year’s Rite, the Rose Parade ,” that explores the cause and effect relationship (from 2011) between Pasadena’s budgetary challenges and the ability of their Rose Parade floats to deck themselves out in full bloom.

Problem-Solution

At some point does your essay explore a problem or suggest a solution? The problem-solution pattern is commonly used in identifying something that’s wrong and in contemplating what might be done to remedy the situation. There are probably more ways to organize a problem-solution approach, but but here are three possibilities:

• Describe the problem, followed by the solution.
• Propose the solution first and then describe the problems that motivated it.
• Or a problem may be followed by several solutions, one of which is selected as the best.

When the solution is stated at the end of the paper, the pattern is sometimes called the delayed proposal. For a hostile audience, it may be effective to describe the problem, show why other solutions do not work, and finally suggest the favored solution. You can emphasize the words problem and solution to signal these sections of your paper for your reader.

Here’s an example article from the New York times, “ Monks Embrace Web to Reach Recruits ,” that highlights an unexpected approach by a group of Benedictine monks in Rhode Island; they’ve turned to social media to grow their dwindling membership. Monks on Facebook?  Who knew?

Chronology or Narrative

Do you need to develop support for a topic where telling a story can illustrate some important concept for your readers? Material arranged chronologically is explained as it occurs in time. A chronological or narrative method of development might help you find a way to add both interest and content to your essay. Material arranged chronologically is explained as it occurs in time. This pattern may be used to establish what has happened. Chronology or narrative can be a great way to introduce your essay by providing a background or history behind your topic. Or you may want to tell a story to develop one or more points in the body of your essay. You can use transitional words like then , next , and finally to make the parts of the chronology clear.

Here’s an example article from the Center for Media Literacy (originally published in the journal Media & Values ): “ From Savers to Spenders: How Children Became a Consumer Market .” To encourage his readers to think about why and how children are being marketed to by advertisers, the author uses a historical chronology of how the spending habits of children changed over a number of decades.

Comparison and Contrast

Are you trying to define something? Do you need your readers to understand what something is and what it is not? The comparison-and-contrast method of development is particularly useful in extending a definition, or anywhere you need to show how a subject is like or unlike another subject. For example, the statement is often made that drug abuse is a medical problem instead of a criminal justice issue. An author might attempt to prove this point by comparing drug addiction to AIDS, cancer, or heart disease to redefine the term “addiction” as a medical problem. A statement in opposition to this idea could just as easily establish contrast by explaining all the ways that addiction is different from what we traditionally understand as an illness. In seeking to establish comparison or contrast in your writing, some words or terms that might be useful are by contrast , in comparison , while , some , and others .

Here’s an example article from the New York times: “ Who Wants to Shop in a Big Box Store, Anyway? ” The author explores some interesting differences between the average American and average Indian consumer to contemplate the potential success of big box stores in India and also to contemplate why these giant big box corporations, like Walmart or Target, might have to rethink their business model.

These four methods of development—cause and effect, problem-solution, chronology or narrative, and comparison and contrast—are just a few ways to organize and develop ideas and content in your essays. It’s important to note that they should not be a starting point for writers who want to write something authentic—something that they care deeply about. Instead, they can be a great way to help you look for what’s already happening with your topic or in a draft, to help you to write more, or to help you reorganize some parts of an essay that seem to lack connection or feel disjointed. Look for organizational patterns when you’re reading work by professional writers. Notice where they combine strategies (e.g a problem-solution pattern that uses cause-and-effect organization, or a comparison-contrast pattern that uses narrative or chronology to develop similarities or differences). Pay attention to how different writers emphasize and develop their main ideas, and use what you find to inspire you in your own writing. Better yet, work on developing  completely new patterns of your own.

The Word on College Reading and Writing Copyright © by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Organization and Structure

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There is no single organizational pattern that works well for all writing across all disciplines; rather, organization depends on what you’re writing, who you’re writing it for, and where your writing will be read. In order to communicate your ideas, you’ll need to use a logical and consistent organizational structure in all of your writing. We can think about organization at the global level (your entire paper or project) as well as at the local level (a chapter, section, or paragraph). For an American academic situation, this means that at all times, the goal of revising for organization and structure is to consciously design your writing projects to make them easy for readers to understand. In this context, you as the writer are always responsible for the reader's ability to understand your work; in other words, American academic writing is writer-responsible. A good goal is to make your writing accessible and comprehensible to someone who just reads sections of your writing rather than the entire piece. This handout provides strategies for revising your writing to help meet this goal.

Note that this resource focuses on writing for an American academic setting, specifically for graduate students. American academic writing is of course not the only standard for academic writing, and researchers around the globe will have different expectations for organization and structure. The OWL has some more resources about writing for American and international audiences here .

Whole-Essay Structure

While organization varies across and within disciplines, usually based on the genre, publication venue, and other rhetorical considerations of the writing, a great deal of academic writing can be described by the acronym IMRAD (or IMRaD): Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion. This structure is common across most of the sciences and is often used in the humanities for empirical research. This structure doesn't serve every purpose (for instance, it may be difficult to follow IMRAD in a proposal for a future study or in more exploratory writing in the humanities), and it is often tweaked or changed to fit a particular situation. Still, its wide use as a base for a great deal of scholarly writing makes it worthwhile to break down here.

• Introduction : What is the purpose of the study? What were the research questions? What necessary background information should the reader understand to help contextualize the study? (Some disciplines include their literature review section as part of the introduction; some give the literature review its own heading on the same level as the other sections, i.e., ILMRAD.) Some writers use the CARS model to help craft their introductions more effectively.
• Methods: What methods did the researchers use? How was the study conducted? If the study included participants, who were they, and how were they selected?
• Results : This section lists the data. What did the researchers find as a result of their experiments (or, if the research is not experimental, what did the researchers learn from the study)? How were the research questions answered?
• Discussion : This section places the data within the larger conversation of the field. What might the results mean? Do these results agree or disagree with other literature cited? What should researchers do in the future?

Depending on your discipline, this may be exactly the structure you should use in your writing; or, it may be a base that you can see under the surface of published pieces in your field, which then diverge from the IMRAD structure to meet the expectations of other scholars in the field. However, you should always check to see what's expected of you in a given situation; this might mean talking to the professor for your class, looking at a journal's submission guidelines, reading your field's style manual, examining published examples, or asking a trusted mentor. Every field is a little different.

Outlining & Reverse Outlining

One of the most effective ways to get your ideas organized is to write an outline. A traditional outline comes as the pre-writing or drafting stage of the writing process. As you make your outline, think about all of the concepts, topics, and ideas you will need to include in order to accomplish your goal for the piece of writing. This may also include important citations and key terms. Write down each of these, and then consider what information readers will need to know in order for each point to make sense. Try to arrange your ideas in a way that logically progresses, building from one key idea or point to the next.

Questions for Writing Outlines

• What are the main points I am trying to make in this piece of writing?
• What background information will my readers need to understand each point? What will novice readers vs. experienced readers need to know?
• In what order do I want to present my ideas? Most important to least important, or least important to most important? Chronologically? Most complex to least complex? According to categories? Another order?

Reverse outlining comes at the drafting or revision stage of the writing process. After you have a complete draft of your project (or a section of your project), work alone or with a partner to read your project with the goal of understanding the main points you have made and the relationship of these points to one another. The OWL has another resource about reverse outlining here.

Questions for Writing Reverse Outlines

• What topics are covered in this piece of writing?
• In what order are the ideas presented? Is this order logical for both novice and experienced readers?
• Is adequate background information provided for each point, making it easy to understand how one idea leads to the next?
• What other points might the author include to further develop the writing project?

Organizing at the sentence and paragraph level

Signposting.

Signposting is the practice of using language specifically designed to help orient readers of your text. We call it signposting because this practice is like leaving road signs for a driver — it tells your reader where to go and what to expect up ahead. Signposting includes the use of transitional words and phrasing, and they may be explicit or more subtle. For example, an explicit signpost might say:

This section will cover Topic A­­ and Topic B­­­­­.

A more subtle signpost might look like this:

It's important to consider the impact of Topic A­­ and Topic B­­­­­.

The style of signpost you use will depend on the genre of your paper, the discipline in which you are writing, and your or your readers’ personal preferences. Regardless of the style of signpost you select, it’s important to include signposts regularly. They occur most frequently at the beginnings and endings of sections of your paper. It is often helpful to include signposts at mid-points in your project in order to remind readers of where you are in your argument.

Questions for Identifying and Evaluating Signposts

• How and where does the author include a phrase, sentence, or short group of sentences that explains the purpose and contents of the paper?
• How does each section of the paper provide a brief summary of what was covered earlier in the paper?
• How does each section of the paper explain what will be covered in that section?
• How does the author use transitional words and phrases to guide readers through ideas (e.g. however, in addition, similarly, nevertheless, another, while, because, first, second, next, then etc.)?

WORKS CONSULTED

Clark, I. (2006). Writing the successful thesis and dissertation: Entering the conversation . Prentice Hall Press.

Davis, M., Davis, K. J., & Dunagan, M. (2012). Scientific papers and presentations . Academic press.

Want to create or adapt books like this? Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices.

30 Patterns of Organization and Methods of Development

Patterns of organization can help your readers follow the ideas within your essay and your paragraphs, but they can also work as methods of development to help you recognize and further develop ideas and relationships in your writing. Here are some strategies that can help you with both organization and development in your essays.

Major Patterns of Organization

• Now take the pie out of the oven and let it cool on the stovetop.
• Mix the dry ingredients with the liquid ingredients.
• Set the pie crust aside while you make the filling.

How did it feel to read the above list? A bit confusing, I would guess. That’s because the steps for making a pie were not well organized, and the steps don’t include enough detail for us to know exactly what we should do. (Like what are the dry and liquid ingredients?) We all know that starting instructions from the beginning and giving each detailed step in the order it should happen is vital to having a good outcome, in this case a yummy pie! But it’s not always so simple to know how to organize or develop ideas, and sometimes there’s more than one way, which complicates things even further.

First, let’s take a look at a couple of ways to think about organization.

General to Specific or Specific to General

It might be useful to think about organizing your topic like a triangle:

The first triangle represents starting with the most general, big picture information first, moving then to more detailed and often more personal information later in the paper. The second triangle represents an organizational structure that starts with the specific, small scale information first and then moves to the more global, big picture stuff.

For example, if your topic is traffic in Vancouver, British Columbia, an essay that uses the general-to-specific organizational structure might begin this way:

Many people consider Vancouver, British Columbia, to be a relaxed place to live. They would be shocked to know how bad the traffic is traveling major arteries into the city and even driving around the city itself.

An essay that uses the specific-to-general structure might start like this:

Transit is crowded, parking is expensive, and vehicles stop and go through the main streets of the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, and that is just once travelers brave the crowded arteries to enter the city; Vancouver’s traffic problem does not lend itself to the relaxed atmosphere many believe the city to have.

What’s the difference between these two introductions? And how might they appeal to the intended audience for this essay in different ways? The first introduction is looking at the big picture of the problem and mentions pollution’s impact on all citizens in Portland, while the second introduction focuses on one specific family. The first helps readers see how vast the problem really is, and the second helps connect readers to a real family, making an emotional appeal from the very beginning. Neither introduction is necessarily better. You’ll choose one over the other based on the kind of tone you’d like to create and how you’d like to affect your audience. It’s completely up to you to make this decision.

Does the Triangle Mean the Essay Keeps Getting More Specific or More Broad until the Very End?

The triangle is kind of a general guide, meaning you’re allowed to move around within it all you want. For example, it’s possible that each of your paragraphs will be its own triangle, starting with the general or specific and moving out or in. However, if you begin very broadly, it might be effective to end your essay in a more specific, personal way. And if you begin with a personal story, consider ending your essay by touching on the global impact and importance of your topic.

Are There Other Ways to Think about Organizing My Ideas?

Yes! Rather than thinking about which of your ideas are most specific or personal or which are more broad or universal, you might consider one of the following ways of organizing your ideas:

• Most important information first (consider what you want readers to focus on first)
• Chronological order (the order in time that events take place)
• Compare and contrast (ideas are organized together because of their relationship to each other)

The section on Methods of Development, below, offers more detail about some of these organizational patterns, along with some others.

Choose one of the following topics, and practice writing a few opening sentences like we did above, once using the general-to-specific format and once using the specific-to-general. Which do you like better? What audience would be attracted to which one? Share with peers to see how others tackled this challenge. How would you rewrite their sentences? Why? Discuss your changes and listen to how your peers have revised your sentences. Taking in other people’s ideas will help you see new ways to approach your own writing and thinking. Topics:

• Facing fears
• Safety in sports
• Community policing
• Educating prisoners
• Sex education

Methods of Development

The methods of development covered here are best used as ways to look at what’s already happening in your draft and to consider how you might emphasize or expand on any existing patterns. You might already be familiar with some of these patterns because teachers will sometimes assign them as the purpose for writing an essay. For example, you might have been asked to write a cause-and-effect essay or a comparison-and-contrast essay.

It’s important to emphasize here that patterns of organization or methods of developing content usually happen naturally as a consequence of the way the writer engages with and organizes information while writing. That is to say, most writers don’t sit down and say, “I think I’ll write a cause-and-effect essay today.”  Instead, a writer might be more likely to be interested in a topic, say, the state of drinking water in the local community, and as the writer begins to explore the topic, certain cause-and-effect relationships between environmental pollutants and the community water supply may begin to emerge.

So if these patterns just occur naturally in writing, what’s the use in knowing about them? Well, sometimes you might be revising a draft and notice that some of your paragraphs are a bit underdeveloped. Maybe they lack a clear topic, or maybe they lack support. In either case, you can look to these common methods of development to find ways to sharpen those vague topics or to add support where needed. Do you have a clear cause statement somewhere but you haven’t explored the effects?  Are you lacking detail somewhere where a narrative story or historical chronology can help build reader interest and add support?  Are you struggling to define an idea that might benefit from some comparison or contrast?  Read on to consider some of the ways that these strategies can help you in revision.

Cause and Effect (or Effect and Cause)

Do you see a potential cause-and-effect relationship developing in your draft?  The cause-and-effect pattern may be used to identify one or more causes followed by one or more effects or results. Or you may reverse this sequence and describe effects first and then the cause or causes. For example, the causes of water pollution might be followed by its effects on both humans and animals. You may use obvious transitions to clarify cause and effect, such as “What are the results? Here are some of them…” or you might simply use the words cause , effect , and result , to cue the reader about your about the relationships that you’re establishing.

Problem-Solution

At some point does your essay explore a problem or suggest a solution? The problem-solution pattern is commonly used in identifying something that’s wrong and in contemplating what might be done to remedy the situation. There are probably more ways to organize a problem-solution approach, but but here are three possibilities:

• Describe the problem, followed by the solution.
• Propose the solution first and then describe the problems that motivated it.
• Or a problem may be followed by several solutions, one of which is selected as the best.

When the solution is stated at the end of the paper, the pattern is sometimes called the delayed proposal. For a hostile audience, it may be effective to describe the problem, show why other solutions do not work, and finally suggest the favored solution. You can emphasize the words problem and solution to signal these sections of your paper for your reader.

Chronology or Narrative

Do you need to develop support for a topic where telling a story can illustrate some important concept for your readers? Material arranged chronologically is explained as it occurs in time. A chronological or narrative method of development might help you find a way to add both interest and content to your essay. Material arranged chronologically is explained as it occurs in time. This pattern may be used to establish what has happened. Chronology or narrative can be a great way to introduce your essay by providing a background or history behind your topic. Or you may want to tell a story to develop one or more points in the body of your essay. You can use transitional words like then , next , and finally to make the parts of the chronology clear.

Comparison and Contrast

Are you trying to define something? Do you need your readers to understand what something is and what it is not? The comparison-and-contrast method of development is particularly useful in extending a definition, or anywhere you need to show how a subject is like or unlike another subject. For example, the statement is often made that drug abuse is a medical problem instead of a criminal justice issue. An author might attempt to prove this point by comparing drug addiction to AIDS, cancer, or heart disease to redefine the term “addiction” as a medical problem. A statement in opposition to this idea could just as easily establish contrast by explaining all the ways that addiction is different from what we traditionally understand as an illness. In seeking to establish comparison or contrast in your writing, some words or terms that might be useful are by contrast , in comparison , while , some , and others .

These four methods of development—cause and effect, problem-solution, chronology or narrative, and comparison and contrast—are just a few ways to organize and develop ideas and content in your essays. It’s important to note that they should not be a starting point for writers who want to write something authentic—something that they care deeply about. Instead, they can be a great way to help you look for what’s already happening with your topic or in a draft, to help you to write more, or to help you reorganize some parts of an essay that seem to lack connection or feel disjointed. Look for organizational patterns when you’re reading work by professional writers. Notice where they combine strategies (e.g., a problem-solution pattern that uses cause-and-effect organization, or a comparison-contrast pattern that uses narrative or chronology to develop similarities or differences). Pay attention to how different writers emphasize and develop their main ideas, and use what you find to inspire you in your own writing. Better yet, work on developing  completely new patterns of your own.

Text Attributions

• This chapter was adapted from “ Patterns of Organization and Methods of Development ” in The Word on College Reading and Writing by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear, which is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence . Adapted by Allison Kilgannon.

Media Attributions

• “ Peach and lavender pie ” by Heather Joan is licensed under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Licence .
• “General to Specific vs. Specific to General Triangles” by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear is under a CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence .

Advanced English Copyright © 2021 by Allison Kilgannon is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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• How to structure an essay: Templates and tips

How to Structure an Essay | Tips & Templates

Published on September 18, 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on July 23, 2023.

The basic structure of an essay always consists of an introduction , a body , and a conclusion . But for many students, the most difficult part of structuring an essay is deciding how to organize information within the body.

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Table of contents

The basics of essay structure, chronological structure, compare-and-contrast structure, problems-methods-solutions structure, signposting to clarify your structure, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about essay structure.

There are two main things to keep in mind when working on your essay structure: making sure to include the right information in each part, and deciding how you’ll organize the information within the body.

Parts of an essay

The three parts that make up all essays are described in the table below.

Order of information

You’ll also have to consider how to present information within the body. There are a few general principles that can guide you here.

The first is that your argument should move from the simplest claim to the most complex . The body of a good argumentative essay often begins with simple and widely accepted claims, and then moves towards more complex and contentious ones.

For example, you might begin by describing a generally accepted philosophical concept, and then apply it to a new topic. The grounding in the general concept will allow the reader to understand your unique application of it.

The second principle is that background information should appear towards the beginning of your essay . General background is presented in the introduction. If you have additional background to present, this information will usually come at the start of the body.

The third principle is that everything in your essay should be relevant to the thesis . Ask yourself whether each piece of information advances your argument or provides necessary background. And make sure that the text clearly expresses each piece of information’s relevance.

The sections below present several organizational templates for essays: the chronological approach, the compare-and-contrast approach, and the problems-methods-solutions approach.

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The chronological approach (sometimes called the cause-and-effect approach) is probably the simplest way to structure an essay. It just means discussing events in the order in which they occurred, discussing how they are related (i.e. the cause and effect involved) as you go.

A chronological approach can be useful when your essay is about a series of events. Don’t rule out other approaches, though—even when the chronological approach is the obvious one, you might be able to bring out more with a different structure.

Explore the tabs below to see a general template and a specific example outline from an essay on the invention of the printing press.

• Thesis statement
• Discussion of event/period
• Consequences
• Importance of topic
• Strong closing statement
• Claim that the printing press marks the end of the Middle Ages
• Background on the low levels of literacy before the printing press
• Thesis statement: The invention of the printing press increased circulation of information in Europe, paving the way for the Reformation
• High levels of illiteracy in medieval Europe
• Literacy and thus knowledge and education were mainly the domain of religious and political elites
• Consequence: this discouraged political and religious change
• Invention of the printing press in 1440 by Johannes Gutenberg
• Implications of the new technology for book production
• Consequence: Rapid spread of the technology and the printing of the Gutenberg Bible
• Trend for translating the Bible into vernacular languages during the years following the printing press’s invention
• Luther’s own translation of the Bible during the Reformation
• Consequence: The large-scale effects the Reformation would have on religion and politics
• Summarize the history described
• Stress the significance of the printing press to the events of this period

Essays with two or more main subjects are often structured around comparing and contrasting . For example, a literary analysis essay might compare two different texts, and an argumentative essay might compare the strengths of different arguments.

There are two main ways of structuring a compare-and-contrast essay: the alternating method, and the block method.

Alternating

In the alternating method, each paragraph compares your subjects in terms of a specific point of comparison. These points of comparison are therefore what defines each paragraph.

The tabs below show a general template for this structure, and a specific example for an essay comparing and contrasting distance learning with traditional classroom learning.

• Synthesis of arguments
• Topical relevance of distance learning in lockdown
• Increasing prevalence of distance learning over the last decade
• Thesis statement: While distance learning has certain advantages, it introduces multiple new accessibility issues that must be addressed for it to be as effective as classroom learning
• Classroom learning: Ease of identifying difficulties and privately discussing them
• Distance learning: Difficulty of noticing and unobtrusively helping
• Classroom learning: Difficulties accessing the classroom (disability, distance travelled from home)
• Distance learning: Difficulties with online work (lack of tech literacy, unreliable connection, distractions)
• Classroom learning: Tends to encourage personal engagement among students and with teacher, more relaxed social environment
• Distance learning: Greater ability to reach out to teacher privately
• Sum up, emphasize that distance learning introduces more difficulties than it solves
• Stress the importance of addressing issues with distance learning as it becomes increasingly common
• Distance learning may prove to be the future, but it still has a long way to go

In the block method, each subject is covered all in one go, potentially across multiple paragraphs. For example, you might write two paragraphs about your first subject and then two about your second subject, making comparisons back to the first.

The tabs again show a general template, followed by another essay on distance learning, this time with the body structured in blocks.

• Point 1 (compare)
• Point 2 (compare)
• Point 3 (compare)
• Point 4 (compare)
• Advantages: Flexibility, accessibility
• Disadvantages: Discomfort, challenges for those with poor internet or tech literacy
• Advantages: Potential for teacher to discuss issues with a student in a separate private call
• Disadvantages: Difficulty of identifying struggling students and aiding them unobtrusively, lack of personal interaction among students
• Advantages: More accessible to those with low tech literacy, equality of all sharing one learning environment
• Disadvantages: Students must live close enough to attend, commutes may vary, classrooms not always accessible for disabled students
• Advantages: Ease of picking up on signs a student is struggling, more personal interaction among students
• Disadvantages: May be harder for students to approach teacher privately in person to raise issues

An essay that concerns a specific problem (practical or theoretical) may be structured according to the problems-methods-solutions approach.

This is just what it sounds like: You define the problem, characterize a method or theory that may solve it, and finally analyze the problem, using this method or theory to arrive at a solution. If the problem is theoretical, the solution might be the analysis you present in the essay itself; otherwise, you might just present a proposed solution.

The tabs below show a template for this structure and an example outline for an essay about the problem of fake news.

• Introduce the problem
• Provide background
• Describe your approach to solving it
• Define the problem precisely
• Describe why it’s important
• Indicate previous approaches to the problem
• Present your new approach, and why it’s better
• Apply the new method or theory to the problem
• Indicate the solution you arrive at by doing so
• Assess (potential or actual) effectiveness of solution
• Describe the implications
• Problem: The growth of “fake news” online
• Prevalence of polarized/conspiracy-focused news sources online
• Thesis statement: Rather than attempting to stamp out online fake news through social media moderation, an effective approach to combating it must work with educational institutions to improve media literacy
• Definition: Deliberate disinformation designed to spread virally online
• Popularization of the term, growth of the phenomenon
• Previous approaches: Labeling and moderation on social media platforms
• Critique: This approach feeds conspiracies; the real solution is to improve media literacy so users can better identify fake news
• Greater emphasis should be placed on media literacy education in schools
• This allows people to assess news sources independently, rather than just being told which ones to trust
• This is a long-term solution but could be highly effective
• It would require significant organization and investment, but would equip people to judge news sources more effectively
• Rather than trying to contain the spread of fake news, we must teach the next generation not to fall for it

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Signposting means guiding the reader through your essay with language that describes or hints at the structure of what follows.  It can help you clarify your structure for yourself as well as helping your reader follow your ideas.

The essay overview

In longer essays whose body is split into multiple named sections, the introduction often ends with an overview of the rest of the essay. This gives a brief description of the main idea or argument of each section.

The overview allows the reader to immediately understand what will be covered in the essay and in what order. Though it describes what  comes later in the text, it is generally written in the present tense . The following example is from a literary analysis essay on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein .

Transitions

Transition words and phrases are used throughout all good essays to link together different ideas. They help guide the reader through your text, and an essay that uses them effectively will be much easier to follow.

Various different relationships can be expressed by transition words, as shown in this example.

Because Hitler failed to respond to the British ultimatum, France and the UK declared war on Germany. Although it was an outcome the Allies had hoped to avoid, they were prepared to back up their ultimatum in order to combat the existential threat posed by the Third Reich.

Transition sentences may be included to transition between different paragraphs or sections of an essay. A good transition sentence moves the reader on to the next topic while indicating how it relates to the previous one.

… Distance learning, then, seems to improve accessibility in some ways while representing a step backwards in others.

However , considering the issue of personal interaction among students presents a different picture.

If you want to know more about AI tools , college essays , or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

• Ad hominem fallacy
• Post hoc fallacy
• Appeal to authority fallacy
• False cause fallacy
• Sunk cost fallacy

College essays

• Choosing Essay Topic
• Write a College Essay
• Write a Diversity Essay
• College Essay Format & Structure
• Comparing and Contrasting in an Essay

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The structure of an essay is divided into an introduction that presents your topic and thesis statement , a body containing your in-depth analysis and arguments, and a conclusion wrapping up your ideas.

The structure of the body is flexible, but you should always spend some time thinking about how you can organize your essay to best serve your ideas.

An essay isn’t just a loose collection of facts and ideas. Instead, it should be centered on an overarching argument (summarized in your thesis statement ) that every part of the essay relates to.

The way you structure your essay is crucial to presenting your argument coherently. A well-structured essay helps your reader follow the logic of your ideas and understand your overall point.

Comparisons in essays are generally structured in one of two ways:

• The alternating method, where you compare your subjects side by side according to one specific aspect at a time.
• The block method, where you cover each subject separately in its entirety.

It’s also possible to combine both methods, for example by writing a full paragraph on each of your topics and then a final paragraph contrasting the two according to a specific metric.

You should try to follow your outline as you write your essay . However, if your ideas change or it becomes clear that your structure could be better, it’s okay to depart from your essay outline . Just make sure you know why you’re doing so.

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Joseph John Cunningham, emeritus professor of human and organizational development and special education, has died

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Apr 3, 2024, 11:08 AM

Joseph Cunningham, 82, passed away peacefully on March 8, 2024, at his home in Lake City, Pennsylvania.

Cunningham was an accomplished administrator and professor at Vanderbilt Peabody College of education and human development .

Upon moving to Nashville in 1969, Cunningham joined the Peabody College faculty as an assistant professor, even before completing his education doctorate in special education in 1975 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In 1970, he developed and directed Peabody’s interdisciplinary undergraduate major in human behavior, a precursor to the human and organizational development undergraduate program.

Cunningham served Peabody College as an associate dean in many capacities, including for academic affairs and administration and as an interim dean. His administrative service spanned years of significant challenge and opportunity for post-merger Peabody as it became Vanderbilt Peabody College of education and human development. During his last decade at Vanderbilt University, Cunningham chaired the  Department of Human and Organizational Development , guiding it to become one of Vanderbilt’s largest and most successful academic units.

“Joe was a visionary leader and scholar, and he was an equally compassionate friend and colleague to everyone at Peabody. From his early days as an assistant professor of special education to his steadfast service as associate dean, interim dean, and chair of the Department of Human and Organizational Development, Joe led with purpose and good humor. We will miss him dearly and remember him fondly,” said Camilla Benbow , Patricia and Rodes Hart Dean of Education and Human Development.

During his early years in Nashville, Cunningham was known for his devotion to helping desegregate the Metro Nashville Public Schools system. He provided the community with a wealth of resources, acting as a consultant for multiple school districts, special education and rehabilitation centers, and as a member of advisory committees for programs serving families and children.

Cunningham was born to Elsie and Jack Cunningham in Chicago, Illinois, on December 27, 1941. He moved with his family to Syracuse, New York, and graduated from Jamesville Dewitt (JD) High School. He then went to Syracuse University, where he earned his undergraduate and master’s degrees in education.

Throughout his life, Cunningham enjoyed traveling the world, but his favorite hobby involved being on the water, relishing his love of sailing. He retired to Lake City, Pennsylvania, in 2012, where he enjoyed sailing most days on Lake Erie. During his final year, he enjoyed spending time at his home admiring Lake Erie’s beautiful sunsets and wildlife.

Cunningham is survived by his wife, Susan Cunningham; his children Dena (Peter) Youtt of Frisco, Texas; Erin Cunningham of Nashville, Tennessee; and Chris (Samantha) Cunningham of Franklin, Tennessee; grandchildren Emma (Jeff) Houser, George (Reagan) Youtt, Henry Youtt, Caden Cunningham; and one great-grandchild, Leighton Houser.

The family will hold a private celebration of life in April. Donations in Cunningham’s memory can be given to Second Harvest Food Bank in Nashville, Tennessee, Emmaus Ministries Soup Kitchen in Erie, Pennsylvania, or a local United Way branch.

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The World Bank Demonstrates Depth of its Capital Markets Investor Base with Dual Tranche USD 6 Billion Sustainable Development Bond Transaction

WASHINGTON, D.C., April 3, 2024 – The World Bank (International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, IBRD, Aaa/AAA) today priced two Sustainable Development Bonds, raising a total of USD 6 billion from a USD 3 billion 2-year bond maturing in April 2026 and a USD 3 billion 7-year bond maturing in April 2031.

The transactions attracted over 260 orders totaling more than USD 12.7 billion. The dual tranche format, with points on the short and longer end of the yield curve, drew a globally diverse and broad base of fixed income investors and their investment strategies.  As is common with World Bank benchmark transactions, leading investor groups included central banks and official institutions, including sub-national and municipal entities, as well private sector investors including bank treasuries, pension funds, insurance companies and asset managers.

HSBC Bank plc, J.P. Morgan Securities plc, Merrill Lynch International, Wells Fargo Securities, LLC are the lead managers for both transactions. The bonds will be listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange.

The 2-year tranche priced at a spread versus the reference US Treasury of +8.5 basis points, resulting in a semi-annual yield of 4.764%, and the 7-year tranche priced at a spread versus the reference US Treasury of +15.3 basis points, resulting in a semi-annual yield of 4.521%.   

“This dual tranche transaction mobilized over 260 investor orders, demonstrating the wide breadth and depth of support that we enjoy from capital markets investors” said Jorge Familiar Vice President and Treasurer, World Bank .  “ This globally diverse stakeholder group is very important to the World Bank by providing financial support for its efforts to end extreme poverty and boost prosperity on a livable planet.”

Investor Breakdown by Type

Investor Breakdown by Geography

Lead Manager Quotes

“Congratulations to the World Bank team, returning to the bond market with a dual-tranche transaction and printing an impressive USD 3 billion 2-year and USD 3 billion 7-year bond on the back of a combined orderbook over USD 12.7 billion. This high-quality investor support allowed for their largest issuance since April 2021 and the largest USD dual tranche to date,” said Adrien de Naurois, Head of EMEA IG Syndicate, BofA Securities / Merrill Lynch International.

“Today’s US dollar dual-tranche transaction was a great result for the World Bank team. The trade highlights the quality and global appeal of the World Bank name and its Sustainable Development Bond format, taking a combined issue size of USD 6 billion and attracting a strong and diverse orderbook on both the 2-year and 7-year tranche. HBSC was delighted to be a part of the transaction,” said Asif Sherani, EMEA Head of Syndicate and Head of Public Sector DCM, HSBC .

“The World Bank was quick to take advantage of the constructive market tone following the holiday break, moving ahead with the first Sovereign, Supranational and Agency (SSA) US dollar new issue of the quarter.  With this well-timed transaction, the World Bank was able to achieve the largest US dollar outing of the year in the SSA market, choosing two under-supplied tenors and launching a USD 6 billion combined size across the two maturities.  Congratulations to the World Bank team for this impressive transaction,” said Sarah Lovedee, Head of Supranational DCM, J.P. Morgan.

“Utilizing good timing sense, the World Bank issued their first dual-tranche USD benchmark since March 2022. Robust demand allowed issuer to garner an orderbook more than USD 12.7 billion to price a combined USD 6 billion 2 & 7-year transaction. This issue becomes, the largest USD SSA transaction priced this year, an impressive result.  Wells Fargo is delighted to be part of this trade,” said Carlos Perezgrovas, Head SSA Origination, Wells Fargo Securities .

Transaction Summary

About the World Bank The World Bank (International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, IBRD), rated Aaa/AAA (Moody’s/S&P), is an international organization. Created in 1944, it is the original member of the World Bank Group and operates as a global development cooperative owned by 189 nations. The World Bank provides loans, guarantees, risk management products, and advisory services to middle-income and other creditworthy countries to support the Sustainable Development Goals and to end extreme poverty and promote shared prosperity. It also provides leadership to coordinate regional and global responses to development challenges. The World Bank has been issuing sustainable development bonds in the international capital markets for over 70 years to fund programs and activities that achieve a positive impact. More information on World Bank bonds is available at  www.worldbank.org/debtsecurities .

World Bank bonds support the financing of programs that further the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). World Bank bonds are aligned with the Sustainability Bond Guidelines published by the International Capital Market Association and as such support the financing of a combination of green and social, i.e., “sustainable development” projects, programs and activities in IBRD member countries as described in the  World Bank Sustainable Development Bond Framework . The World Bank is also a member of the Executive Committee of the Green Bond, Social Bond, and Sustainability Bond Principles. A key priority for the World Bank’s capital markets’ engagement is building strategic partnerships with investors to promote the importance of private sector financing in sustainable development. The World Bank’s Sustainable Development Bond  Impact Report  describes how the World Bank engages with investors on the SDGs and raises awareness for specific development challenges.

Disclaimers This press release is not an offer for sale of securities of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development ("IBRD"), also known in the capital markets as "World Bank". Any offering of World Bank securities will take place solely on the basis of the relevant offering documentation including, but not limited to, the prospectus, term sheet and/or final terms, as applicable, prepared by the World Bank or on behalf of the World Bank, and is subject to restrictions under the laws of several countries. World Bank securities may not be offered or sold except in compliance with all such laws. The World Bank Sustainable Development Bond Framework, the World Bank’s Sustainable Development Bond Impact Report, and the information set forth therein are not a part of, or incorporated by reference into, the offering documentation.

Net proceeds of the securities described herein are not committed or earmarked for lending to, or financing of, any particular projects or programs. Payments on the securities described herein are not funded by any particular project or program

Contact Heike Reichelt, The World Bank +1 202 477 2880 [email protected]

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• Vehicle Technologies Office
• About the Vehicle Technologies Office
• Technology Areas
• Technology Integration
• Reports and Publications

Office: Vehicle Technologies Office FOA number:  DE-FOA-0003248 Link to apply:  Apply on EERE Exchange FOA Amount: $45,800,000

Today, the Department of Energy (DOE) announced $45.8 million in new funding for projects that will advance research, development, demonstration, and deployment (RDD&D) critical to achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in the transportation sector. The funding will drive innovation in equitable clean transportation and is aligned with strategies detailed in the U.S. National Blueprint for Transportation Decarbonization . 

The funding is through DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE). Topic areas in the Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO) Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 R&D funding opportunity include:

• Next-generation phosphate-based cathodes.
• Advancing the state of the art for sodium-ion batteries.
• Developing concepts for decreasing greenhouse gas emissions from off-road vehicles such as construction, agriculture, mining, and forestry vehicles.
• Developing and deploying vehicle-to-everything technologies that can lead to meaningful savings at the vehicle and transportation system level.
• Developing high-performance, domestically produced electrical steels (E-steels) for use in electrified powertrains.
• Addressing critical cybersecurity needs for smart and secure electric vehicle charging.

As part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to ensuring the benefits of a clean transportation system are shared equally, the funding seeks the participation of underserved communities and underrepresented groups. Applicants are required to describe how diversity, equity, and inclusion objectives will be incorporated into their project. 

VTO provides a series of funding opportunity announcement (FOA) information session videos , which help applicants understand VTO’s FOA process and requirements. The recently released, Session 3: Tips for a Strong FOA Application, includes best practices for incorporating Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility in a project.

Learn more about this and other funding opportunities on VTO’s funding webpage . 

Topic Areas

Topic Area 1: Next-Generation Phosphate-Based Cathodes

This topic area targets the development of phosphate-based cathode materials that surpass the performance of state-of-the-art lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cathode materials, which are currently gaining traction as an alternative low-cost solution. The primary objective of this area of interest is to develop high energy density battery cells containing phosphate-based cathodes at the material and cell level.

Topic Area 2: Na-ion Battery Seedling Projects for Electric Vehicle Applications

While shifting to alternative cathode materials like LFP can alleviate the impact of nickel and cobalt, the impact of lithium has not been adequately addressed. One alternative to lithium is sodium (Na). While there is much promise for Na-ion chemistries, key issues still limit their adoption. This objective of this topic area is to advance the state of the art for Na-ion batteries by solving key challenges for the cathode, anode, or electrolyte through the development of 1 Ah full cells utilizing cell chemistries that are significant advancements over current industry state-of-the-art Na-ion technology.

Topic Area 3: Low-GHG Concepts for Off-Road Vehicles

The objective of this topic area is to develop and validate technology concepts capable of significantly decreasing greenhouse gas emissions, energy use, harmful criteria emissions, and total cost of ownership across the entire off-road vehicle sector, including construction, agriculture, mining, forestry, ports, warehouses, etc. Concepts must demonstrate they can meet the unique requirements for off-road vehicles and gain customer acceptance.

Topic Area 4: Saving Energy with Connectivity

Research has shown that vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications can lead to meaningful energy savings at the vehicle and transportation system level by integrating interoperable vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I), and vehicle-to-pedestrian (V2P) communications. The objective of this topic area is to develop and deploy V2X technologies with a focus on the efficiency and convenience of the mobility ecosystem, while reducing transportation’s environmental impacts. Examples could include but are not limited to eco-driving along connected corridors, transit or freight priority, integrated corridor management, or passenger or freight trip-chaining optimization.

Topic Area 5: Domestically Produced Electrical Steels (E-Steels)

The US transportation sector is in a technology revolution where light-duty vehicles are rapidly transitioning from internal combustion engines to electrified powertrains. Although most of the vehicles are produced in the US, many of the powertrain components rely on imports and foreign supply chains. Of particular interest are traction motors and their components. The objective of this topic are is to develop E-Steels meeting properties including frequency, thickness, ductility, cost, and manufacturability. 

Topic Area 6: Cybersecurity for Smart and Secure Electric Vehicle Charging

This topic area is addressing critical cybersecurity needs to address through two subtopics: 

• Subtopic 6.a: Enabling Wide-scale, Cybersecure EV/EVSE Aggregation for Grid Services :  To support the integration of electric vehicles (EVs) and their charging requirements with the electric grid, both government and the private sector have made significant investments in the development of smart charge management (SCM) systems and technologies for EV charging infrastructure. The objective of this subtopic area is to research, develop, and demonstrate systems, technologies, and tools necessary for the cybersecure aggregation of EVs and charging infrastructure to provide widescale, cybersecure grid services.
• Subtopic 6.b: Tools to Assess EV/EVSE/Charging System Cybersecurity Posture and Compliance with Standards and Protocols for Communications, Controls, and Monitoring :   Testing and evaluation of Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE) by DOE national laboratories has clearly indicated a lack of compliance by many vendors with certified and/or regulated EV charging standards and protocols. In addition to creating cybersecurity vulnerabilities, this non-compliance greatly inhibits interoperability, supplier-managed SCM, and right-to-repair. The objective of this subtopic is to research, develop, and validate a suite of tools and associated procedures to comprehensively assess EV/EVSE/charging system compliance with relevant standards and protocols and cybersecurity posture.

Additional Information

• Download the full funding opportunity  on the EERE Exchange website.
• For FOA-specific support, contact  [email protected] . 
• Sign up for the  Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) funding email list  to get notified of new EERE funding opportunities. Also sign up for  VTO’s newsletter to stay current with the latest news.
• Watch the VTO Funding Opportunity Announcement information series webinars.