One of the first pieces I wrote was in answer to readers who wanted to know about writing and structuring a piece of writing. I got great feedback on that one so I figured I would do a bit of an update—not all of you reading were here last time.

To recap, I originally advised the structure outlined below.

When writing, you are implicitly starting out with a purpose or premise, whether or not you state it directly; you can imply it. The implication is something like, I want you to know about, think, feel, do, believe…something. My purpose here, with this very essay, may be paraphrased as, I want to tell you something about writing. That’s called the organizing statement. In a minute I’ll explain why it’s called that.

In response, you, the reader on some level, is asking, why should I know about writing or what should I know (or even, why should I care). This reader response to the organizing statement is called the organizing question.

Now on to the good stuff.