A Clear Writing Hint - Get to the Point
Whether it’s a topic you’ve known a lot about for a long time, or one you’ve just finished researching, writing about it is a great way to share your expertise and knowledge with others. If you’re unsure about how to lay your thoughts out on paper (or on a screen), don’t come off like a six-year-old. “A Clear Writing Hint – Get to the Point” is exactly what it sounds like: a simple blueprint you can use to get your point across clearly and effectively.
Greetings, readers and subscribers, and welcome back. If you’ve been following The Renaissance Garden Guy for awhile (notice, I’m italicizing the name of this site for the first time – I’ll explain why I’ve waited so long to do this later in this article), you’ll know that I routinely encourage readers to start their own blogs. A blog is an incredibly effective way for someone to let an audience (which could quickly become enormous) know what makes her or him tick. And even though a person doesn’t need to be a brilliant writer to create an effective and popular blog, it is important to be able to make a point in writing, and clearly explain it. If you think it’s important enough to write a blog post about it, then it deserves to be written and delivered in a comprehensible fashion. It will definitely benefit you. And your audience members will not only appreciate it, they’ll thank you for it by coming back to read your next post. Then they’ll tell their friends about the great stuff you’ve intelligently communicated to them, and their friends’ll show up the next time, too. You’ve gotta be able to organize your thoughts and ideas so that people reading them can catch your wavelength.
So, this week, I’ve got a hack for you. It’ll help keep you from coming off like a hack when you’re writing to make a point about something that’s important to you, whether it’s something you’ve researched, something you’ve always known, or something you’re just really passionate about (or a combination of all of the above). It’s super basic and extremely simple. And if you remember it and use it, you’ll be able to really get your readers dialed in. And, I’ll say it again, they’ll thank you for it.
Using My Clear Writing Hint to Get to the Point
A style of writing that’s really common for blog posts – and many other applications – is expository writing. In this style, the writer makes a point (the thesis sentence) and backs it up with facts/ideas (obtained through research, experience, personal observations/feelings/reflection, etc.). It’s a style of writing that simultaneously organizes the writer’s thoughts, and makes it extremely easy for a reader to follow and comprehend. Most of my informational articles here on The Renaissance Garden Guy, and many of my creative essays, too, are based on certain forms of expository writing.* The most important element of expository writing, and the basis of the hack I’m writing about here, is the essay’s (the piece you’re writing – I’ll call it an “essay” for the sake of convenience and simplicity) structure. And an expository essay’s structure can be thought of like this: Upside down triangle, square, square, square, and right side up triangle.
*(At the end of this article, you’ll find useful links to some excellent websites and articles that go into really great, academic detail about the expository style of writing. Of further note, I am not a formal educator. I credit my knowledge of this topic to my excellent professors and teachers from back in my undergrad and high school days. The learning I was fortunate to acquire while under the tutelage of these brilliant educators has served me well throughout the years, and has provided me with an extremely solid basis for further learning and improvement.)
From Triangle to Triangle - The Structure of an Expository Essay
This clear writing hint is all about using this structure to get to the point of your essay, making and backing up that point intelligently, and leaving your readers with a clear and definitive sign-off. From top to bottom, the structure of your expository essay is laid out as follows:
1) Upside down triangle. This is the introductory paragraph, or thesis paragraph. It starts off with a comparatively general statement about your essay’s topic, and in sentence-by-sentence fashion, narrows down to your thesis sentence, which is the final and most specific sentence of this paragraph, and is the point of your essay – a point you’ll back up using the next next three paragraphs. The thesis sentence is the tip, or point, of the upside down triangle.
2) Squares 1, 2, and 3. Square 1 represents the first paragraph in which you’ll offer support of your thesis sentence. Squares 2 and 3 are your second and third support paragraphs. Consider each of these three paragraphs (squares) an evidentiary building block. In each one, you’ll introduce and lay out the information to your readers that backs up the point you made in your thesis sentence. These three building block paragraphs represent the body of your expository essay.
3) Right side up triangle. This is your final paragraph: the conclusion. Its first sentence – the point of the triangle – is a re-stating of your thesis sentence. It “ties up” all of your evidentiary information from the previous three building block paragraphs (squares). Moving sentence by sentence from this very specific first sentence of the conclusion paragraph to the last, each one becomes increasingly more general in content. The final sentence of the essay is just as general as the very first sentence of the essay.
Below is a diagram of the paragraphs in this type of expository essay structure. The drawing (by yours truly) is crappy, but you’ll get the point, so to speak, of what the structure of an expository essay looks like.
Example Essay
Below is an example of a basic expository essay. Pay attention to the way the thesis paragraph (in brown type) resembles an upside down triangle as it moves from the very general first sentence to the the very specific thesis sentence. Note how each of the three evidentiary paragraphs (in orange type) support the thesis sentence. Finally, see how the conclusion (brown type) ties up the whole essay by first re-stating the thesis, then moving in increasingly general sentences to the very end. Again, this is very basic. And very short.
For as long as humanity has been growing plants for food and for ornamentation, there have been insects around that are capable of destroying these plants by eating them. Over the centuries, mankind has developed many different strategies for protecting plants from insect pests. One of the more comparatively recent strategies developed to protect plants from insects is the use of pesticides. Pesticides are chemicals engineered to kill harmful insects. I have never used pesticides. I have chosen to avoid applying them to the plants in my own garden because their use poses an array of very serious dangers.
The pesticides not only kill insects harmful to plants, they kill beneficial insects and pollinators, as well. The topical, broad-spectrum application of deadly pesticides often results in the death of any insect on or near the targeted plants. Beneficial insects like ladybugs and mantids, which may be hiding in the foliage of a targeted plant, will be killed by the application of pesticides. And these topically applied poisons are just as deadly to pollinators such as butterflies and bees as they are to the harmful insects they’re intended to eradicate. Further, there are systemic pesticides engineered to be absorbed by each plant’s roots and distributed throughout the tissues of the plant’s foliage and blooms. Whenever a butterfly or bee visits a flower saturated by toxins in this manner, it results in that pollinator’s death. Topical and systemic pesticides kill beneficial insects and pollinators as readily as they kill harmful insects.
Pesticides are deadly to non-insect animals. Organophosphates are the most common form of pesticide used today. These chemicals work by attacking the nervous systems of any animals which may be exposed to them – not just insects. When these chemicals are applied topically, or as a root drench mixed with water and poured into the soil for systemic ditsribution, any vertebrate exposed will most likely be killed. Frogs, toads, rabbits, birds, turtles, pets, and humans – any animal exposed to these incredibly lethal chemicals is in deadly jeopardy. These chemicals acutely compromise an enzyme critical to the functioning of the nervous systems of all animals. Again, vertebrates – including humans – are not at all immune.
Pesticides affect the environment in deadly ways. The most obvious way the environment is impacted by the toxicity these chemicals induce in the plants themselves. In India in 2013, twenty-five children died after consuming vegetables treated with organophosphate-based pesticides. Whether a plant is treated topically with these poisons, or as a root drench for systemic application, that plant becomes a deadly environmental element. And these pesticides poison the soil and water, as well. The runoff of organophosphates which drips from a treated plant’s foliage ends up in the soil. And these pesticides, when utilized as systemics, are actually poured directly into the soil. Not only does the soil in a pesticide-treated area become toxic, the associated aquifer and water table ultimately becomes toxic. I utilize a well system for my home’s water supply. It’s entirely possible, therefore, that my home’s drinking water supply would become poisonous if I were to utilize pesticides in my garden. Such deadly environmental impacts are impossible to discount.
These very serious dangers presented by the use of pesticides have given me more than a good reason to never use them in my garden. I’ve avoided using them at all costs, and have instead employed natural methods of keeping harmful insects from wiping out my plants. I’ve planted various ladybug-friendly perennials (ladybugs eat damaging aphids), and the two ponds on our land ensure that there are always plenty of toads and frogs around to feast on insect pests. If I can keep my own garden’s environment safe, I can’t help but wonder if mankind, with all of its collective brilliance and ingenuity, can come up with a safe alternative to pesticides in order to protect crops on a global scale. I truly believe that any concerted effort by the scientific and engineering communities to make the planet safer, and the environment less toxic, would be greatly appreciated by Earth’s citizens – humans, animals, and plants alike.
I know the above sample essay was a really basic example, but I’d like to think that it did a fairly decent job of illustrating how the two triangles, and the three squares laid out between them, look as actual written paragraphs.
In terms of this article, and my clear writing hint about how to get to your point and support it, I hope everything here was helpful. Remembering the basic structure of an expository essay, and implementing it, will help make your writing clear, effective, and understandable for your audience. Since many blog posts are written in the expository style, this basic structure is a can’t miss formula. Your readers will love what you put out there for them if you remember this formula and stick to it. The more comfortable and proficient you become with the structure of expository writing, the more creative – and complex – you can be with your own writing. As long as this structure is employed, you can really do a lot to make a piece of writing truly beautiful, and undeniably effective.
For those of you interested in starting your own website/blog, I highly recommend Bluehost, which is the service I use to host The Renaissance Garden Guy. I also tapped Bluehost’s expertise to help me build it. Please visit my Host Your Own Site page, or click here to read my informative article from last year explaining some of the many benefits to utilizing Bluehost’s services. Of course, you can click on the banner at right (or below if you’re on your phone), or any Bluehost banner in this article, to learn more about Bluehost. They’re really terrific people, and their service and reliability are excellent.
Ok, so now I’m italicizing The Renaissance Garden Guy in sentences. Technically, according to proper written grammar rules, any book title, movie title, periodical, or website should be written in italics. I’ve never felt compelled to do this with The Renaissance Garden Guy because I was worried that it might come off as self-aggrandizing. I guess I never thought that my site was “established” enough to merit italicizing. Other writers and bloggers, as well as a number of readers, have convinced me, however, that I should begin following the correct convention and italicize this site’s name whenever I stick it in a written sentence. And I guess I’ve sort of convinced myself. I’ve been blessed, and I’m quite honored, to host the excellent writing of a number of brilliant guest writers and contributors. And I suppose I’m proud of the fact that The Renaissance Garden Guy has come as far as it has in less than two years (for this, my dear readers and subscribers, I have you to thank). So, from here on out, this site’s name gets the italics treatment.
For Further Reading
Finally, I want to direct you to some excellent sites and articles that are truly educational in nature, as far as written grammar is concerned. My first recommendation is the excellent international writing and written grammar blog, Grammaticus. Nenad Knežević is a brilliant writer and international educator. I’m honored to have hosted his lovely original work here on The Renaissance Garden Guy. He routinely features his excellent analyses of the structure of poetry and prose, and of countless written grammar conventions on Grammaticus. For an excellent examination of the nuts and bolts of expository essays, please click here to read this article from the Purdue University Online Writing Lab. For more on the different types of expository essays, and the nitty-gritty of what goes into them, click here to read Benjamin Oaks’ excellent piece for GradeMiners. Finally, click here to read Lindsay Kramer’s terrific piece for Grammarly Blog about the four different types of writing, and seven different categories for essays.
We’re at the end of this one, dear readers and subscribers. I hope it wasn’t too long for you, and I hope you’ve found it a least a little informative. As always, I thank you for your kind interest and readership.
Cheers, and Happy Gardening!
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Thank you for sharing with us this fantastic method for organizing our thoughts and words in an expository writing (how fortunate you were to have such good teachers!), and thank you very much for this beautiful, complete and well-written essay you used as an example. I loved this one so much that I translated it, printed it, and went into the kitchen where my mother was cleaning mushrooms for the lunch. Without any previous word, I started reading in a loud voice. By the second line, her hands stopped moving as she concentrated on my words. When I finished reading that beautiful, clear, instructive and well structured presentation, I asked: Did you like it?, she, pacing her answer with a small nod of her head, said “yes.”
I must tell you, my mother usually pays no attention to what I say, even when she’s doing nothing, or when I read aloud a paragraph from some of my organic horticulture books to validate my argument or advice (maybe it’s precisely because of this). So… congratulations!: you’ve achieved the impossible. Once again, John, I love this article from beginning to end.
I am absolutely thrilled that you found this so helpful, Maria. And I am honored beyond words that your dear mother appreciated it! Truly, Maria, I am more than honored. Thank you so much for taking the time to translate, print, and read it to your mother. I cannot properly express to you how happy and appreciative I am that you would take the time to do this, and that your mother and you both liked it. Again, Maria, I thank you.
Absolutely love it !!!!!
Writing technique made easy… WOW…
Perfectly explained, great learning experience…
You are the best, most efficient teacher I’ve encountered…
🙏❤️❤️❤️🙏
Thank you so much for these incredibly kind words, Roxxy – I really appreciate that! This particular structure is at heart of the expository writing style. I wish I could say I developed it myself, but it’s been around for as long as people have been writing in order to inform. Thank you again, Roxxy, for reading the article, and for your incredible kindness!
I’ve GOT it!
You make it so easy.
Thank you so much for saying so. The formula is really simple, and extremely effective. I wish I could take credit for it, but it’s been a fundamental component of the expository style of writing forever. Thanks again!
John, you have given us two very interesting articles. All of your articles are written using this format which makes them quite clear and very informative. I look forward to reading the article that you wrote for Grammaticus.
Thank you very much, Kevin. I’m glad you found this one interesting. Yes, this structure is very useful in writing. It ensures organization of thought, and clarity, on the part of the writer. Thank you for reading the article, and for your kind thoughts, Kevin. I really appreciate it.
Your diversity of subjects is commendable. Writing techniques and pesticides in one article
I thought that a little quickie sample essay would be helpful to anyone looking for an example of the basic structure used in this style of writing. I was initially going to use art as the topic for my example, but I was worried that I’d go on and on and on! Thanks for reading the article, Rick – very much appreciated!