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Chapter 19 presents ten lessons in composing and revising closed-form prose. The first is a theoretical lesson in reader expectations, while the subsequent nine lessons provide practical "how-to" advice for completing various writing tasks, producing parts of your essays, or accomplishing certain "moves" common among expert writers. By the end of the chapter, you should understand the following: 1. Readers of closed-form prose need three things: unity and coherence, old information before new information, and forecasting and fulfillment. 2. Novice writers frequently substitute three kinds of pseudo-thesis-based writing for real thesis-based writing: and then writing, all about writing, and english essays. 3. Outlines, tree diagrams, and flow charts can all help you structure your essays, which you should organize by meanings, not topics; complete sentence outlines force you to articulate the high-level, pointed assertions that then require particulars as supports. 4. There are strategies for producing effective titles and introductions, including adhering to the old-to-new principle and avoiding funnel introductions. Effective introductions usually include four key elements: an attention grabber, a question to be investigated, background information, and a preview of the whole essay. 5. Points must precede particulars; topic sentences at the beginnings of paragraphs adhere to that principle. 6. Numerous conventional transition words signal a dozen different, common, logical relationships from sequence to summary. Transitions between major parts of an essay call for more extensive transitional phrases or full sentences. Headings and subheadings also signal transitions, and their use depends upon genre conventions. 7. The principle of old-before-new governs texts at both the global and the local levels; the old-new contract helps satisfy readers' need for unity and coherence. Writers have three kinds of "old targets" and multiple strategies for hitting them. 8. Good document design serves the whole communication and enhances, but does not substitute for, the quality of thinking and writing in a document. Document design should match the genre expectations of the audience. Good document design impacts your ethos, promotes clarity and emphasis, and reinforces—not replaces—transition points. 9. There are four expert moves for organizing and developing ideas: the for example move, the summary/however move, the division-into-parallel-part move, and the comparison/contrast move. 10. There are seven guiding questions that can help you figure out how to conclude an essay, and six basic approaches to a conclusion: the simple summary, the larger significance, the proposal, the scenic or anecdotal, the hook and return, and the delayed-thesis.
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