众所周知，任何写作都是由紧密联系并涉及同一主题的段落组成。那么在写作过程中，如何组织这些段落，从而使你的写作成为一篇具有吸引力的优秀作品呢？

　　A good piece of writing always contains three parts: a beginning, a middle, and an ending.

　　I. The thesis paragraph (Beginning)

　　The thesis paragraph of your essay serves three very important functions and must be written with great care. First, a good thesis paragraph catches the readers' attention. Second, it gives readers an idea as to what your writing is about. Finally, it is a quick view of the organization of your writing to follow. For this reason, a good writer avoids such a dull and boring statement as this: In this writing, I'm going to tell you about the origins of jazz.

　　There is nothing here to catch the readers' attention, nothing to make them want to read further. It is true that the statement tells us what your writing is about, but how uninteresting this beginning is compared with the following: The roots of American jazz were planted long before this century was born. These roots were the beat, the music of the brass bands and the blues—three roots that eventually joined together to form the American music—jazz.

　　In this paragraph, not only has the writer given an indication of what his writing will be about, but has also done so in a manner that catches the readers' attention.

　　II. The body (Middle)

　　The body is the longest part of your writing. It provides the explanation, discussion or support for the thesis statement. It is here that the ideas indicated in the thesis paragraph are further developed or explained.

　　There are three important points concerning the body of your writing.

　　1. Your writing is always divided into paragraphs. The division of your writing into paragraphs has a psychological (心理的) effect upon your readers. Often, if they see a whole page covered with a long paragraph without any blank space, they may not read any further.

　　2. It is a general rule that the body should contain at least three points and never less than two points. These points should be presented in a logical order. This order is determined by the purpose of your writing and by the information itself and should be decided when the outline is planned.

　　3. Each paragraph of the essay usually begins with a topic sentence, just as the thesis statement of your writing indicates what is about. The topic sentence, as you know from the first three parts, gives an indication as to what the paragraph will be about.

　　The details in each paragraph are directly related to the topic sentence and each paragraph is directly related to the thesis paragraph. Thus, your writing is well written, is well organized, and has a feeling of unity.

　　III. The conclusion (Ending)

　　Now the final step is to write the conclusion. The concluding paragraph ties all the ideas together and indicates to readers that you are finished.

　　The conclusion of an essay is important because it is often the part that gives the readers the deepest impression. Not every piece of writing needs a separate concluding paragraph. For a short piece of writing, the last paragraph of the body, even the last sentence of that paragraph, may serve as the ending, so long as it can give readers a feeling of completeness.

　　Concluding paragraphs should be short and forceful, made up mainly of restatements of summaries of the points that have been discussed. No new ideas should be introduced in a concluding paragraph.

　　There are some techniques in ending your writing:

　　1. Signal words (e.g. finally, at last, and so, then, thus, etc.);

　　2. Changing the speed of the last sentences;

　　3. Returning to the beginning (the writer swings back to a word or phrase he used in the beginning so as to complete the circle).

　　(文/刘耀辉 辑； 英语辅导报高二版 04~05学年度第16期；版权归英语辅导报社所有，独家网络合作伙伴新浪教育，未经许可，不得以任何形式进行转载。)