Assignment 3: The Structure of a College Essay

1 of 3

https://study.ashworthcollege.edu/access/content/group/16126f63-939a-...

Assignment 3: The Structure of a College Essay

You were introduced to the ideal five-paragraph essay in English Composition I. Here, by way of review
and elaboration, well take another look at the structure of an essay.
Imagining and Outlining a Five-Paragraph Essay

Lets say that in your search for things to write about you discover the ongoing contest between
advocates of corporate factory farming and people who favor organic farming based on local family farms
or communal gardens. As you gather facts, you soon realize that you lean toward the case against factory
farming. And so, you begin to draft an annotated outline, as illustrated below.
Topic: The Case against Factory Farming
ESSAY OUTLINE

I. Introduction

You want your introductory paragraph to be a grabberthat is, you want to get your readers
attention. So your outline notes might look like this: Ads make it seem as if our food comes from
idealized country settings. Cows graze in pastures. Farmer Jones rides a tractor, wearing a
beat-up straw hat. Junior is feeding the chickens. Mom is out back weeding the family vegetable
garden. But these images are beyond misleading.
Thesis Statement (first draft): The advantages of factory farming are outweighed by its costs to
people and to the environment.

II. Topic Sentence

For-profit factory farms are ecologically damaging.

A. Support

Petroleum-based factory farming contributes to global greenhouse gas emissions. Cite

studies and scientific reports.

B. Support

Petroleum-based fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides are environmental hazards that

damage and deplete organic soils. Cite data from studies and observed examples. Note that
it takes many years to create an inch of organic soil.

C. Support

Fertilizer runoff from factory farming contaminates underground aquifers that people rely on
for fresh water. Cite studies and reliable facts

D. Support

The use of genetically modified plants compromises natural species. The reliance on
monoculture compromises natural biodiversity. Cite data and examples.

III. Topic Sentence

Reliance on locally based organic farming is good for the environment.

A. Support

Organic farming is sustainable because natural soils are cultivated and carefully maintained.
(A possible note: In France, local organic gardening has been sustained in many regions for

12/22/2015 9:46 PM

Assignment 3: The Structure of a College Essay

2 of 3

https://study.ashworthcollege.edu/access/content/group/16126f63-939a-...

centuries, simply through traditional approaches to farming.)

B. Support

Organic farming techniques include ways to control predatory insects and other forms of
plant blight without recourse to toxic chemicals. Note: The global collapse of honeybee
hives appears to be related to synthetic herbicides and/or genetically modified enzymes.
Bees pollinate a very high percentage of the crops.

C. Support

By comparison with factory farming, organic farming, while more labor-intensive, can yield
the same or superior levels of food production per acre.

D. Support

By protecting the natural environment and raising a variety of crops, organic farming helps
maintain local natural environments that favor regional biodiversity.

IV. Topic Sentence

Locally based organic farming supports individual and community well-being.

A. Support

Factory-farm produce comes from soil that has been leached of its inherent nutrients. (Note:
Such soils are little more than mineral sponges that are filled up with artificial fertilizers,
which, in turn, are washed away to contaminate streams and aquifers.) By contrast, organic
food is full of the nutrients provided by healthy soils.

B. Support

An agricultural system based on local organic farming will help fight climate-change
problems related to CO2 emissions that result from shipping foods over long distances. In
this way, public health can be improved by way of cleaner air and less contaminated water.

C. Support

An agricultural system based on local organic farming can serve to re-humanize

communities in much the same way that, once upon a time, local markets allowed people to
interact with friends and neighbors.

V. Concluding Paragraph

Here, of course, youll recap your main points and hope to nail down your argument in favor of an
agricultural system based on local organic farming.

An essay outline should be a flexible tool. Assume that as you work with your outline youll be open to
what you may learn from new sources. Indeed, as you encounter new sources, you may want to organize
your main points differently. Meanwhile, of course, youll be refining your outline as you think about your
essay topic, your purpose in writing the essay, and how you can best engage your prospective audience.

To learn more about structure, consult http://www.tacoma.uw.edu/sites/default/files/global/documents/library

/essay_outline_worksheet.pdf.
For information about writing college essays, consult http://www.englishclub.com/writing/collegeapplication-essays/lth_outline.html.

Throughout history all literature was in the public domain, but, in the United States,
intellectual property is traded as if it were some sort of tangible commodity. This is
especially shameful when one considers that the public domain is precisely what drives the

12/22/2015 9:46 PM

Assignment 3: The Structure of a College Essay

3 of 3

https://study.ashworthcollege.edu/access/content/group/16126f63-939a-...

advancement of society. As the technology to promulgate and store information increases,

so too does the ability to use that information as a framework for future advances. It is
unfortunate that as the physical obstacles are overcome, legal ones are created to replace
them.

Intellectual property rights simply do not exist outside of mans legislation, and this type of
law is, in my opinion, akin to protectionism. Let me explain: On one hand we constantly
endeavor to improve transportation and the moving of goods. But as the obstacles to trade
are eliminated, we find that trade is increased. In order to protect our labor, taxes or tariffs
are placed on the products that are thus exchanged. It is essentially the same as building a
highway between two cities in order to make travel less expensive, and then charging a toll
that entirely replaces the expense saved by the highway. In the end, it brings no increase in
efficiency. The parallel is that while we have advanced methods of storing and promulgating
information, we replace any advantage gained in that respect with legislation that restricts
the flow of information (such as our oppressive copyright laws). On the one hand the laws of
nature no longer inhibit us from accumulating knowledge, but on the other hand the laws of
men make it more difficult than ever.
Until the digital revolution, intellectual property was rarely separated from its physical
manifestation. By that I mean that if you wanted to read a book, you bought the physical
product, and the price of the intellectual property was hidden within the price of its materials.
But when the medium and the actual content became separated, suddenly the issue of
intellectual property came into being. But how can a product be sold without a transference
of something? If I purchase an e-book, it costs the publisher nothing to sell one to someone
else, because from the one original copy, an infinite amount of copies can be grafted. It
costs something to produce the original e-book, perhaps, but I am merely buying a copy of
it. First we had a fiat currency, which the government can conjure up at whim and
promulgate for profit, and now we also have a fiat product with which publishers can do the
same.
The only argument against the public domain is the protection of the writers and artists and
programmers who create the work in the first place. It should be noted, however, that in
many cases they are not even the ones who own the copyrights. A poverty-stricken
musician could, perhaps, argue that he needed copyrights to survive, but how can a
corporation of people who did not produce the work in the beginning argue the same? But,
one says, the artist sold the copyright to the corporation by his own will, and that is how he
supports himself. Perhaps, but that is assuming that a piece of intellectual propertyin
essence, a thoughtcan be traded as if it were a physical entity, as if there were no
difference between it and a piece of land or a car. Yet by its very definition it is something
that is not tangible, something that has no value outside of its communication with a human
brain. If I hear a song on the radio, and afterward listen to it by memory, am I violating its
copyright? And if not, what is the difference between storing it in the human memory and
storing it on some physical mediumor inhuman memorywhen it is not that physical
medium that is protected by the copyright?
http://www.authorama.com/revolutions-of-time-1.html

Jonathan Dunn, The Revolutions of Time, Foreword for Authorama On the Public Domain

12/22/2015 9:46 PM