Yikes! If your prof is vowing to fail you for being disorganized, I think he's being pretty drastic. He should be helping you to become organized.

So try this: after gathering your information and typing your notes, choose the single most important idea from your notes. Then choose the second most important, etc. When you write your paper, discuss the most important idea first, then the second most important, and so on. So the paper would look something like this: "The Purdue Owl newsletter exists to help writers . . . The newsletter is sent as an email every two weeks . . ."

In the news business, we call this the inverted pyramid style, where we write about the most important fact first, then the second most important, etc. and the unimportant details are left to last. It's both a simple and effective way to organize stories and/or papers.

Good luck with the class.

--Joe, Adjunct professor, University of Tampa, University of Tampa

Jean there is no golden rule not even for getting organized. Were you also told that your thoughts are not good, original, clever, or perhaps even fascinating? Ask your professor about what he/she thinks about your way of writing. He/she might only be helping you. It´s not difficult to get organized (just some discipline ;) but it´s not always possible to be original, clever, fascinating... something I learned when studying literature was always have a pencil and a piece of paper at hand: original thoughts never come back, jot them down when those moments of inspiration come. This will perhaps be the first step towards getting organized.

--Ljudmila, Ramos Mejia, Buenos Aires, Argentina

It sounds like you are currently in a tough spot, Jean. What came up in this edition of the Purdue OWL News in other responses bears repeating as regards your case. Your current professor likely is your best resource for determining what equals effective / “good” organization on his or her essay assignments. If possible, arrange to meet with the professor during office hours ASAP to get a clearer understanding about expectations. That might involve reviewing information contained in lecture notes, handouts, assignment sheets, textbook passages. Or it might simply involve carefully discussing your previous essay or an in progress one via questions and answers about the organization aspects. Show that you care about your academic work by preparing for the meeting with at least some written questions. Consider writing down the professor’s answers during the meeting so that you don’t lose them. As lots of Purdue OWL News readers will likely try to offer you other valuable essay organizing tips and resources, consider checking out a couple of them with your professor before applying them. Good luck!

--C. Tushla, CA

The reason I'm responding to your question is that I had a similar problem, except my professor wasn't quite so mean, I just suffered from the tendency to freewrite my major papers... what my teachers suggested was that I go through the writing process in steps, that I brainstorm a little first, but just enough to meet the topic of the paper. Then I would create a thesis, to give my paper a purpose. Then I would just write, and continue to brainstorm along the way if I had to. You can go back and revise your paragraphs while writing, but only to make sure that you're staying on track, in other words you are saying just enough to satisfy your thesis statement, and that you aren't just babbling endlessly (at least that's what I used to do). Make sure you're pacing yourself and not giving extra info that distract attention from the purpose of your paper. When you revise, however, don't overdo it, and definitely don't change your ideas unless you've changed your mind about a certain decision. Don't "beat your paper to death," as my literature teacher would say! But make several copies of your paper (double-spaced) when done and ask other available people to revise it for you. This helps a lot. Make sure you ask several people to revise your paper so you have multiple views on it. I wish you good luck in your class, I hope your professor doesn't fail you!

--Parisa

They are gerunds because they are noun equivalents, that is to say they you can test whether they are gerunds by replacing them with other nouns. Besides, both words are pre-modified by the definite article "the."

--Maria, Argentina

That's called an Oxford comma. It's explained in some detail in the book "Eats Shoots and Leaves." I believe in the U.S. the Oxford comma is optional. In the UK, it's required.

--Ellen Howland, W. S. Parker Middle School

My mother sent me to the store for bread, milk, peas, and carrots. These are separate items, so she might be serving the carrots as an appetizer.

My mother sent me to the store for bread, milk, peas and carrots. This is a combination bag of peas and carrots, so she must be making a casserole.

What's your "recipe" calling for?

--Renee Santos, Piedmont Technical College, SC

Chicago Manual of Style (and other authorities) states that to avoid ambiguity, use a comma before the final conjunction; hence, "apples, bananas, peaches, and pears."

In the case of a pair of items linked with a conjunction appearing at the end of a list or series, that well placed comma helps with clarity. Hence: We ate apples, bananas, pears, and peaches and cream. Confer _Chicago_ for exceptions.

--Derrell Thomas, Thomas Writer's Center

English is a living language. Efforts are constantly underway to simplify it. Sometimes these efforts conflict. A comma before or no comma before and is one of these. I say it is your choice. I also note that many abbreviations are appearing without a period after it; MR MRS. Organizations usually have a style sheet available and it will tell the preferred style.

--George Steed, Poland

I teach to always include the comma. If your professor is coming from a journalism background, he/she probably does not include the comma since journalism does not follow quite all the same rules for commas.

--Mary Kurtz, Athens, GA/St. Joseph Catholic School

The comma that comes before "and" in a list of items is called the serial comma. Generally, it is good practice to keep that comma, especially if leaving it out can cause confusion, as in this example: Teachers want to help students to write clear sentences, concise paragraphs and essays. (Does concise modify both paragraphs and essays?) In some genres of writing, such as journalism, this comma is sometimes omitted--maybe because journalists have to work with strict word limits. I don't think there is one correct answer to your question; the answer really depends on the context of your writing.

--Sam V. H., Iowa City, IA