Unit 3 · Topic 3.3

3.3 Tracing a writer's line of reasoning

A line of reasoning is the order of claims and evidence a writer uses to build toward a conclusion. Some writers state their thesis first and then prove it; others lead readers through reasons and arrive at the thesis at the end. The order of paragraphs reveals that path.

Key terms

line of reasoning
structure
supporting claim
organization

What a line of reasoning is

A line of reasoning is the path from the writer's first claim to the conclusion. Each claim, piece of evidence and explanation is a step. When you trace it, you're describing the steps and explaining how each one gets the reader closer to accepting the thesis.

Describing the line of reasoning is half the skill. The other half is judging it: does each step actually support the thesis? A strong line moves in a logical order and leaves no big gaps. A weak one may skip a step, rely on evidence that doesn't fit, or reach a conclusion bigger than its reasons. Reading questions may ask you to do either half.

Two common shapes

Thesis first: the writer states the main claim early, then supplies reasons and evidence to justify it. Readers know the destination and watch the writer get there. Lincoln's "House Divided" speech works this way: the claim comes in the first paragraph.

Thesis last: the writer starts with shared principles, observations or evidence and leads readers, step by step, to a conclusion they might have resisted if they'd heard it first. This shape is useful with a skeptical audience, because readers agree with each step before they see where it ends up. The Declaration of Independence follows this pattern.

Paragraph jobs

The order of paragraphs is the clearest view of a line of reasoning. Ask what job each paragraph does and why it comes where it does.

Paragraph job	What it looks like
Set up the problem	Describes a situation, conflict or question
Give background	Explains history or context readers need
Present a reason	Makes a supporting claim with evidence
Concede	Admits a point to the other side
Answer an objection	Responds to a likely counterargument
Conclude or call to action	States what follows from everything above

How to trace it

Write a short phrase in the margin for what each paragraph does, not just what it says: "gives example," "concedes," "shifts to solution."
Underline transitions, because they show how each part relates to the last.
Find the thesis, then ask how each paragraph moves the reader toward it.
Notice shifts: a change from evidence to emotion, from past to present, or from "they" to "we" often marks a new step.

Worked examples

Try each one yourself first, then open the solution.

Example 1
Tracing the Declaration's line of reasoning
The Declaration of Independence (1776) contains these three key sentences in this order: (1) "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness." (2) "To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world." (3) "That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States." Trace the line of reasoning and explain how it leads to the thesis.
Show the solutionHide the solution
1. Step 1: Step 1, principle: after a one-sentence preface, the Declaration lays out general truths about rights and, just after them, says people may alter or abolish a government that destroys those rights. These are premises, ideas the audience is asked to accept first.
2. Step 2: Step 2, evidence: "let Facts be submitted to a candid world" introduces a long list of grievances against the king. These are meant to prove that the British government has become destructive of those rights.
3. Step 3: Step 3, conclusion: the colonies are, and ought to be, independent. The thesis comes last.
4. Step 4: Explain why the order works: if readers accept the principle and then accept the facts, the conclusion seems to follow almost automatically. Independence appears as the result of reasoning rather than as rebellion.
Answer: Model answer: The Declaration builds its case like a proof. It first lays down principles its audience is invited to accept as "self-evident": people have rights, and a government that destroys them may be replaced. It then submits "Facts" to "a candid world," a list of the king's abuses meant to show that this government has done exactly that. Only after the premise and the evidence does it state its thesis, that the colonies "of Right ought to be Free and Independent States." By saving the thesis for last, the writers make independence look less like a rebellion and more like the logical conclusion any fair reader would reach.

Common mistakes

Summarizing what each paragraph says instead of describing what it does in the argument.
Assuming the thesis must come in the first paragraph.
Ignoring transitions, which are often the clearest signs of how the reasoning moves.

On the exam

Reading questions often ask about the function of a paragraph or how a passage is organized, such as "moves from a general principle to specific evidence." Practice describing structure with verbs.
In Question 2, tracing the passage from beginning to end can give your essay a natural line of reasoning of its own.

Connected topics

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Check yourself

3 questions on 3.3 Tracing a writer's line of reasoning. Pick an answer to see if you got it, and why.

If I understand the idea, the Bazar invites several of us to write upon the above text. It means the change in my life’s course which introduced what must be regarded by me as the most important condition of my career. But it also implies—without intention, perhaps—that that turning-point itself was the creator of the new condition. This gives it too much distinction, too much prominence, too much credit. It is only the last link in a very long chain of turning-points commissioned to produce the cardinal result; it is not any more important than the humblest of its ten thousand predecessors. Each of the ten thousand did its appointed share, on its appointed date, in forwarding the scheme, and they were all necessary; to have left out any one of them would have defeated the scheme and brought about some other result. I know we have a fashion of saying “such and such an event was the turning-point in my life,” but we shouldn’t say it. We should merely grant that its place as LAST link in the chain makes it the most conspicuous link; in real importance it has no advantage over any one of its predecessors.

When I was twelve and a half years old, my father died. It was in the spring. The summer came, and brought with it an epidemic of measles. For a time a child died almost every day. The village was paralyzed with fright, distress, despair. Children that were not smitten with the disease were imprisoned in their homes to save them from the infection. In the homes there were no cheerful faces, there was no music, there was no singing but of solemn hymns, no voice but of prayer, no romping was allowed, no noise, no laughter, the family moved spectrally about on tiptoe, in a ghostly hush. I was a prisoner. My soul was steeped in this awful dreariness—and in fear. At some time or other every day and every night a sudden shiver shook me to the marrow, and I said to myself, “There, I’ve got it! and I shall die.” Life on these miserable terms was not worth living, and at last I made up my mind to get the disease and have it over, one way or the other. I escaped from the house and went to the house of a neighbor where a playmate of mine was very ill with the malady. When the chance offered I crept into his room and got into bed with him. I was discovered by his mother and sent back into captivity. But I had the disease; they could not take that from me. I came near to dying. The whole village was interested, and anxious, and sent for news of me every day; and not only once a day, but several times. Everybody believed I would die; but on the fourteenth day a change came for the worse and they were disappointed.

This was a turning-point of my life. (Link number one.) For when I got well my mother closed my school career and apprenticed me to a printer. She was tired of trying to keep me out of mischief, and the adventure of the measles decided her to put me into more masterful hands than hers.

A young printer wanders around a good deal, seeking and finding work; and seeking again, when necessity commands. N. B. Necessity is a CIRCUMSTANCE; Circumstance is man’s master—and when Circumstance commands, he must obey; he may argue the matter—that is his privilege, just as it is the honorable privilege of a falling body to argue with the attraction of gravitation—but it won’t do any good, he must OBEY.

Mark Twain, "The Turning-Point of My Life," Harper's Bazar (February 1910). The magazine had invited several well-known writers to describe the turning point of their lives. In the omitted section between paragraphs 1 and 2, Twain discusses Julius Caesar's crossing of the Rubicon as a famous "turning-point." A short paragraph is also omitted between paragraphs 3 and 4.

Question 1 of 3

Paragraph 1 functions primarily to

Question 2 of 3

In paragraph 4, Twain compares a man arguing with Circumstance to "a falling body" arguing "with the attraction of gravitation" in order to support the idea that

Question 3 of 3

The parenthetical "(Link number one.)" in paragraph 3 primarily serves to

0 of 3 answered