While it is not appropriate for all applications, the three-point structure is one of the most useful methods of organization for the college-level essay. Even with poor information, it will give your ideas structure. If your ideas are interesting and well thought out, it will make them clear and easy to read--the other ingredients necessary to excellent writing.
The topic of Theme I this semester is chosen from one of the following:
Click here to turn your topic into
something suitable for a three-point theme.
Click here to organize your ideas.
Click here to find your key word.
Click here to develop your main points.
Click here to outline your theme.
Click here to prepare your introduction.
Click here for instructions for Theme One.
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Once you know your general topic, begin the process of narrowing down the topic. Oddly, the first step is actually to expand on it with a vignette like the one you did in class. START WITH A QUESTION such as Why is skydiving so much fun? or How can I turn developing photographs from an expensive hobby into a money-making business? Follow the vignette instructions, letting your mind freely answer that question. In 101, start with one of the questions above
WARNING: Either quitting the vignette after thinking of only three answers or jumping to the outline without doing the vignette will result in a boring paper about a potentially interesting topic.
Let your mind run free at the vignette stage. No one will see your vignette except you. Allow yourself enough time. You are free at this stage to drop one topic and try another, but don't spend more than half an hour freewriting on any one topic
You should have about a page of thoughts when you're through. If you have less than half a page, change topics and try again--you don't know enough about this topic (if you are having trouble answering the questions, re-read the book), you aren't as interested in it as you thought, or there are things you don't want to reveal concerning you and this topic. That's okay--start over with one of the other topics.
Doing two or three vignettes is a good way to become familiar with the word processor and the university network. Just make sure you allow enough time for the steps leading from the vignette to the final outline.
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When you have a vignette full of fascinating ideas, you are ready to organize your three-point theme.
Read through the vignette a couple of times searching for a question that it answers. The question should have a key word: a plural noun such as reasons, ways, methods, jobs, alternatives, differences, similarities,
advantages, etc. (You cannot do both advantages and
disadvantages in a three-point theme; save that for the
comparison later.)
Examples: 
What are the best ways of preparing a cat for a show? What alternatives are there to fossil fuels as American sources of energy? 
What uses would I make of the money if I won the lottery? What methods of shooting produce the best sports photographs?
Of course your topic is one of the ones above, concerning Mitch Albom's book, Tuesdays with Morrie. Students choosing the same topic may easily choose different key words and have very different papers.
Write or type your question. Underline the plural noun that is your key word. (Highlight, then click on U on the toolbar.) Be certain that the word is a plural noun (can you count it, as you can count ways, methods, advantages, alternatives, etc.?), and that making a list of what ever it is will answer the question.
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Print out your vignette. Look from the question with its key word underlined to the vignette. Highlight or underline every answer to the question that you find in the vignette--all the ways or methods or alternatives or disadvantages or uses or whatever your key word is. If you cannot do it easily, something is wrong. You will not be able to write a passing three-point theme until you correct it.
The most common problem is that you have not written a question with a key word, or what you are calling your key word is not a plural noun. Words like beauty and love are not plural nouns; neither are economy or war.
Your question cannot be answered by listing beauties, loves,
economies, or wars.
What does your vignette list? Types, requests, plans, jobs? Rewrite your question with the correct plural noun as your key word. Now the answers to your question should be right there in your vignette. Highlight or underline them.
You should find from half a dozen to a dozen answers to your question in your vignette. When you have found them all, make a list of them under the question. Now you are ready to organize your outline. FROM THIS POINT ON, DO NOT CHANGE YOUR TOPIC.
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From your list of answers to the question, delete or cross out the silly or trivial ones, leaving only good answers. Look at the rest carefully and delete any that repeat the same idea in different words. Also delete any answers that do not fit your key word. For example, if your key word is advantages, delete disadvantages, methods, techniques, or any thing else that is not an advantage.
At the end of this weeding out process you should have six or eight good reasons, ways, methods, plans, advantages, or whatever your key word is. Remember, your paper has only one key word.
Now look for the three best advantages, methods, ways, etc. on your list. Some of the others will fit under the three best ones as sub-points. For example, in a vignette about what you would do if you won the lottery, I would buy my brother a new car is obviously an example under I would spend some of my lottery money doing nice things for my family.
You may need to make up a category to tie several things together; for example, if your list includes I would start a scholarship at Murray State, I would give money to the Cancer Society, and I would add a new building to the animal shelter, you could make up the category I would use my money for social causes, which would then be supported by all three examples.
Keep working until you have three main points, each supported by two or three examples. Painful as it seems, you may have to throw out items that just won't fit.
Yes, you have spent a great deal of time on this prewriting but successful writers know that the more time spent in preparation, the less time it takes to write the final essay and the better the first draft of that essay will be. 
Good prewriting actually saves time.
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You have only one more step, making the outline, before you will be ready to write your paper. Remember, you will have only fifty minutes to write Theme One; a good outline is essential.
First, look at the three main points you have decided on. None will be a weak point if you have done your prewriting correctly, but one probably stands out as the strongest. Usually it has the most sub-points to support it, but not always.
Label your strongest point 3. Label your weakest point 1, and the in-between one 2. They will go in numerical order, 1, 2, 3, in your thesis statement and in your final paper.
At the top of your outline, write your thesis statement. Take your question and turn it into a statement: What uses would I make of money I won in the lottery? becomes If I won the lottery, I would pay off my debts, do nice things for my family, and support social causes.
The three main points you have decided on appear in the order in which you have numbered them, and in parallel structure. In the sentence above, all three are infinitives (to pay, to do, to support), but they could all be nouns, verbs, prepositional phrases, adjectives, clauses--it doesn't matter except that they all be the same grammatical structure. Look up parallelism in your handbook if you do not understand it.
Write your thesis statement now, while you have time to look up the grammatical information. You may change the first few words of the sentence when you write your theme in class, but the hard part--the three main points in correct order and parallel structure--you will simply copy from the top of your outline.
Now, in the order in which you numbered them, list each of your three main points with its supporting points under it. That's your outline. You have now finished your prewriting, and are ready to write Theme I in class.
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One thing you can be thinking about, and perhaps jotting down notes on, is your introduction. Avoid the rhetorical question. Yes, journalists use it all the time, and that is exactly why your readers are tired of it. Do something exciting, such as writing a little scene in which you tell us about your first job interview, and how it compares to Ehrenreich's experience.
For examples of great short introductions, pick up any issue of Reader's Digest and read the introduction to each article. Each introduction is lively and interesting, but connected to the subject of the article.
Do not write your introduction on your outline; just jot down some notes for a lively way of getting into your topic.
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DO NOT WRITE THEME I OUTSIDE CLASS! If you do, your instructor will delete it from your disk or take away the written version, and you will have to start over. So stop when you have completed your prewriting, and do the rest of this assignment when you come to class the day the theme is due. Theme I is an in-class theme.
The day you write Theme I, bring the printout of your outline to class. Be sure to print it out before you arrive, and bring it with you. Do not waste precious minutes trying to print it in class. Lay it beside your keyboard, put your Diskette in Drive A, and write your theme.
A three-point theme has four paragraphs. If you have done your prewriting, you should find them easy to write.
The first paragraph has two parts: first your introduction, which may be two or three sentences long, and finally your thesis statement. The thesis statement is the last sentence in the first paragraph. Copy it from your outline, changing only the first few words as necessary to make it follow smoothly from your introduction.
SAVE your paper with File, Save. Be certain you save it in your own folder or your own diskette. Save again after every paragraph. Say Yes to Do you want to replace?
Your second paragraph covers your first main point, using the subpoints from your outline to support it. Your third paragraph covers your second main point in the same way. Your fourth paragraph covers your last main point in the same way.
When you have written your fourth paragraph you have finished writing your paper. Save it and then start revising.
Do not tack a fifth paragraph onto this theme; all you can do is summarize what the reader already knows. Until this kind of paper gets to be eight or ten pages long, it insults the reader's intelligence to summarize the points at the end.
Your paper should be about two pages, double-spaced. If you have done your prewriting, it will naturally come out to this length.
Re-read your theme, making corrections, smoothing, adding or deleting as necessary. When you are sure it is as good as you can make it, save once again. Be sure your Diskette is in the A: drive. SAVE. If your disk won't work, save to your folder on the C: drive..
PRINT your paper. Do not repeat the instruction; wait for your paper to print. If it doesn't print, do NOT repeat the command! Ask for help; it will print.
Fold lengthwise. On the outside write your name, your class, your instructor's name, and THEME I.
Upload to Theme One Upload under Assignments in Blackboard.
Turn in your printout. Clear your screen. Logout. Take your Diskette with you.
EMERGENCY SAVE: If you can neither print your paper nor save it to your diskette, never leave the copy on the C drive as the only copy of your theme. Go to MSU webmail (open your browser and go to webmail.murraystate.edu) and mail yourself a copy as an attachment.
No excuses will be accepted for Theme I being completed unsupervised, or for a student having more time than the rest of the class. (Arrangements for students in the SSLD program are made before classes begin.) Do not begin the semester with a hundred-point hole in your accumulation of points. If you miss class that day, you will have to write the theme under your instructor's supervision after you have provided proof that a genuine emergency kept you from class. No proof, no makeup theme. No makeup theme, no points at all, while your classmates who did go through this process all earned at least part of the 100 points available.
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