Organization Strategies
Once you have brainstormed ideas for your paper, you can use the following strategies to help organize your thoughts. Just remember that writing is a process, and it is not a process that requires you to start at point A and work straight through, linearly, to your final draft. Many writers find themselves back at the invention stage ('the drawing board') or returning to reorganize several times during the life of their paper. And feedback can be helpful at any stage; that is what the Assistants at the Writing Center are here for. We can help you during any stage of your writing process.
Here are a few tips for organizing or reorganizing your essay:
1. Looping and Mapping: Review this discussion in the Invention Strategies link. It can be a tool for inventing and organizing your material.
2. Outlining: Contrary to what many writers were taught, outlines don't have to be set in stone; they are usually free-floating. Some writers have an aversion to outlines because they feel trapped by them, but they are a very helpful tool if you can see them not as a concrete shell that you have to pour your words into but as a mold that you can use and remold as your writing develops. Outlines are most useful for helping writers identify their main and supporting points, which are primary and which are subordinate. They can give you a view of the 'big picture' so you don't begin writing an essay without a road map. This can be extremely necessary when you write longer papers and have to organize and keep track of several research sources. You may view a sample outline under the Structure of an Essay link below.
3. Notecards: Others collect their thoughts on notecards, isolating one main idea or topic per card. Using notecards is especially effective for visual and tactile learners since it allows them to lay the cards out where they can see them and physically move the cards around. This proves to be even more helpful when writing longer more complex papers.
4. Cut and Paste: If you are unsure of whether the organization of an essay is effective once you have begun, try cut and paste. You can type your main and supportive points and then cut them apart separately to arrange them (similar to working with notecards), or you can cut up an essay into paragraphs or a paragraph into sentences to reassess the logic of your organization. Try cutting up your selection of writing and have a friend or classmate put it back together. This will really show you where another has drawn connections or where connections are absent that you assumed were there. Again, this is a more visual representation and can force you to re-see your essay.
Just Remember to:
- Remain Flexible! You are just getting started and rough drafts are just that, rough. They can be rough because you will be revising them. Don't be fooled: no writer, regardless of experience, produces a polished draft the first or even third time. Drafting is the stage where you should focus on the content and logic of your essay; you are allowed to save the editing and polishing for later.
- Get Feedback! Once you have produced a draft, it is a good idea to ask for feedback on whether your ideas are fully developed, whether you have a clear focus, how well your points connect together, and whether your organization is effective. Don't allow a reader to simply point out commas at this point or you may end up with an error free paper that is undeveloped, lacks focus, or has no logical pattern of organization. It is extremely helpful to see how an audience responds to your ideas and how they are effected, or uneffected, by them; their feedback will give you the direction you need in order to revise. And at the Writing Desk we are here to help you with just that.
