College Admission Essays: Putting Your Thoughts in Order

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Putting Your Thoughts In Order

Now for the nuts-and-bolts instructions for turning a mass of ideas into a coherent outline:

1. Reread the notes you took for the essay. 
2. Examine the structure you chose for the essay, noting the basic organizational plan. 
3. Consider the theme of the essay — the big idea you want to communicate. 
4. Imagine a stack of baskets, some large and some small. Start dividing the ideas into baskets. If you’re writing a cause-and-effect essay, imagine a “cause” basket and an “effect” basket. Or perhaps you’re writing an essay with a survey structure. Imagine that each item you’re including in the survey is sitting inside a basket. On a clean sheet of paper or in a new computer file, create a section for each basket. Give each basket a name.
5. Sort through your notes, placing each idea in the appropriate basket. As you sort your notes, you may find something that just doesn’t seem to fit anywhere. No problem! Perhaps that particular idea doesn’t belong in the essay. If you really, really, really want to use an idea that doesn’t belong to any of the categories you’ve set up, reconsider your design. A different structure or a different set of “baskets” may accommodate your favorite thought.
6. Consider each basket in turn after everything is sorted. Subdivide the contents into smaller categories. (Imagine yourself placing the ideas in a set of smaller baskets.) Then look at the smaller categories. Can those ideas be subdivided as well? Each time you create a new “basket,” give it a name.
7. Decide whether you’re a visual thinker or not. If you are a visual thinker (you think in pictures and love maps), take the time to indent your outline.  If you don’t feel the need for a diagram, don’t bother. Just scan the “baskets” you’ve created and consider which should be first, which should be second, and so forth. Number everything so you know its proper place.

Have you ever heard the old saying, “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket”? That proverb applies to outlines as well. You can’t divide something into one part; logic won’t let you. The whole concept of “divide” involves chopping something into smaller parts. Notice I said “parts,” not “part.” You can’t chop something into a smaller “part.” As you create the outline, don’t try to divide the contents of one category into only one more category. Take a look at this example:

I. Swimming lessons

   A. Challenging

II. Spanish lessons

   A. Enjoyable

   B. Expensive

In this outline “Swimming lessons” is divided into one sub-category — “Challenging.” No good! Penalty box! Do not pass Go or collect $200. You need at least one more sub-category for swimming lessons.

Why am I making such a big deal out of this? Not because I love Roman numerals, which you can bury with your Latin textbook for all I care. The reason your outline should obey the rules of logic is that your essay is bound by those rules. A logical flaw in the outline will show up as a flaw in the finished piece of writing.