Writing Papers: Organizing Your Paper

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Now you probably have a collection of information either on index cards, legal pads, or in a word processing document. What’s next? You may think it’s time to sit down to write, but that’s like setting off on a road trip without a map. (Sure, wandering is okay for some road trips, but it won’t fly for your writing requirements.) Organizing helps you think about what you want to write. It also ensures that you cover all of your points. And when you do start writing, you can concentrate on that (the writing) instead of on the order of the information.

So how do you organize? Well, your research provides the basis for your organization. Ask yourself, “What did I learn? What do I want to say?”

You can play around with the ideas by arranging your research. For example, if you have index cards, you can create piles for similar ideas, each one making one main point. After you divvy up the information, you can then organize the piles into a logical order.

If you wrote on paper, you can cut up the paper into ideas and do the same sorting as for index cards. (That’s why you don’t want to write on the back of any page.) If you typed your research, you can rearrange your ideas using the Cut and Paste commands in your word processing program.

If you’re having trouble logically arranging your outline, you can think of some typical paper organizations to see whether one would work. Consider any of the following.

• Timeline or chronological order: This organization structure makes sense if time is an element of the topic (or story). You should, though, avoid saying, “and then, and then, and then.” (Think about that scene at the Chinese drive-up in Dude Where’s My Car?) Also, don’t use this organization just because it’s easy; a chronological order should be appropriate to what you plan to say.
• Cause/effect: If your research falls into this pattern (“first this happened, which caused that”), consider a cause/effect approach.
• Problem/solution: Another common order is to present a problem first, and then detail a solution to that problem.
• Ranked by importance: If there isn’t a pattern to the data, you can arrange the ideas in ascending (or descending) order by importance.
• In addition to putting the ideas into order, evaluate your material for each of the main points you want to make:
  Do you have details, examples, evidence to back up your assertions? If not, you may need to go back and do some additional research.

Readers = Writers

Good writers are good readers. When you read, you notice what makes a piece effective. You think about what details stand out and how the work is structured. Some writers may even mimic a certain author’s writing style as they go through the process of finding their own unique voices.