ORGANIZING IDEAS & OUTLINING1
You’ve come up with a lot of ideas and information, roughed out a thesis statement, and
begun thinking about what’s important to include, what should be left out, and how the bits you’re
including relate to each other. At this point – especially if your material is complicated – you need to
focus on organizing.
The two tasks of organizing are (1) distinguishing general ideas from specific ones and (2)
seeing the relations between ideas. Group specific points underneath the general points they
support. Position the general points in a way that makes some sense based on logic or narrative
(story-telling) sequence.
Three different strategies for accomplishing these tasks are an informal outline, a tree
diagram, and a formal outline. We’ll use the same thesis statement to provide examples for all three
strategies.
Thesis statement: The broadcast media project unrealistic images of the United
States as a nation of either constant ethnic conflict or untroubled homogeneity.
INFORMAL OUTLINE – includes key general points and the specific evidence
supporting the general points.
Images of ethnic conflict in the news
Ethnic gang wars
Defaced Jewish synagogues and cemeteries
Korean and non-Korean disputes
Burned African American churches
Images of untroubled homogeneity in TV shows and ads
Mainly middle-class people
Mainly attractive, healthy people
Mainly white people
The reality
Not war, but coexistence among groups
Ethnic groups, poor people, and other groups (missing from TV shows and ads)
TREE DIAGRAM – depicts ideas and details branching out in increasing
specificity. A tree diagram is usually handwritten.
1
th
th
Adapted from H. Ramsey Fowler and Jane E. Aaron, The Little, Brown Handbook, 11 and 7 Editions. New York:
Pearson/Longman, 2007, 1998.
Tree diagram:
Ethnic conflict in news stories
False homogeneity on TV shows & ads
Gang wars
African American churches
All middle-class
Koreans vs. others
Mostly white
Jewish synagogues, cemeteries
All attractive
All healthy
What’s false about news stories?
What’s false about TV homogeneity? – Reality is:
Coexistence among groups, not war,
most of the time in most places
Poor people
Unattractive people
Ethnic groups
Sick and disabled
FORMAL OUTLINE – enables a complex arrangement of ideas and support
when you’re dealing with a complex subject.
I. Images of ethnic conflict, not coexistence
A. News stories
1. Ethnic gang wars
2. Defaced Jewish synagogues and cemeteries
3. Korean and non-Korean disputes
4. Burned African American churches
B. The real story
1. No war among groups
2. Coexistence among groups
II. Images of untroubled homogeneity, not diversity
A. People pictured in TV shows and ads
1. Mainly white people
2. Mainly middle-class people
3. Mainly attractive, healthy people
B. People missing from TV shows and ads
1. Ethnic groups
2. Poor people
3. Other groups
The principles of formal outlining depend on distinguishing between the general and the specific:
 Labels and indentations indicate order and relative importance.
 Sections and sub-sections reflect logical relationships.
 Topics of equal generality appear in parallel headings.
 Each subdivision has at least two parts: if you have one sub-heading, you must have a second.
 Headings are expressed in parallel grammatical form.
 The introduction and conclusion may be omitted (though not, of course, from the essay).
If you’re preparing an assigned outline, follow your professor’s instructions. Formal outlines can be
structured many ways, and your results may look very different from the example given above.