Prewriting: Organizing Ideas
Introduction
Planning your organization
Chronological order
Spatial order
Logical order
Order of importance
Creating an outline
Your Turn 1: Choose an order
Your Turn 2: Arrange ideas
Introduction
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In all cases, though, it’s a good idea to plan out your
route in advance. The same holds true for writing.
Introduction
You may wonder how you’ll turn the ideas and
information you’ve collected for your topic from a
disorganized mess into a coherent composition.
Organizing your
ideas makes order
out of chaos.
Planning your organization
Drafting your paper will be much easier if you first
plan the organization your work will follow.
Here’s one way to plan your
organization: Copy the ideas
and information you’ve
gathered onto note cards.
Then, move the cards around
until you find an organization
that works.
Planning your organization
Most writing uses one or a combination of the
following organizational patterns:
•
•
•
•
Chronological order
Spatial order
Logical order
Order of importance
Planning your organization
Chronological order
Use chronological order to tell a story or explain a
process. Present actions and events in the order in
which they take place—first to last, earliest to latest,
and so on.
Stages of sleep
REM (rapid eye
movement); some
muscles paralyzed
body temperature
drops; breathing &
heart rate slow
deep sleep; tissue
growth & repair;
slow breathing
light sleep; muscle
activity slows
Planning your organization
Chronological order
Another strategy for arranging ideas in chronological
order is to use a sequence chart or time line.
sequence chart
awake
deep sleep;
tissue growth and
repair; slow
breathing
light sleep;
muscle
activity slows
REM
(rapid eye
movement)
body temperature
drops; breathing
and heart rate
slow
cycle repeats itself
5 more times
(starting with light
sleep)
Planning your organization
Chronological order
time line
Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3
Stage 4
Planning your organization
Spatial order
Use spatial order to describe a place, a person, or an
object. Arrange your details or ideas according to their
location in space:
Description of
• top to bottom,
bottom to top
• near to far,
far to near
• left to right,
right to left
• inside to outside,
outside to inside
Layers of the Earth
outside to inside
crust: outer layer;
thinnest layer
mantle: consistency
of asphalt
outer core: nickel
and iron in liquid
state
core: heavy
metals (nickel and
iron) in solid state
Planning your organization
Spatial order
In addition to using note cards, you can use a circle
diagram or web diagram to show ideas in spatial
order.
circle diagram
Layers of
the Earth
crust
outside
mantle
outer core
inner
core
inside to outside
inside
outside to inside
Planning your organization
Spatial order
web diagram
Top
cereal
crackers
oatmeal
Right
Left
canned vegetables
soup
pantry
Bottom
sandwich bags
lunch boxes
pasta
rice
Planning your organization
Logical order
You’ll use logical order when you want to explain or
classify. Group related details or ideas together to show
their relationship.
• defining
cone-shaped
have a beak
• dividing a topic
teeth
into parts
spade-shaped
• comparing and
triangular
teeth
contrasting
dorsal fin
curved dorsal
fin
no beak
Planning your organization
Logical order
You’ll use logical order when you want to explain or
classify. Group related details or ideas together to show
their relationship.
Dolphins
Porpoises
• defining
• dividing a topic
cone-shaped
spade-shaped
into parts
teeth
teeth
• comparing and
contrasting
have a beak
no beak
curved dorsal
fin
triangular
dorsal fin
Planning your organization
Logical order
Charts or Venn diagrams are also good ways to
organize ideas and details in logical order.
chart
Dolphins
Porpoises
Teeth
Cone-shaped
Spade-shaped
Dorsal fin
Curved
Triangular
Beak
Long
None
Planning your organization
Logical order
Venn diagram
Dolphins
• have a curved
dorsal fin
• have a beak
• have coneshaped teeth
Porpoises
marine
mammals
• have a triangular
dorsal fin
• have no beak
• have spadeshaped teeth
Planning your organization
Order of importance
Use order of importance when you want to inform or
persuade readers. Arrange your ideas from least to
most important or least to most powerful (or vice
versa).
most important
least important
avoid the sun,
especially at
midday 1
wear protective
clothing 3
avoid tanning
beds/booths 4
wear sunscreen
year round 2
check your skin
regularly 5
have regular
skin exams at
your doctor 6
Planning your organization
Order of importance
Another way to arrange your ideas in order of
importance is to use a pyramid diagram.
avoid the sun at midday
wear sunscreen year round
wear protective clothing
most
important
check your skin
avoid tanning beds
visit doctor
least important
Creating an outline
With some types of
writing, such as
fact-based
informative writing,
an outline can be
helpful in organizing
both broad ideas
and specific details.
Thesis: Skin cancer, the most
common type of cancer in America,
can be prevented simply by protecting
skin from the sun.
I. Wear sunscreen year round.
A. Choose a sunscreen with broadspectrum protection.
1. UVB protection
2. UVA-shorter wavelengths
3. UVA-remaining wavelengths
B. Sunscreen needs to be
reapplied every two hours.
1. after sweating
2. after swimming
3. after drying off
Your Turn 1: Choose an order
What kind of organization—spatial, logical,
chronological, order of importance—would you use in
writing about each of the topics below? Be prepared to
discuss your answers.
1. a description of your room
2. the events of your day, so far
3. places you would like to visit
4. a comparison and contrast of your two favorite foods
Your Turn 2: Arrange ideas
Choose one of the topics below and brainstorm some
ideas for writing about that topic. Come up with 10–12
ideas. Then, use one of the graphic organizers
presented in this lesson to arrange your ideas.
1. a description of your room
2. the events of your day, so far
3. places you would like to visit
4. a comparison and contrast of your two favorite foods
The End