Organization
DEVELOPING A STRATEGY
COPYRIGHT LISA MCNEILLEY, 2010
What is an organized paper?
 Provides a logical flow from first idea to last
 Follows plan indicated by introduction and thesis
 Avoids sections unrelated to the thesis
 Avoids repetition of ideas in different parts of the paper
 Is dictated by the material
Steps to organizing
 Gather materials (from prewriting and research)
 Develop a strategy based on patterns and relationships
observed
 Write a working thesis
 Organize materials
 Eliminate digressions
 Write an outline
Steps to Organizing, cont’d
 Group related ideas
 Organize groups
 Organize ideas within groups
Outlines
 Formal
 Uses Roman numerals and letters
 Indicates relationships by indenting
 Follows the rule that every A must have a B
 Scratch
 Presents ideas in informal manner
 Uses phrases
 Groups ideas
Sample Formal Outline
 I. Introduction
 A. Story about F. Douglass
 B. Literacy Statistics
 C. Thesis: Importance of developing program
 II. Defining literacy
 A. Description of Difficulties
 B. Conflicting views
 C. Basic Reading Skills
 1. 6th grade reading
 2. ability to perform daily activities
 3. as required in various jobs
Sample Scratch Outline
 F. Douglass
 Literacy Stats
 Reasons for literacy program
 Difficulties of not reading
 Different defs. of illiteracy and literacy
 Describe reading skills
 6th grade
 Activities/jobs
 Stats on problems—by groups
Possible Organizing Strategies
 Problem-solution
 Cause-effect
 Process
 Comparison-contrast
 Narration—chronological or reverse chronological
 Division and Classification
 Most to least important
 Least to most important
Organizing Paragraphs
 Basic Paragraph structure:




*Transition statement (at beginning or end of paragraph)
Topic sentence
Support (usually 2 or 3 items)
*Explanation (to tie support to topic sentence or thesis)
*optional
Final Steps
 Read paper
 Make sure paper follows plan set up in thesis or
introduction
 Use key words in the margin to check organization