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Organizing and Outlining

Learn the essentials of organizing ideas through brainstorming and outlining to enhance your writing structure and clarity. Understand the steps to create a well-structured outline to bring your ideas to life effectively.

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Organizing and Outlining

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  1. Organizing and Outlining

  2. Why Organize? • Brainstorming helps you come up with lots of ideas about your topic. • Not all your ideas are keepers! • Brainstorms are often scattered all over and difficult to read.

  3. How To Organize (1) • Look at your brainstorm. • Choose the 3-4 most important ideas from it. • Ignore the rest of the brainstorm.

  4. Why Outline? • An outline is like a skeleton. It identifies the basic shape of your writing. • Once you know the basic form, you only need to add muscles to bring it to life!

  5. Outlining • If you start with a web, it is EXTREMELY easy to create an outline. • You don’t HAVE to start with a web. • You can create an outline for ANY piece of writing

  6. Outlining (1) • Start by writing your focus (the idea at the center of your web) at the top of the page “Mr. T is the best teacher ever.”

  7. Outlining (2) • Main ideas (balloons attached to your web’s center) begin with Roman numerals (I, II) [“topic sentences” for paragraphs] “Mr. T is the Best Teacher Ever” I) He’s funny II) He gives easy work III) His room is interesting II III I IV

  8. Outlining (3) • Subheadings (balloons attached to your web’s main idea balloons) begin with capital letters (A, B, C) [supporting sentences] “Mr. T is the Best Teacher Ever” I) He’s funny A) makes class interesting B) weird voices help me remember A B B A II III A I IV A B B

  9. Outlining NOTE • You CANNOT have a “I” without a “II”, or an “A” without a “B” “Mr. T is the Best Teacher Ever” I) He’s funny A) makes class interesting B) weird voices help me remember II) He gives easy work A B B A II III A I IV A B B

  10. Outlining (4) • Sub-subheadings begin with numbers (1, 2, 3) Main topic I) Section topic A) Subsection topic 1) Sub-subsection topic A B B A II III 1 A I 2 IV A B B

  11. Outlining (5) • Sub-sub-subheadings begin with lowercase letters (a, b, c) Main topic I) Section topic A) Subsection topic 1) Sub-subsection topic a) Sub-sub-subsection topic A B B A II III a 1 b A I 2 IV A B B

  12. Outlining (6) • Sub-sub-sub-subheadings begin with lowercase Roman numberals (i, ii, iii, iv, v) Main topic I) Section topic A) Subsection topic 1) Sub-subsection topic a) Sub-sub-subsection topic i) Sub-sub-sub-subsection A B i ii B A II III a 1 b A I 2 IV A B B

  13. Outlining NOTE 2 • If you get to sub-sub-sub-subheadings, you have WAY too much detail! Jobs I’ve held I) Postal worker A) Got chased by dog 1) Dog was brown a) Dog had fleas i) There were 342 fleas A B i ii B A II III a 1 b A I 2 IV A B B

  14. How to Organize (2) • Once you have put together your outline, think about the following: • Does the order make sense? Am I starting with the most important information first? • Did I provide enough information/details? Too much? • Feel free to change your outline – re-arrange the order, add or delete info.

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