Your note cards now should be organized according to your prelimi-
nary outline. Take a few minutes to read through your note cards,
beginning at the front of the stack and moving through to the back.
What you are reading is a rough sketch of your paper—the information
you collected in the order you (temporarily) plan to present it.
Does that order still make sense? Or would another arrangement
work better? Here are some of the different organizational approaches
you might consider for your paper:
- Chronological. Discusses events in the order in which they
happened (by time of occurrence). - Spatial. Presents information in geographical or physical
order (from north to south, top to bottom, left to right, inside
to outside, and so forth). - Numerical/Alphabetical. An obvious way to organize a
paper on “The Ten Commandments” or “The Three Men
I Admire Most,” for example. - Major division. For topics that logically divide into obvious
parts. - How to...grow an orchid, write a better paper, etc. Like this
book, organizes material from “what to do first” to “what to
do last.” - Problem/solution (a.k.a.cause/effect). Presents a series
of problems and possible solutions, why something happened,
or predicts what mighthappen as a result of a particular
cause. - Effect/cause. Discusses a condition, problem, or effect and
works backwardto what might have caused it.
152 How to Study