After generating ideas, moving from the abstract to the concrete and specific ideas, you should organize those ideas. The following lists ways to organize.

The Outline:

This is used to organize a writer’s ideas and further develop minor supporting details. Students use this in lieu of the Map. (See example)

Topic sentence (main idea sentence): ___________________________________________

1) Supporting point: ___________________

1. Supporting detail: ________________
2. Supporting detail: __________________

2) Supporting Point: ___________________

1. Supporting detail: ________________
2. Supporting detail: __________________

3) Supporting Point: ___________________

1. Supporting detail: __________________
2. Supporting detail: __________________

Concluding sentence: ___________________________________________

The Map or Web – Using a graphic organizer:

This is used to create a picture of the organization a writer’s ideas and further develop minor supporting details. Students sometime call it a Cluster or a Web. Students would use this in lieu of an outline to show the organization of their ideas. (See example)

Outlining

Another form of organizing your thoughts before you begin to write is outlining. See the example below.

Outline:

Main Idea Sentence: ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

1^st Major Support:

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Minor supports:

a)____________________________________________________________________________

b)____________________________________________________________________________

c)___________________________________________________________________________

d) __________________________________________________________________________

2nd Major Support:

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Minor supports:

a)_____________________________________________________________________________

b)_____________________________________________________________________________

c)_____________________________________________________________________________

d) ____________________________________________________________________________

3rd Major Support:

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Minor supports:

a)_____________________________________________________________________________

b)___________________________ _________________________________________________

c)____________________________________________________________________________

d) ____________________________________________________________________________