What are the 4 ways to organize your writing?

As a writing teacher, I am no stranger to the student phrases “I don’t know what to write about” and “I don’t know how to outline or organize my ideas.” And I don’t care how long you’ve been writing, these issues continue to be problematic.

For example, writers of all types will sometimes sit down at the keyboard with one of three problems:

• They have completely blank minds with no idea on what to write.
• They have ideas or topics which they think they would like to write about, but no clue what direction they want to take on the subjects.
• They have so many ideas about a topic that they don’t know how to organize them for maximum coherence and clarity.

If my writing students are struggling to come up with ideas, I encourage them to freewrite. If they are struggling to narrow down their topic, I encourage them to use outlines and mindmaps.

And there are tons of these strategies available online to use digitally, but I have done a little research to help narrow down your search and give you some ideas on specific tools that might help you with these processes.

In addition, I have also added some writing acronyms in these organizers that I use with my students. These acronyms are called SQuARE and CASH, and they will help you develop well-researched and strongly supported articles.

Before you read, let me say that I have no connection to or affiliation with these sites, but I do think you will find that they can aid your writing process in many ways. Take a look below to see if there are some you may want to try.

Many times we may only have a vague topic which we want to write about and no clue what point or perspective we want to use. This is where freewriting comes in. This tool allows you to type in your topic and then set a timer where you sit and write continuously without self-editing or pausing to think of things like grammar or mechanics.

When the timer is done, you can evaluate your writing and study your ideas to see if a thesis arises and/or the main points of a thesis or argument which you will use to develop your claim.

Once you narrow down your topic, many people find it helpful to do a working outline. This is where I encourage my students to use digital graphic organizers. These are a staple in the classroom and can help non-fiction writers sift and sort ideas, facts, quotations, and research.

They can also help the fiction writer come up with story ideas and flesh them out in outline form.

Control Alt Achieve is a site containing many organizer templates that can be done digitally and can be saved on your Google drive to help you create working drafts. You can choose specific organizers if you already know how you will sequence your writing, such as in a cause-effect or problem-solution format, or you can pick a template and just play around to see what organizational methods might work.

Here are specific ways these organizers can help you:

• They can help you break down ideas into sub-topics.
• They can help you break down sub-topics into bullet points or lists.
• They can help you link important articles to these subtopics or lists so you can refer back to them if you need quotes, statistics, and the like.

Below, I have included a template I chose from this site and made my own. I outlined as if I were going to compose an article on losing weight.

Using the same site, I chose another template based on a writing acronym I give my students. I took what is labeled on the site as a “6 Step Cycle” template and downloaded it to create a graphic organizer I sometimes give my students (see the organizer below).

The graphic organizer is based on an acronym I created called SQuARE. By locating and collecting facts and details in the categories of this acronym, students can incorporate this research to provide strong supportive evidence and details for their arguments.

• Statistics.
• Quotations.
• Anecdotes (real-life stories that may be used as proof of a claim).
• Rational argumentation/logic (a short explanation of how the evidence and research work to support their claim).
• Expert opinions.

You could use this same format to collect information. Remember this site allows you to work digitally, so you could add your own specific information in the boxes.

Finally, I chose another template from the site called the “4 Step Sequence.” I downloaded it and used it to have students practice another writing acronym I created called CASH.

It stands for ideas you can gather that can be used to either open an article or provide detail or support for the article’s main points. This acronym tends to be more well suited for argumentative essays or problem-solution articles.

• Controversy (surrounding the topic).
• Actionable steps (that are being taken or that should be taken concerning the issue).
• Scientific data/research on the issue.
• Historical/cultural impacts of the issue.

Below is the organizer.

Some writers do not like the highly structured format of graphic organizers and prefer a more abstract method of looking at ideas. This is where online post-it boards can be helpful.

One such site to use this type of outlining is Note.ly. It is an online post-it board where you can brainstorm many things. You can put all of your different ideas on the board and rearrange them to put your thoughts and ideas in order next to each other.

You can use different colored post-its to designate different things such as main ideas, supporting evidence, quotations you may want to include, and links that may be helpful. This tool could also be great for fiction writers who want to map out plot sequences. You can also add images if you wish. Below, is an example of a board I made on tips to get readers to read your articles.

Some people prefer to create mindmaps or bubble maps to brainstorm or organize their ideas.

There are tons of mind-mapping tools on the internet, but one I found particularly easy to use was Visme. It allows you to create presentations, slides, infographics, web graphics, and the like. For example, the screenshot below is one I took of just one of their templates.

All I would have to do to individualize this is to click on the words or bubbles and insert my own text and image. They also have many other customizable templates and a blank template feature that you can use to design your own map or graphic.

First-time users get five free presentations, and after that, you must pay a fee of 25 dollars a month to continue using the service. However, a chat with a support service representative told me that you could keep using the program for free as long as you deleted one of the projects and then began a new project as the fifth one. However, she did tell me that the Visme branding will be on the projects.

Famous writer George R.R. Martin details two distinct types of writers in the following quotation. He says:

“I think there are two types of writers, the architects and the gardeners. The architects plan everything ahead of time, like an architect building a house. They know how many rooms are going to be in the house, what kind of roof they’re going to have, where the wires are going to run, what kind of plumbing there’s going to be. They have the whole thing designed and blueprinted out before they even nail the first board up. The gardeners dig a hole, drop in a seed and water it. They kind of know what seed it is, they know if planted a fantasy seed or mystery seed or whatever. But as the plant comes up and they water it, they don’t know how many branches it’s going to have, they find out as it grows. And I’m much more a gardener than an architect.”

Maybe you’re an “architect” or maybe you’re a “gardener.” Whichever you are, these online tools listed above work for both types of writers. They allow writers easy ways to flesh out a topic and organize ideas using both concrete and abstract methods.

Using these tools will likely make the writing process easier and also work to ensure that your readers will find the information you present easy to follow and understand.