Research Blog Entry Chapter 13 The Bedford Researcher

Organizing

What organization pattern should I choose?

My choice of organization will reflect my purpose and the role I adopt as a writer. It should reflect the argument I am making in my document and the reasons, evidence, and appeals I use to make my argument. Some different types of organization patterns include the following;

Chronology

Description

Cause/Effect

Process Explanation

Pro/Con

Multiple Perspectives

Comparison/Contrast

Strengths/weaknesses

Costs/Benefits

Problem/Solution

How can I arrange my argument?

Label evidence can help me understand at a glance how and where I will use evidence from my sources. Once I've labeled my notes and sources, I can organize them into groups or order them according to the outline I create.

Group evidence is categorizing evidence obtained from my sources. Different sources can be sorted by category such as the medium or subject.

Use clustering to explore the relationships among my thesis statements, reasons, and evidence. Clustering is arranging these elements of my argument visually on a sheet of paper or on a computer screen.

Use mapping to explore sequences of reasons and evidence. Create a timeline perhaps.

How can I create an outline?

Create an informal outline with a brief list of words, a series of short phrases, or a series of sentences. These can remind me of key points to address in my paper or of notes I should refer to when drafting.

Create a formal outline to provide a complete and accurate list of the points I want to address in my paper. These use Arabic numerals, letters, and Roman numerals to indicate the hierarchy of information.

Thesis

Reasons

Sequence reasons are presented

Evidence

Notes and sources to refer to.

Topical outlines present topics and subtopics I plan to include in my research document as a series of words and phrases. Items at the same level of importance should be phrased in parallel grammatical form.

Sentence outlines use complete sentences to identify the point I want to cover. These typically...

1. Begin the process of converting an outline into a draft of my paper.

2. Help me assess the structure of a document I have already written.