What you’ll learn to do: evaluate essay organizational techniques

Destination set, supplies gathered . . . now, how do we get to where we’re going?

The organizing stage of the writing process will help us determine this. Some students may have had bad experiences with writing outlines for assignments in the past, or failed to see the need to map out every detail ahead of time. However, the organizing stage encompasses much more than outlining, and is more flexible than it might have seemed while in high school.

The organizing stage is also very profitable in time management, as well. A bit of time invested in organizing, will have huge payoffs later during drafting. If you’re pressed for time you might feel tempted to skip this step, but please don’t! Skipping the organizing stage will mean you end up spending much more time during drafting and revising than you would have otherwise.