Sloppy Writer's Guide

You don't have to be ultra-organized to come up with a fabulous and well-organized research paper. As a matter of fact, creativity and organization do not necessarily go hand in hand. Perhaps that is why so many good writers think of themselves as tormented souls!

Creative people are usually global thinkers, which means they take in information in huge chunks instead of taking them into their brains in small, sequential bits.

Because of this, creative and global thinkers can feel overwhelmed by big stacks of research, and they often come across as spacey and disorganized at the onset. The good news is, they usually come out ahead in the end and finish with a great concept or project.

Does this sound like you? If you don't know where to start with research, or if you have piles of research and you don't know what to do with it, you're actually pretty normal.

1. Go ahead and be generous with the research

When we first set off to research a topic we usually don't have a clear idea of what we will discover along the way. It's not uncommon for us to come across an interesting and unexpected tidbit that looks really intriguing, but perhaps a little off-topic. It might threaten to set us off on an unexpected direction.

Go ahead and record it!

Actually, those unexpected directions can be gold nuggets that make your paper. Often, we don't know for sure how information fits into an overall paper until we have collected quite a bit of information. The best advice is to go ahead and gather all the information you can when researching, and then decide later what should stay and what should go.

If you can color-code your research as you go, then your life will be easier when it comes to organizing. If not, you may want to consider color coding once the research is all collected. Any method of organizing is good, however.

2. If you're fretting over categories, use piles.

Don't allow yourself to become overwhelmed by mounds of research. Before you try to create an outline, you might want to consider organizing at the most basic level. Sit at a large table or on the floor with your stack, and begin to sort it into piles.

Create piles as far as your arms can reach. Don't worry about having too many. Piles can represent any sort of category, sub-topic, or idea that is related to your topic—so don't worry about it now.

Once you identify a topic pile, label it with a sticky note.

3. Group your piles.

After you've placed all of your research into a relevant pile, sit back and look at your various stacks. Is there a flow or pattern? Identify a sequence or order to your stacks. You'll be surprised at how natural this comes.

Some piles will seem more important than others. Those piles can represent your main paragraph topics. Other piles will seem like side-stories or offshoots of the main topic paragraphs. Those piles will usually contain the information that serves as evidence for your main ideas. Your paper is taking shape!

4. Write a Messy Outline.

Using freehand, (not a computer) start to draft an outline. Write down your main topics and list subtopics between the headings.

If you truly are a global thinker, your mind will start coming up with creative ideas as you attempt to organize. This is natural, but it may be annoying.

It's tempting to want to squelch these ideas at this time, because your mind is supposed to be working be in the "organizing" stage, not the "creative" stage. Don't do it!

You might lose some of your best ideas forever if you send them to the back of your mind. Jot them down. Go ahead and let your mind brainstorm as you organize your topics. Don't worry about having a messy outline. It's yours—you can scribble all over it.

5. Write a New Outline.

There's no way around it: some of the best writers go through numerous drafts of every stage. This includes the outline.

Using a word processor this time, go ahead and write a new outline, based on your messy first version. This seems like a lot of extra work—but it's not, actually. You will see that your paper is taking shape. This second outline is actually a skeleton of your paper draft.

You have organized your paper and, as you jotted down ideas along the way, you have shaped your argument.

6. Read for content

Your new outline will read just like your first draft, minus all the filler and pretty writing. Read over the outline and determine whether you see holes in your argument or story. If so—don't fret. You will find that it is quite easy to find and add those missing parts.

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