6 Chapter Six: Planning Your Writing

What’s the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning? Chances are that the first thing is always the first you do, and the second and third things might be the same day after day as well. For example, you might turn off the alarm first and then head to the bathroom to relieve yourself. You might then head to the kitchen and start the coffee, and while that’s brewing, jump into the shower…and so on.

The importance of organization

Humans like routine, and some even expect it so much that deviation from the routine can throw off an entire day.

One area where we all expect routine is in an essay. In all writing modes, not just in an essay, there is some kind of organization pattern, just as there is in every architectural structure.

The routine, or organization, of a piece creates a framework that guides the reader through your excellent ideas. Of course, you can find examples of writers who twist their writing in unexpected ways, but those are exceptions that are difficult to pull off effectively. And you often find them in the creative modes, rather than the research-like modes. In general, you’ll find using an accepted organizational format not only useful for the reader, but satisfying for you as the structure will lend strength to your ideas.

Getting started with organization

When you know what you’re writing about (topic), why you’re writing it (purpose), who you’re writing it for (audience), and the point you’re planning to make (thesis), you might think it’s time to jump in and start writing.

Wrong! Well, maybe. Some prefer to start writing at this point, getting ideas out in full sentences and paragraphs. That can work, but it often creates more effort in the end: that’s a lot of text to sort through when you’re trying to decide what needs to stay and what can go in revision.

A more efficient way is to start by organizing your ideas into a list, or, more formally, an outline. This might seem like an extra step that’s not necessary. In reality, planning an save you time. Let’s look at an example to see how this works.

Let’s say I have a topic of thrift store shopping for clothes, and I’d like to both inform my audience and gently persuade them that they should take up thrifting. The audience? A group of 22- to 25-year-old women who are getting into their first careers who haven’t had experience thrifting.

My working thesis statement? Though it takes some time and patience, thrift store shopping provides a better overall experience than other retail experiences.

When I’m thinking about what I want to bring up in the essay, I might make a list that looks something like this:

This is a pretty good list! It’s certainly enough to make a four-to-five-page essay, especially if I use specific examples.

Organizational Structures

From here, though, it’s time to start organizing. There are several organizational structures, like chronological (telling a story in time order) and spatial (used when describing things), but the most common structure by far is called order of importance. You can look at it in several ways:

Structure #1:  General to specific (commonly called deduction): Moving from general ideas to more specific ideas

Structure #2: Specific to general (commonly called induction): Moving from specific ideas to more general ideas

Structure #3:  Most to least critical: Making your strongest point first and then bringing up less critical ideas

Structure #4: Least to most critical: Bringing up less critical points early on to build up into the most important point of all

Which one should you choose? It depends on your audience, what you’re writing about, and what kind of impact you want to have. Do you want to build an argument? Perhaps least to most critical is a good choice. Do you want to describe something that you experienced and then explore how that type of experience happens to others? Specific to general would make sense. How do you want to present your ideas? Taking the time now to determine that will save you time later.

Outlining

Now that you’ve thought about different organizational structures, we can plan and outline, considering our list of ideas about thrift store shopping again:

As I’m looking at this and considering my audience, I think I want to do the order of importance that is most critical to less critical, and the most critical thing here is to convince my audience that thrifting is great! I want to start with why they might have a problem with thrifting and try to convince them otherwise. If they aren’t even open to thrifting, what’s the point? So, I’m going to start with why they might have a problem with it, but then, I’ll convince them that it’s great and why.

As you can see, I combined some ideas from the original list and added some more ideas.

From here, it’s a great idea to flesh those ideas out even more, creating a more formal outline that adds additional points and details I want to make.

From here, it’s a good idea to walk away from the outline for a day or so to give it time to “rest,” or to clear your mind so when you come back to it, you’re looking at it with fresh eyes. You can see if there are parts that need more explanation, so you add some new points. You can rearrange your points if you want, too, or even delete or rephrase some. It’s like you’re revising before you’re even writing, which is fantastic, as revising an outline takes far less time than revising a whole essay.

Once you feel satisfied with the points you’ve made in the outline, you can start writing!

Resources

“Four Main Components for Effective Outlines.” Purdue University  OWL, 2025, https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/the_writing_process/developing_an_outline/index.html.

“Outlining.” George Mason University Writing Center, 2025, https://writingcenter.gmu.edu/writing-resources/writing-as-process/outlining.

“Types of Outlines and Samples.” Purdue University OWL, 2025, https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/the_writing_process/developing_an_outline/types_of_outlines.html.

“Why and How to Create a Useful Outline.” Purdue University OWL, 2025, https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/the_writing_process/developing_an_outline/how_to_outline.html.