How to Study

1. Group together all of the cards that share the same outline
topic number or letter (in the right-hand corner of each card). 
2. Put those different groups in order, according to your 
temporary outline. 
3. Within each topic group, sort the cards further. Group the
cards that share the same “headline” (the two-word title in
the upper right corner). 
4. Go through your miscellaneous and personal cards, the ones
you marked with an asterisk or your own symbol. Can you 
fit any of them into your existing topic groups? If so, replace
the asterisk with the topic number or letter. If not, put the
card at the very back of your stack. 
Chapter 7 
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How to Write Terrific Papers
151

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Your note cards now should be organized according to your prelimi-
nary outline. Take a few minutes to read through your note cards,
beginning at the front of the stack and moving through to the back.
What you are reading is a rough sketch of your paper—the information
you collected in the order you (temporarily) plan to present it.
Does that order still make sense? Or would another arrangement
work better? Here are some of the different organizational approaches
you might consider for your paper:
1. Chronological. Discusses events in the order in which they
happened (by time of occurrence). 
2. Spatial. Presents information in geographical or physical
order (from north to south, top to bottom, left to right, inside
to outside, and so forth). 
3. Numerical/Alphabetical. An obvious way to organize a
paper on “The Ten Commandments” or “The Three Men 
I Admire Most,” for example. 
4. Major division. For topics that logically divide into obvious
parts. 
5. How to…grow an orchid, write a better paper, etc. Like this
book, organizes material from “what to do first” to “what to
do last.”