Organization: Getting Started

Getting papers started often seems the hardest part of the process. Advice about structuring papers may seem irrelevant to the student who is stuck, gnawing on a pencil, in front of a blank page. Anxious to get the paper from inside the head onto the page, writers may become so obsessed with the product that they flounder about in the process. 

An outline may seem slightly threatening, like a contract you cannot break or a dentist appointment. But making a plan for a paper need not inhibit the flow of ideas. A plan can get them going by helping you decide what is most important to say.