The Bedford Researcher -- Chapter 13 Summary

Chapter 13 of The Bedford Researcher, titled Organizing, is a useful guide to organizing a paper properly. The multitude of options seem endless. The writer can organize by chronology, description, definition, cause and effect, process explanation, pro/con, multiple perspectives, comparison and contrast, strengths and weaknesses, costs and benefits, or problem and solution. The organizing pattern the writer uses will show their purpose and role as a writer. The writer's argument, according to the Researcher, can be arranged by label evidence, group evidence, clustering, or mapping. To effectively be reminded of key points that the writer wants to achieve in the paper, they can create an informal or formal outline. An informal outline can be "a brief list of words, a series of short phrases, or even a series of sentences" (223). "A formal outline provides a complete and accurate list of the points (the writer) want(s) to address in (their) argument" (226). There are two forms of a formal outline: Topical outlines and sentence outlines. Topical outlines present topics and subtopics that will be discussed in the writer's paper. "Items at the same level of importance should be phrased parallel in grammatical from" (227). "Sentence outlines use complete sentences to identify the points (the writer) wants to cover" (227). Chapter 13 is a fantastic guideline for the writer to use in terms of organizing their paper.