Ideas and Outlining

Introduction

The purpose of this section is to show you a good way to gather information and ideas for your writing and then how to organize those ideas into an outline that will guide you throughout the remainder of the writing process.

Ideas

Starting to gather ideas can often be the hardest part of writing anything, but having identified your purpose and audience previous to this makes this process quite painless.

Decide What Type of Information You Need

Keeping in mind both your audience and purpose, what type of information do you need to accomplish your goals? Do you need scientific information to show certain health benefits? Would product reviews from trusted sources help convince the purchasing manager to buy a particular product? Each of these examples fall into different research catagories: Primary Research and Secondary Research.
- Primary Research is any type of research that you do first hand. This includes:
  - Interviews
  - Surveys and Consumer Panels
  - First-hand Field Experience and Personal Observations
  - Laboratory Work
- Secondary Research is any sort of research that you gather from outside sources, such as:
  - Books
  - Reviews
  - Articles or Research Papers
  - Newspapers
  - Government or Company Reports

Create a Plan For Your Research

Holding an interview without knowing what questions to ask beforehand won't help your quest for information. At the very least, before you start looking for information think about and write down some questions that you want answered. Your questions should pertain to the purpose of your writing.

Take Proper Notes

All the information in the world won't help your cause if you forget what it is. Here are a few tips for taking notes that will help you in the future:
- Record your information carefully so you have complete quotes, statistics, names, etc.
- Always make a note of where you get your information so you can acknowledge your sources properly in your writing.
- Create a bibliography as you find your information, that way it will be easier to put together at the end of your paper.