Printable Graphic Organizer: Outline

The Outline

The outline is the classic graphic organizer, having been used for decades by writers and students. The traditional outline allows writers to organize information hierarchically to show which information is more important and which is less important. The outline is a unique graphic organizer because it can be expanded into many pages for a large project or kept under one page for a small project. It is a flexible organizer that also allows for color coding, which visual people tend to like.

What is a graphic organizer?

A graphic organizer is a visual tool that writers use when planning a piece of writing. There are many styles of graphic organizers such as: outline, 5Ws, Venn diagram, 3 column notes, visual cluster, inverted triangle, KWL (know, want to know, learn), plot diagram, and there are many more. Different graphic organizers tend to appeal to different writers. For example, some writers use only the traditional outline for all of their planning needs, while others will switch between organizers depending on the writing style.

How can writers use graphic organizers?

Writers use graphic organizers in the planning stage of the writing process, which is just after the brainstorming stage. Take the valuable information from the brainstorming and add it to the graphic organizer. This process allows writers to keep their important information which can be used in writing the first draft.