Organize notes with outlines or digital cards

Before you write an informational or research text, you need to tame your notes. Raw notes are messy — they come from many sources in no particular order. Organizing them into an outline or a set of digital cards transforms chaos into a clear writing plan.

The Roman Numeral Outline

• Roman numeral outlines use a tiered system: I. → A. → 1. → a.
• Each Roman numeral (I, II, III…) marks a main idea — usually one body paragraph.
• Capital letters (A, B, C…) under each Roman numeral are supporting details that develop that main idea.
• Numbers (1, 2…) under a letter are even finer details — specific facts, statistics, or examples.
• A source citation belongs at the same level as the detail it supports, so you always know where information came from.

Example Outline Structure

Digital Note Cards

• A digital card (or index card) holds one piece of information — not a whole page of notes.
• Label each card: Main Idea, Supporting Detail, or Source.
• Sort cards into groups — all cards for one main idea form a paragraph cluster.
• Rearranging cards is faster than rewriting notes, making the planning stage flexible.
• Delete duplicate cards and merge cards that say the same thing in different words.

Main Idea vs Supporting Detail vs Source

• Main idea — the big claim or topic of a paragraph. Broad, arguable, or informative. Could stand as a topic sentence.
• Supporting detail — a specific fact, statistic, example, or explanation that develops the main idea.
• Source — the author, title, publisher, or URL that tells the reader where the detail came from.