Click here to see detailed information for every writing trait from the Northwest Regional Education Laboratory.
How do you know if your paper is well organized? One way is to ask someone else to read your paper and then watch this person do it. If your reader has to return to the start to follow your ideas, then you have a problem with organization. What are some other ways? Check these links out:
Research Paper: Stage I Overview
Research Paper: Stage II Overview
Research Paper: Stage III Overview
Writing: Considering Structure and Organization - a helpful site from the good folks at Dartmouth.
Transitions- words or phrases that guide your reader from one idea to the next are essential. You will need transitions to guide your readers to and from passages from outside sources and you will need transitions to guide your reader from paragraph to paragraph.
Using Transitions - lots of examples of transitions from The Writing Center at the University of Wisconsin