How to organise your ideas efficiently ?

[jnicolas]

Do you think the best way to organise your ideas is by using the mindmapping technique, freewriting or clustering?

[Miku]

I think the most efficient way is first, mind mapping and second, summing up ideas by using bullet points
What do you say?

[eaptutor1]

If I have a long piece of writing to do, I always brainstorm (mind-mapping or listing) then cluster ideas to help me with paragraphing and writing my introduction. But I suppose it's a very personal process.

What do other people do?

[faisal]

I think the best way for organising ideas is by making rough diagrams.

[michelle]

From my point of view, I always brainstorm and collect my ideas (from whatI know, what I read etc), then I put them in order. I always write down my ideas on the paper and use sone highlighter pens and bullets.

[Martin Barge]

I normally collect my ideas from the reading I do on the given topic. Like Michelle, I use a highlighter to pick out interesting and key ideas from texts. I then collate all of these ideas into notes (if some the articles I've read are digital, then I cut and paste some of the main ideas onto a word document).

Once I've collected all of the main ideas, I then try to formulate a rough essay outline based on the main themes that emerge from the literature (for example, background information, key research findings, implications of the research, arguments for and against, future directions).

Then, when I'm writing my essay, I weave together the ideas from my notes; I summarise the ideas, explain them in my own words, discuss the implications, and make regular quotations from the texts to support my arguments. Once I have done this, I then find it relatively easy to write the introduction and conclusion of my essay.

Obviously, I continue editing, adding, deleting and refining my essay until as close to the deadline as possible.

Cheers!
Martin  

[Abdullelah BK]

I think the best thing to do is to write them in a paper and then orgnise them in order!!

[bt11497]

Summing up ideas by using bullet points is the best way to organise your ideas efficiently.

[bt11268]

In my opinion, I think that there is more than one way to organise your ideas efficiently. It depends on the text given. For example, if you are supposed to list the advantages and the disadvantages, clustering is the most appropriate way to use. While if you want to  summarise a text it can be simply done by taking important notes from the text and list them together to form a summary by your own words.