4 Gather Details To write about a personal experience, you can just list the things you remember about an event. For other kinds of writing, you may need to talk about your topic with others or do research to gather information.

There are many ways to show the details you’ve gathered. You can

• • make charts, lists, or webs

• • draw and label pictures

• • take notes on notecards

• • make a story map

• • use a gathering grid to write down answers to your questions

Gathering Grid

Show your details in a way that works best for you and for your topic.

5 Get Organized Review your details and plan an interesting way to write about your topic. Put the details in the best order for your writing.

• • Sometimes you can organize the details as you write them down.

• • Other times, you can use numbers to order events in time sequence or to order the details from the most to least important.

• • You could also make an outline to show main ideas and supporting details.