graphic organizer for writing a college essay

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Effective essay writing graphic organizers to enhance your academic writing skills.

Are you looking for ways to enhance your essay writing skills? Do you struggle to organize your thoughts and ideas effectively? Utilizing graphic organizers can be the key to improving your writing process and producing more cohesive and structured essays.

Graphic organizers are visual tools that help writers brainstorm, plan, and organize their writing. They provide a visual representation of the relationships between ideas, making it easier to see the big picture and the flow of your essay. By using graphic organizers, you can break down complex topics into manageable chunks and create a roadmap for your writing.

Whether you’re a student working on academic essays or a professional writer crafting articles, utilizing graphic organizers can make a significant difference in the clarity and coherence of your writing. In this article, we will explore the benefits of using graphic organizers, discuss different types of organizers, and provide tips on how to effectively incorporate them into your writing process.

Master the Basics

Before delving into the complexities of essay writing, it is crucial to master the basics. Understanding the fundamental elements of an essay, such as the introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion, is essential for crafting a coherent and compelling piece of writing.

• Start with a strong introduction that grabs the reader’s attention and clearly states your main argument.
• Develop your ideas in the body paragraphs with supporting evidence and analysis.
• Conclude your essay by summarizing your key points and reinforcing your main thesis.

By mastering these basic components of essay writing, you can better structure your ideas and effectively communicate your thoughts to your audience.

Understanding the Essay Structure

When it comes to writing an effective essay, understanding the structure is crucial. An essay typically consists of three main parts: an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

Introduction: This is where you grab the reader’s attention and provide a brief overview of what your essay will be about. The introduction should also include a thesis statement, which is the main point or argument of your essay.

Body paragraphs: The body of your essay is where you develop your argument and provide supporting evidence. Each paragraph should focus on a single point and include detailed explanations and examples to support your thesis.

Conclusion: The conclusion is where you wrap up your essay by summarizing your main points and restating your thesis. It’s also a good place to leave the reader with a thought-provoking idea or call to action.

By understanding and utilizing this basic essay structure, you can ensure that your writing is clear, organized, and effective.

Choose the Right Organizer

When it comes to effective essay writing, choosing the right graphic organizer can make a significant difference in organizing your thoughts and boosting your writing skills. There are various types of organizers to choose from, such as the outline, Venn diagram, flowchart, concept map, and more. It’s essential to select an organizer that best fits the structure of your essay and helps you clearly outline your ideas.

Outlining: If you prefer a straightforward approach, an outline organizer can help you create a clear and organized structure for your essay. Use headings and subheadings to categorize your main points and supporting details.

Venn Diagram: A Venn diagram can be useful when comparing and contrasting ideas or topics. It allows you to visually represent the similarities and differences between two or more concepts.

Flowchart: For essays with a sequential flow of ideas, a flowchart organizer is ideal. Create a visual representation of the sequence of events or steps in your essay to ensure a logical progression of ideas.

Concept Map: If you want to explore the relationships between different concepts in your essay, a concept map can help you visualize the connections between ideas and brainstorm new insights.

Choosing the right organizer is crucial to effectively structure your essay and enhance your writing skills. Experiment with different types of organizers to find the one that best suits your writing style and helps you convey your ideas clearly and cohesively.

Selecting the Best Graphic Tool

When choosing a graphic organizer tool for your essay writing process, it is essential to consider various factors to ensure its effectiveness. Here are some key points to keep in mind:

• Type of Essay: Consider the type of essay you are writing and choose a graphic organizer that best fits the structure and organization needed for that particular essay type.
• Complexity: Evaluate the complexity of your ideas and arguments to determine the level of detail and hierarchy required in the graphic organizer.
• Visual Appeal: Look for a tool that is visually appealing and easy to comprehend, as this will help you better visualize and organize your thoughts.
• Flexibility: Opt for a tool that offers flexibility in terms of customization, allowing you to adjust the layout and structure based on your specific needs.
• Accessibility: Ensure that the graphic organizer tool you choose is accessible and easy to use on your preferred devices and platforms.

By carefully considering these factors, you can select the best graphic tool that will enhance your essay writing process and improve the clarity and coherence of your ideas.

Organize Your Ideas

Before diving into writing your essay, it’s crucial to organize your ideas to ensure a clear and coherent flow of information. Using graphic organizers can help you visually map out your thoughts and easily see how they connect. Here are some effective ways to organize your ideas:

• Outline: Create a detailed outline with main points, subpoints, and supporting evidence to structure your essay.
• Brainstorming: Brainstorm ideas and jot them down on a mind map to see relationships between different concepts.
• Cluster/Spider Diagrams: Use cluster or spider diagrams to group related ideas together and visualize the structure of your essay.
• Storyboard: Create a storyboard with key events or arguments to plan out the sequence of your essay.

By organizing your ideas using graphic organizers, you can enhance the clarity and coherence of your essay, making it easier for readers to follow your argument.

Mapping Out Your Thoughts

One of the most effective tools for organizing your thoughts and ideas before starting to write an essay is a graphic organizer. By using a graphic organizer, you can visually map out your thoughts, main points, and supporting details. This helps you clarify your ideas and ensure that your essay has a logical structure.

There are various types of graphic organizers you can use, such as mind maps, concept maps, Venn diagrams, and flowcharts. Choose the one that best suits your writing style and the topic of your essay. Once you have selected a graphic organizer, start by jotting down your main idea in the center and then branch out to include your supporting points and details.

Mapping out your thoughts using a graphic organizer will not only help you stay focused and organized but also make the writing process smoother and more efficient. It can serve as a roadmap for your essay, guiding you through each section and ensuring that your ideas flow cohesively.

Develop Strong Arguments

Effective essay writing requires the development of strong arguments to persuade the reader of your perspective. To create compelling arguments, follow these key strategies:

• Research: Conduct thorough research to gather credible evidence and support for your arguments. Use reliable sources to strengthen your points.
• Structure: Organize your arguments logically and coherently. Start with a clear thesis statement and build each argument in a structured manner.
• Counterarguments: Anticipate counterarguments and address them in your essay. This shows that you have considered different viewpoints and strengthens your own position.
• Evidence: Support your arguments with relevant evidence, such as examples, statistics, and expert opinions. This adds credibility and persuasiveness to your essay.
• Clarity: Clearly articulate your arguments and provide explanations to ensure that your points are easily understood by the reader.
• Consistency: Ensure that your arguments are consistent throughout the essay. Avoid contradictions or inconsistencies that may weaken your overall argument.

By developing strong arguments with these key strategies, you can enhance the effectiveness of your essay writing and convey your ideas convincingly to your audience.

Building a Persuasive Case

When writing a persuasive essay, it is crucial to build a compelling case to persuade your audience to agree with your viewpoint. Here are some key steps to help you construct a persuasive case:

• Clear Thesis Statement: Start by clearly stating your position or argument in a concise thesis statement. This statement should clearly convey what you are trying to persuade your readers to believe or do.
• Supporting Evidence: Back up your thesis statement with strong evidence, facts, statistics, examples, and expert opinions. Providing solid evidence can make your case more convincing and credible.
• Logical Organization: Structure your essay in a logical and coherent manner. Develop your arguments in a clear sequence, with each point building upon the previous one to strengthen your case.
• Address Counterarguments: Anticipate potential counterarguments and address them in your essay. Acknowledging opposing viewpoints and refuting them can make your argument more persuasive.
• Emotional Appeal: Use emotional appeals, anecdotes, and narratives to connect with your audience on a personal level. Appeal to the emotions of your readers to make them more likely to empathize with your argument.
• Call to Action: End your essay with a strong call to action that urges your audience to take a specific course of action or consider your perspective. Encouraging your readers to act can motivate them to support your cause.

By following these steps and building a persuasive case in your essay, you can effectively convince your audience to embrace your ideas and opinions.

Enhance Your Writing Flow

One of the key elements in effective essay writing is maintaining a smooth and consistent flow throughout your piece. A well-structured essay should lead the reader from one point to the next seamlessly, with each paragraph naturally transitioning into the next.

To enhance your writing flow, consider using transitional words and phrases such as “furthermore,” “however,” “in addition,” and “conversely” to connect your ideas and guide the reader through your argument. These transitions help establish logical connections between your thoughts and make your writing more coherent.

Additionally, vary your sentence structure and length to create a dynamic rhythm in your writing. Mixing short, punchy sentences with longer, more elaborate ones can keep your reader engaged and prevent your writing from feeling monotonous.

Finally, don’t be afraid to revise and reorganize your essay to ensure a smooth and consistent flow. Take the time to read your work aloud or have someone else review it to identify any awkward or disjointed sections that may disrupt the flow of your writing.

By paying attention to these techniques and practicing them regularly, you can enhance your writing flow and take your essay writing skills to the next level.

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How to Use Graphic Organizers to Write Better Essays

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Reading time: about 6 min

If you’re a student, there’s no way around the inevitable: You’re going to have to write essays. Lots of essays. In fact, the five-paragraph essay is so fundamental to the high school curriculum that it’s still used on the ACTs, and knowing how to recognize the organizational structure of essays will help you score higher on the SATs.

Even though it seems like a chore, knowing how to organize and write an essay can have a lasting effect on your life, from getting into a better college to scoring a better job to performing better in that job long after your high school days are over.

Here’s a secret: Using graphic organizers for writing essays can help you write better essays faster. (And don’t count yourself out if you’re an educator—you can offer these tools to help your students succeed.) We’ll show you exactly how to do it.

Why use graphic organizers

When ACT graders or teachers are looking your essay, they’re looking for very specific criteria; essentially, they’re looking at how well you’ve organized your thoughts. Many students don’t take the time to outline their essay structure before writing, and that always means a lower score on a test and a lower grade on the essay in class.

Using a writing template can feel like an unnecessary step in an already complicated process. If you need extra motivation to implement these organizers into your writing routine, consider all of their benefits. Graphic organizers can help you:

• Save time by showing you where each piece of the essay “lives.”
• Have more productive brainstorming sessions, either by yourself or with a group.
• Make connections between ideas and create a more cohesive argument.
• Pinpoint holes in your arguments and either adjust the thesis or find supporting statements.
• Keep track of your research.
• Organize your thoughts and come to interesting, more compelling conclusions.
• Stay in the right direction when you feel lost in a sea of words.
• Manage anxiety by converting the fear of a blank assignment into an action plan with a clear map.

With all those benefits, it’s hard to ignore how useful and vital graphic organizers are to writing. And once you’ve become adept at organizing your thoughts for something like a school essay, you’ll find that skill carries with you throughout your life, whether you’re trying to become a more intelligent debater to negotiate prices. It goes beyond just the essay to becoming a better thinker. And it starts with a simple template.

We’ll walk you through several use cases for graphic organizers and provide templates for you to download and fill in when you’re ready to write.

Brainstorming graphic organizers

Brainstorming is important, not only to come up with ideas for topics but to determine what information you need to include in the essay once you’ve determined your topic. Though many think of brainstorming as just freeflow thinking, brainstorming is most productive when you work within specific parameters.

That’s why essay brainstorming graphic organizers are useful, whether you’re using one to brainstorm on your own or you’re working with a group.

In Lucidchart, our mind map shapes and templates double as brainstorming graphic organizers. Start with an essay prompt as your central shape and then fill in the shapes that branch off your prompt with topic ideas. Alternatively, you can add your selected topic to the center and start brainstorming the different ideas you need to cover in your paper.

When the template is filled in, you’ll have a clear starting point for your essay or research paper.

Research paper graphic organizers

Nothing paralyzes students with fear quite like a research paper. These long-form papers require—as the name implies—quite a bit of research, and their purpose is to teach students how to look for valid sources to support their arguments.

But keeping track of all those sources and tying them into your argument can be tricky. That’s where a research paper graphic organizer can be a student’s greatest ally.

This template lays out the writing process itself. After you come up with a general topic, like “the disappearance of honey bees,” fill in the “Research Paper Topic” box.

Then, start looking for reputable sources (Wikipedia doesn’t count) and use the five sources boxes to hold the most relevant quotes and statistics you find. Using those quotes and statistics, you can then fill out a thesis statement that is supported by the research.

Then, you’ll be able to focus your paragraphs on a single topic each that supports the thesis statement and your overarching argument. After you’ve filled out the template, the backbone of the research paper is complete: All that’s left to do is fill in the spaces between sources and arguments.

5-paragraph essay graphic organizer

When it comes to writing the five-paragraph essay, writing diagrams are key. By using graphic organizers for writing, you’re no longer staring at a giant blank piece of paper with no idea how or where to begin. Your graphic organizer is your map.

Although using writing diagrams may seem time-consuming, the fact is that taking the time to fill a graphic organizer in before writing actually saves time. If there’s a problem with the argument, it will show up on the diagram, or if there’s not enough evidence to support your argument, you’ll know before you’ve wasted time writing the paper. And, as we said before, even if your writing is terrible, if your argument is sound, you’ll still score a decent grade.

Try this 5-paragraph essay template to get you started.

Don’t feel pressured to come up with a compelling title right away. Instead, it’s more important that you come up with a thesis statement that can be supported by three solid arguments. Fill in that thesis statement and your arguments. Then, for each argument, figure out three supporting details to support your case.

That’s it! You’ve got the most essential parts of your 5-paragraph essay completed.

Now, come up with an introduction that sets the stage for your argument and a conclusion that wraps up and restates your thesis and supporting arguments in a compelling way. Now you have a solid plan for your paper and can approach it with confidence.

If you’d like a more linear graphic that exactly follows the structure of the 5-paragraph, use the writing template below and follow the same process.

Visuals, such as graphic organizers for writing, can help you better understand concepts, think creatively, and collaborate with your classmates—and there are plenty of other templates where these came from.

Lucidchart offers hundreds of templates to help you through your studies, including timelines, Venn diagrams, word maps, and more. Sign up for Lucidchart and upgrade to an Educational account for free.

Resources for teachers

Providing graphic resources to students is essential; after all, many of your students will be visual learners, so while you may beautifully explain how the process works, there will be some who won’t understand until they see a template of the essay itself.

Lucidchart has many resources for teachers, from lesson plans to writing templates. While you’re teaching your students how to write essays or research papers, it’s useful to print out the templates and fill them out together (even using a completed template as a separate assignment with a separate grade) so that your students can get a feel for properly filling out graphic organizers before attempting it on their own.

Lucidchart, a cloud-based intelligent diagramming application, is a core component of Lucid Software's Visual Collaboration Suite. This intuitive, cloud-based solution empowers teams to collaborate in real-time to build flowcharts, mockups, UML diagrams, customer journey maps, and more. Lucidchart propels teams forward to build the future faster. Lucid is proud to serve top businesses around the world, including customers such as Google, GE, and NBC Universal, and 99% of the Fortune 500. Lucid partners with industry leaders, including Google, Atlassian, and Microsoft. Since its founding, Lucid has received numerous awards for its products, business, and workplace culture. For more information, visit lucidchart.com.

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Check out how Annika, a recent English graduate of the University of Michigan, used mind mapping in Lucidchart to develop her honors thesis.

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The Ultimate List of Graphic Organizers for Teachers and Students

Graphic organizers integrate both text and visuals. This has been scientifically proven to be an effective way of teaching and learning. Using them can be extremely useful for both teachers and students as they will make lessons more engaging as well as easily comprehensible.

We have listed below multiple types of graphic organizers you can use during various scenarios, whether you are reading, writing, doing research or studying for exams. Each tool is accompanied by a template that you can use right away.

1. What are Graphic Organizers

1.1. Benefits of graphic organizers

2. Types of Graphic Organizers

2.1. Graphic Organizers for Writing

2.1.1. 1. Persuasion map

2.1.2. 2. Sequence Chart

2.2. Graphic Organizers for Reading

2.2.1. 3. Story map

2.2.2. 4. Biography graphic organizer

2.2.3. 5. KWL chart

2.3. Graphic Organizers for Teaching

2.3.1. 6. Learning map

2.3.2. 7. Analogy graphic organizer

2.3.3. 8. Vocabulary graphic organizer

2.3.4. 9. Problem-solving organizer

2.3.5. 10. Math Graphic Organizer

2.4. Graphic Organizers for Learning

2.4.1. 11. Timeline graphic organizer

2.4.2. 12. T chart

2.4.3. 13. Hierarchy chart

2.4.4. 14. Star diagram

2.5. Graphic Organizers for Brainstorming

2.5.1. 15. Cluster diagram

2.5.2. 16. Lotus diagram

2.5.3. 17. Cause and effect graphic organizer

2.5.4. 18. Mind map

2.6. Graphic Organizers for Compare and Contrast

2.6.1. 19. Double bubble map

2.6.2. 20. Venn diagram

2.6.2.1. Add to Our List of Graphic Organizers for Teachers and Students

What are Graphic Organizers

A graphic organizer is a teaching and learning tool that is used to organize information and ideas in a way that is easy to comprehend and internalize. By integrating text and visuals, graphic organizers show relationships and connections between concepts, terms, and facts.

Graphic organizers can be used in all grade levels, and have proven to be effective learning tools for gifted children and students with special needs. And with adult learners, graphic organizers can help enable the connection between what they already know and newly acquired knowledge.

Benefits of graphic organizers

Different types of graphic organizers can be used across the curriculum for teaching, learning, and note-taking. They are easy to create and impactful in simplifying information.

• Help visualize or present information in a way that is easier to comprehend, by breaking down larger or complex concepts or ideas into smaller and simpler parts.
• Provide students the opportunity to actively contribute and participate in the learning process through the creation of graphic organizers.  
• Help develop cognitive skills such as brainstorming, critical and, categorizing and prioritizing content, reflection, etc.
• Help recall prior knowledge about a subject and quickly connect it to new information
• Promotes self-learning. By using graphic organizers for note-taking, analyzing, studying, etc. students can familiarize themselves with a lesson far more easily.

Types of Graphic Organizers

Here we have listed 19 types of graphic organizers for teaching and learning. Based on their varied purposes, you can utilize them in reading, writing, researching, brainstorming, and analyzing.

Graphic Organizers for Writing

1. persuasion map.

The persuasion map is an interactive graphic organizer that helps students familiarize themselves with the process of persuasive writing .  It assists them with outlining and preparing arguments for their essays, speeches, debates, etc.

How to use it

Step 1: Choose a topic of interest for your essay/debate. Do proper research around it to collect enough information.

Step 2: Define the claim that you want to make with your essay. Persuasive writing by writing this down first.

Step 3: Next to it, write down the reasons for making that claim.

Step 4: Then write down facts, examples, and information to back up your reasoning.

Step 5: End your persuasion map with the conclusion of your essay.

2. Sequence Chart

A sequence graphic organizer is a tool that helps visualize the order of steps of a process or a timeline of events, etc. It can also be used for note-taking, lesson planning, and essay writing.

Step 1: Identify the steps in the process or event.

Step 2: Using a sequence chart arrange these steps in sequential order.

Graphic Organizers for Reading

3. story map.

A story map can be used to identify the different elements such as characters, character plots, themes, techniques, etc. in a book students are reading. It’s a useful tool that teachers can integrate into the lesson to improve students’ comprehension.

Step 1: Read the book and understand it well.

Step 2: Discuss the different significant elements that were involved in the story. These could be the characters, setting, problem and solution, etc. You can fill the story map during the discussion.

Step 3: Once the map is complete you can discuss each element individually.

4. Biography graphic organizer

This is a tool that assists with understanding a character from a novel, autobiography or movie or a historical figure more in-depth. It brings attention to various important factors about a person’s life.

How to create it

Step 1: Gather as much information you can about the character you are studying. You can also refer to online resources, or ask from teachers or experts.

Step 2: As you analyze the information you have gathered, isolate the facts that stand out or you think are important.

Step 3: Use your biography graphic organizer to lay out the information in a presentable way. You can add images to make it more comprehensible as well.

5. KWL chart

KWL chart is used for gathering information from student’s prior knowledge or experience. This 3 column chart captures the before (what the reader already knows), during (what the reader wants to learn) and after (what the reader learned) stages of reading.

Step 1: Get students to brainstorm around the selected topic and write down everything they know about it in the K column.

Step 2: Ask them to generate a list of questions about what they want to know in the W column of the chart.

Step 3: During or after reading the book/ lesson get them to answer these questions in the L column.

Graphic Organizers for Teaching

6. learning map.

Learning maps visually depict the key takeaways – skills, ideas, knowledge – students should get from a lesson. It usually provides a high-level view of the lesson/ unit/ course that is to be studied and the connection between its different components. Students can also use learning maps in the classroom for note-taking.

Step 1: At the center of the map, write down the topic (i.e. name of the lesson or unit)

Step 2: Brainstorm ideas and information related to it. Write these down on branches emerging from the center. Make sure that you place them in a way that makes sense to teach or in a logical sequence around the center.

Step 3: Add connectors between these elements and add labels to highlight the kind of relationship between them.

7. Analogy graphic organizer

The analogy graphic organizer uses analogy to help students identify similarities and differences between a new topic and a topic that they are already familiar with.

Step 1: Select a topic/ concept that the students already know and is analogous in certain aspects to the new topic

Step 2:  Introduce the new concept and get the students to read and discuss it

Step 3: Using an analogy graphic organizer, ask the students to brainstorm and write similarities and differences between the two topics.

Step 4: Based on the completed graphic organizer, ask the students to write a brief description of  the new topic

Analogy Graphic Organizer (Click on the template to edit it online)

8. Vocabulary graphic organizer

This tool can be used to assess the vocabulary knowledge of students. You can create graphic organizers including various elements to help students learn new words, and learn antonyms and synonyms.

9. Problem-solving organizer

Problem-solving graphic organizers can be used to improve the problem-solving skills of the students. It helps students identify and evaluate solutions to problems.

Step 1: Identify the problem and write it in the problem box

Step 2: Ask students to then write down why they think it is a problem in the first place

Step 3: Get them to brainstorm all possible solutions along with the pros and cons relates to them.

Step 4: Once they select the best possible solution, ask them to list down all its possible consequences

Step 5: Students can then make suggestions to improve the selected solution further

10. Math Graphic Organizer

Math graphic organizers are used to describe math concepts graphically to students. It helps with simplifying and solving complex math problems.

Step 1: Select the math problem you want to identify and a relevant graphic organizer that you can use to solve it.

Step 2: Invite your students or colleagues to collaborate as you wish.

Graphic Organizers for Learning

11. timeline graphic organizer.

Timeline diagrams are a type of graphic organizer that shows a sequence of events in chronological order.

They come in handy when studying history as you can use it to display major historical events that occurred during a period of time along with important details such as dates and locations in which they took place.

In addition, timeline charts can also be used to show the progress of something (i.e. growth of a business) or changes.

Step 1: Identify the different events and the sequence of order in which they took place.

Step 2: Use a research on your target audience to arrange them chronologically

Step 3: Include significant details such as dates, locations and other additional information as needed.

12. T  chart

T charts allow students to study two facets of a topic. For example, disadvantages and advantages, pros and cons, differences and similarities, etc.

Step 1: Draw a T chart and write down the two areas you want to brainstorm around on each column head.

Step 2: Write down facts on each column as you carry out your brainstorming.

13. Hierarchy chart

Hierarchy charts visualize the elements of a system, organization or concept from its highest position to the lowest. Students can use this tool to understand the superordinate and subordinate categories of a topic and the relationship between them.

Step 1: Identify the most important element under the topic you are studying. Write this down at the top of the hierarchy chart.

Step 2: List down the second layer of sub-elements stemming from the first component you have identified. Add a third and fourth as necessary.

Step 3: Connect these with lines to show how they are connected to each other.  

14. Star diagram

Star diagrams are used to organize the characteristics of a chosen topic. It can also be used to brainstorm around new topics.

Step 1:  Select the topic you want to study and write it down in the center of the star diagram .

Step 2: Write down the characteristics or attributes related to the central topics on each point of the star. Adjust the points of the star depending on how many traits you write down.

Graphic Organizers for Brainstorming

15. cluster diagram.

Cluster diagrams can be used to facilitate a brainstorming session or structure idea generation and even to help with exploring new topics.

Step 1: Pick your topic of interest to explore. This should be placed in the middle of the diagram.

Step 2: Brainstorm around this main idea and come up with sub-topics related to it. Place them around the center.

Step 3: Brainstorm around each of the sub-topics and write down related ideas around them.

Step 4: Add as many layers as you want. However, use color-coding to emphasize each branch of thought. This will make it easier for you to read and understand the cluster diagram .

16. Lotus diagram

Lotus diagram is an analytical tool that can be used to breakdown broader and more complex topics into smaller components for easy understanding. It can be used for brainstorming and studying new topics.

Step 1: Draw a 3×3 grid in the center. On the square in the center, write down the main topic to be explored.

Step 2: Write down the related sub-topics around it as you brainstorm.

Step 3: Draw 8 more 3×3 grids around the one in the center. Each of these can be used to write down facts that you brainstorm around each subtopic.

17. Cause and effect graphic organizer

This type of graphic organizer shows the causes and effects of an event. The cause is the reason why something has happened, and effect is the result of what has happened. Visualization helps clearly understand the different cause and effect relationships.  

Using a cause and effect graphic organizer , identify the causes and effects related to the problem you are studying or writing about. There could be several models of cause and effect events, such as one cause leading to one effect or multiple effects, or multiple causes leading to one effect or multiple effects.

• One cause leading to several effects
• Several causes leading to one effect (You can use a fishbone diagram here)
• Each cause having one related effect
• One cause triggering another cause that leads to another

18. Mind map

A mind map is a tool that helps capture the free flow of thought and is widely used for brainstorming around topics. Additionally, it can also be used to organize and group information about a topic.

Step 1: Write down the topic you are brainstorming around in the center.

Step 2: On branches emerging from the middle, write down brainstormed ideas/ thoughts.

Step 3: Expand each sub idea with more facts. You can keep on adding more information to your mind map until you have enough.

Graphic Organizers for Compare and Contrast

Here we have listed 19 types of graphic organizers for teaching and learning. Based on their varied purposes, you can utilize them in reading, writing, researching, brainstorming, and analyzing. Best of all you can use our Compare and Contrast Chart Maker to draw them.

19. Double bubble map

The double bubble map is one of the popular thinking maps. It is much like a Venn diagram and is used to identify similar and different qualities between two things.

How to use it?

Step 1: Write down the two ideas/ topics you are comparing in the two bubbles in the center.

Step 2: As you brainstorm and analyze the topic, write down the differences in the bubbles radiating from the center.

Step 3: Write down the similarities in the bubbles that are common to both topics.

20. Venn diagram

Another graphic organizer that helps you visually represent a comparison of differences and similarities between two subjects, is the Venn diagram. What makes it different from the is that it can include more than two topics and one common area.

It works similar to the double bubble map.

Step 1: Write down the topics being compared on the top of each circle.

Step 2: Writ down the differences or unique characteristics inside its own sector avoiding the overlapping area.

Step 3: List the similarities in the common area.

Add to Our List of Graphic Organizers for Teachers and Students

Although we have covered 19 types of graphic organizers in this post, there are plenty more that can be useful to our users. Know more? Mention in the comments section below to keep expanding the list of ultimate graphic organizers.

FAQs About list of Graphic Organizer

When selecting a graphic organizer for a specific project, you should consider the type of information you need to organize and the purpose of the project. Here are some tips on how to select the right graphic organizer:

Identify the type of information: Before selecting a graphic organizer, consider the type of information you need to organize.

Determine the purpose of the project: Consider the purpose of the project and what you want to achieve.

Consider the audience: Think about who the audience is for the project. If the audience is young children, a simpler graphic organizer like a picture web might be more appropriate. If the audience is adults, a more complex graphic organizer like a timeline or a chart could be suitable.

Evaluate the effectiveness of different graphic organizers: Try out different graphic organizers and see which ones work best for you. Creately has different graphic organizer editable templates that you could use to create your graphic organizer based on the purpose.

Be creative: Don’t be afraid to create your own graphic organizer or adapt an existing one to meet your needs. Graphic organizers are flexible tools that can be customized to fit different projects and purposes.

Avoid these common mistakes that you make to ensure that your organizer is effective in conveying information.

Avoid overcomplicating the design of your graphic organizer: It should be easy to read and understand, therefore avoid using too many colors, fonts, or shapes which make the organizer confusing and difficult to read.

Consistency is important in creating a graphic organizer. Use the same formatting, color scheme, and font throughout the organizer to ensure that it is easy to follow and understand.

The purpose of a graphic organizer is to simplify and organize information. Including too much information can defeat the purpose and make the organizer overwhelming. Stick to the most important information and use the organizer to highlight key concepts and relationships.

Use clear and appropriate labels for each section of the organizer. Avoid using labels that are too vague or unclear, as this can cause confusion and make it difficult to understand the relationships between the different elements.

Consider who the audience is for the graphic organizer and use appropriate language and images. Avoid using jargon or technical terms that may not be familiar to the audience.

Test your graphic organizer to ensure that it effectively conveys the intended information. Ask for feedback from others and make revisions as needed.

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Amanda Athuraliya is the communication specialist/content writer at Creately, online diagramming and collaboration tool. She is an avid reader, a budding writer and a passionate researcher who loves to write about all kinds of topics.

Free Editable Essay Graphic Organizer Examples

Essays are complex and large write-ups that are not easy to intercept. That’s why it is better to use an essay graphic organizer to visualize your complex structured outline in a simple manner. In fact, there is nothing better than some free graphic organizer examples that save both your time and effort. So, let’s have an overview of this essay organizers and free example templates.

1. What is Essay Graphic Organizer

An essay graphic organizer enhances your research with visual elements. It helps the writer to correlate facts, observations, and notions. On top of that, it outlines the essay and provides an organized strategy for the writer.

A graphic organizer for writing helps the writers to tackle hard and long essay formats. A writer can use its visual aid to complete the write-up step by step. A graphic organizer for essays has different types based on primary functions.

• An Outline Based Essay Organizer

These types of essay organizers have at least 3 thesis. The whole story revolves around these. Moreover, the organizer includes specific supporting details and subtopic names that make the way crystal clear for writers. However, these organizers do not need much essay explanation. Most indications are worldly phrases that direct the attention toward thoughts and observations.

• A Contrasting Essay Organizer :

As the name indicates, it helps the writer to organize varying thoughts about topics and compare them. Moreover, it helps the writer to collect, conceive and portray the information ahead of time. The writer can use it for two collective primary topics or a single point from both topics. In both cases, the essay organizer will help them take visual notes and use them to their advantage while writing.

• Organizer For A Persuasive Essay :

The persuasive essay organizer helps the writer to persuade an audience toward a single topic. It includes three or more supporting details for the topic. Furthermore, the organizer includes written evidence for those details that help prove the point.

2. The Essay Graphic Organizer Examples

Using an essay graphic organizer for writing brings credibility and flexibility to your essays with extensive research. Essay writing is a tough job, especially if it has more than one subtopic.

Essays require tons of details. All that quality is up to no good if it is not organized and well structured. An essay organizer for writing helps you understand how the minor details contribute to overall concepts. With thorough research and long formats, essay writing may become dull. However, an organizer helps you to perfectly structure your thoughts with appealing visuals that make them engaging and far less challenging.

Basic 5-Paragraph Essay Graphic Organzier

5-Paragraph Essay

Expository Essay Graphic Organizer

Persuasive Essay Graphic Organizer

Essay Graphic Organzier

Narrative Essay Graphic Organizer

Example 1: 5 Paragraph Essay Graphic Organzier

The most common type of essay writing format is a 5-paragraph essay. Essay graphic organizer for writing helps organize all those 5 paragraphs and insert valuable information inside them. It includes the first paragraph section in which the writer inserts the topic sentence and at least three thesis statements. The upcoming three paragraphs briefly summarize those statements and provide at least three pieces of evidence for each thesis. Finally, the last paragraph repeats the main statement and includes an overall concluding statement. Moreover, every thesis detail includes a conclusion statement that conceives the entire concept.

Example 2: Printable 5 Paragraph Essay Graphic Organizer

It is also the type of essay organizer writers use to organize the outline of a 5-paragraph essay format. Its first paragraph is of introduction which includes with a thesis statement instead of a topic sentence. The statement inside the paragraph includes three supporting examples with itself. Moreover, the second paragraph has a topic sentence that the previous thesis supports. Plus, it has individual evidence details that prove the topic sentence true. The third paragraph includes a thesis statement that correlates with the previous and upcoming topic sentence. Finally, the last paragraph has the essay's main idea and a concluding statement that proves the point.

Example 3: Argumentative Essay Graphic Organizer

This template solemnly deals with the expository template of the essay. It focuses on the essay's three most basic parts: the introduction, body, and conclusion. Moreover, the writer evaluates the selected topic in it with examples and evidence and closes the argument clearly and concisely. The exemplary diagram includes 2 separate boxes in the introduction sections. One of them is for the hook that engages the audience, whereas the other depicts the essay's main idea. Inside the body section, the writer briefly lists three examples, each with individual supporting details. Finally, the conclusion includes two sections; one for reviewing and rewriting the central concept and the other to input the closing details of the essay.

Example 4: Persuasive Essay Graphic Organizer

This example diagram of the essay graphic organizer for writing helps to persuade a general or specific audience toward your point of view. The primary purpose is to enlist your opinion and evaluate it with the help of numerous supporting details. As for the organizer, it is for a 5 paragraph format. The first one has an engaging beginning, a summary of the issue, and your opinion. Furthermore, the next 3 provide different reasons that support your opinion. Moreover, the section also includes evidence in the form of examples and textual details that support every reason individually. The last paragraph is a conclusive one that restates the opinion, summarizes all three reasons again, and gives a CTA (call to action) at the end. However, you can ditch the CTA and add a simple closing statement that supports your opinion.

Example 5: Informational Essay Graphic Organizer

This type of organizer is for essays having more than one main idea. The organizer's interface has several colors that make it engaging and appealing. Due to the color, it is referred to as a Rainbow essay organizer. A big individual box includes the whole organized outline of the essay. The writer has to briefly write all three ideas in it and support their point of view. Moreover, the organizer includes an introduction and conclusion description. At last, there is a final draft section that concludes the whole essay and supports either all three or one suitable main idea.

Example 6: Narrative Essay Graphic Organizer

The expository essay is a genre that requires the student to investigate an idea, evaluate evidence, expound on the idea, and set forth an argument concerning that idea clearly and concisely. The below expository essay web diagram is created using EdrawMax Online and shows blank spaces for Thesis Statement, Example 1, Example 2, Example 3, Details about all the examples, and argumentative points. Expository writing gives facts and information about a topic, and as the web diagram suggests, a good expository essay introduces the main idea and develops it with facts and supporting details.

3. How to Make an Essay Graphic Organizer

Graphic organizers are the modern way of learning. With passing time, people are using them in every type of write-up. Therefore, it is better to understand its production process so that you can make one specifically for your essay. The online production software uses four simple steps to generate a graphic organizer for essays.

Step 1 - Head on to EdrawMax Online or download EdrawMax . Make an account and log in to it.

Step 2 - Once inside, you can start creating the graphic organizer on a blank edit sheet or readymade essay organizers, such as mindmaps and spider maps. However, this process is time-consuming. If you want an easy solution, head to the main menu on the left, look for Templates Community , and click on it.

Step 3 - Clicking on the Template Community option will take you to a social network of designers and a general audience like you that post templates daily for public use. You can search for your very own template and duplicate it onto your sheet using the button Duplicate.

Step 4 - Finally, start customizing it as you like. You can change the font, color, and components. Moreover, you can add new ones if you like. Once you are done and satisfied, export and share your template with others using the Button Publish present on the top right corner.

4. Online Graphic Organizer Maker

Traditional ways are gone when you had to work extensively for a simple diagram in lining software. Online graphic organizers like EdrawMax made graphic organizer designing much easier and less time-consuming. All thanks to its easy-to-use interface and basic yet helpful tool kits, designing a diagram is possible for every individual with basic knowledge.

Moreover, EdrawMax saves a lot of effort and time with the help of readymade templates. This online graphic organizer maker is suitable for any type of consumer to generate any variation of the graphic organizer. Its biggest pro is the Templates Community , with thousands of readymade templates for users. In this social biome, you can not only pick the one that suits you well but share your ideas with the community as well.

5. Key Takeaways

The visual aid of essay graphic organizers helps the writers to organize their researched facts and general thoughts according to references. Moreover, it gives a direction to the audience and the writer for the essay. As for its usage, the writers are helping themselves with it in their professional careers. Moreover, it proves exponentially efficient in the academic field for students. When it comes to essay writing, it helps in both of these by establishing a relevant and valid connection. Plus, communicating our thoughts with visual sketches and doodles is less boring and more engaging.

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Using Graphic Organizers Correctly

It’s much more important for a student to practice writing — the only way to build writing fluency — than to fill in a graphic organizer completely or perfectly.

What is a graphic organizer? A graphic organizer is a visual display or chart that shows the relationship between ideas, facts, and information. 

It can allow a third-grade student, for example, to chart out chronologically a summer vacation by writing specific information in each box in a connected series. Another graphic organizer might have three columns and require a seventh-grade student in a world history class to list the causes of WWII. Those causes are listed in the far left column, then, the middle column asks for effects, while the far right column requires the student to write in evidence or a source to accompany each cause and related effect.

A Pre-Writing Tool

Teachers carefully select a graphic organizer after deciding what type of writing they want their students to engage in -- narrative, argumentative, or informational. They then select specific skills for development in that type of writing. In a narrative writing assignment, does the teacher wish the child to develop sequential writing, or perhaps the focus will be on description and details? Determining this will help a teacher select the appropriate graphic organizer.

The ultimate purpose of utilizing a graphic organizer as a tool is to prepare students for writing. Simply put, a graphic organizer assists a student with thinking and is a pre-writing tool --  not the end product. Some young writers may need this thinking tool more than others. That said, a writer in your classroom might want to skip using a graphic organizer and be ready to dive into the writing. Let her.

Teachers need to remember they are not developing charters of information, but they are developing writers . The only way to build fluency in writing is to write.

Improve Writing by Writing

As I’ve seen in my many classroom observations, we teachers can get caught up with treating the graphic organizer as The Assignment , especially with struggling students. At some point, with learners who are struggling, we need to stop encouraging them to finish filling in those boxes or columns on the graphic organizer and move into what matters: the writing.

It’s much more important for a student to practice writing -- the only way to build writing fluency -- and stumble through stringing thoughts together this way than to fill in a graphic organizer completely or perfectly.

Lastly, grade only the writing and not the graphic organizer. This will help keep the focus where it really matters: on our students as writers.

What are your experiences with using graphic organizers in your classroom? What suggestions or tips can you offer, especially for novice teachers? Please share in the comments section below.

10 Free Graphic Organizer Templates for Any Subject

Different lessons require different types of content to help students learn. Here are 10 free graphic organizer templates to use for any subject.

Most students are returning to the classroom in Fall 2021, but everyone’s learning methods have had to change over the past two years. It’s important to adapt as an educator with new techniques , digital materials, and fresh content to keep students engaged .

For any subject, graphic organizers provide effective ways to introduce, teach, develop, and test new material. But different lessons require different types of content to help students learn best. I’m going to give you 10 free graphic organizer templates to use for any subject – just use the Make It button to customize, label, and download your graphic organizer.

• Venn Diagram
• Plot Pyramid
• Brainstorm Chart
• Concept Map
• 5-Paragraph Essay Outline
• 4 Square Writing Chart

1. Flowchart

The Flowchart is one of the most versatile and recognizable forms of graphic organizer out there, ideal for project planning and science experiments. A goes to B goes to C goes to D . With this version, you can copy and paste sections of the chart to make it as long or as short as you need, label each section with specific details, and add a title and other information for your assignment.

2. Timeline

The Timeline is similar to the flowchart , with events spaced out along a single path . In a Timeline, however, the intervals between the events is important to the graphic organizer as a whole. Using this template, you can drag events from one point of the Timeline to another, and add text labels for years and events.

3. Venn Diagram

One of the most widely-used graphic organizers, the Venn Diagram provides a simple way for students to compare and contrast 2 or more distinct ideas. With this template, you can copy and recolor the Venn Diagram circles to compare any number of items with each other.

4. Plot Pyramid

This graphic organizer is most commonly used in elementary and middle school English, language arts, and literature classes. It’s used to identify and map the various stages of a plot arc , from exposition to conclusion. Use this template to title the Plot Pyramid and add any other relevant information you need.

5. Brainstorm Chart

The Brainstorm Chart is a far more freeform type of graphic organizer than most others on this list, and can be arranged almost any way you like. All it requires is a central idea or “problem” to solve, along with an array of other ideas and concepts that are connected to it, and supporting details for these connected points. The freeform nature of the Brainstorm Chart allows students to think creatively and originally on any subject.

6. Concept Map

The Concept Map is similar in form to the Brainstorm Chart, but with slightly more limitations on how it’s used. It’s used to illustrate the relationships that exist between various related concepts , filling in different sections of the organizer to show how the different parts are connected. The Concept Map is perfect for introducing students to a new set of related vocabulary terms in any subject.

7. 5-Paragraph Essay Outline

While some of your students may not remember the 5-paragraph essay too fondly years later, it’s an important step in developing their persuasive writing . This classic 5-paragraph planner is perfect for helping students construct their arguments, counter-arguments, supporting data, and conclusions before they put pen to paper.

8. 4 Square Writing Chart

The 4 Square Writing Chart is similar to the 5-paragraph essay outline, it gives space for looser organizational styles and more creative types of writing structure . The central area contains the main idea or argument, and the surrounding squares are filled with supporting arguments, sections of a narrative essay, personal experiences, or several sides to the same story.

9. Story Map

The Story Map is used for a similar purpose to the Plot Pyramid, but with a broader approach to narrative plot arcs. In the Story Map, students not only recount the plot progression of a story, but detail the setting , characters , and central problems and outcomes . There are dozens of ways to organize your own Story Map, so I recommend you use this template to include whatever areas are most important for your students to identify and analyze.

10. KWL Chart

KWL Charts ask students to write on three different things before and after completing a lesson, activity, or reading: what they Know already about the topic, what they Want to learn from the lesson, and, afterward, what they Learned from the experience. It creates more of a big-picture exercise than most of the graphic organizers on this list, allowing students to identify what they gain from their lessons.

I hope these graphic organizer templates help you engage students effectively in every subject you teach. For more tips and tutorials on creating great digital content in 2021, check out the Kapwing YouTube channel or read through some related articles on education materials:

• 10 Back to School Frames for Fall 2021 • The 4 Best Ways to Learn Video Editing Online • How to Add Subtitles to a Lecture Video • How to Make a Frayer Model Online

5 Free Zoom Virtual Backgrounds for Teachers in 2020

5 Perfect Zoom Virtual Backgrounds for Chemistry Teachers

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Writing an Essay: A Graphic Organizer

Use this graphic organizer to plan your analytical/persuasive essay. 

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Ultimate Guide to Writing Your College Essay

Tips for writing an effective college essay.

College admissions essays are an important part of your college application and gives you the chance to show colleges and universities your character and experiences. This guide will give you tips to write an effective college essay.

Want free help with your college essay?

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Learn about the elements of a solid admissions essay.

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Learn some of the most common mistakes made on college essays

Brainstorming tips for your college essay

Stuck on what to write your college essay about? Here are some exercises to help you get started.

How formal should the tone of your college essay be?

Learn how formal your college essay should be and get tips on how to bring out your natural voice.

Taking your college essay to the next level

Hear an admissions expert discuss the appropriate level of depth necessary in your college essay.

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Student Story: Admissions essay about a formative experience

Get the perspective of a current college student on how he approached the admissions essay.

Student Story: Admissions essay about personal identity

Get the perspective of a current college student on how she approached the admissions essay.

Student Story: Admissions essay about community impact

Student story: admissions essay about a past mistake, how to write a college application essay, tips for writing an effective application essay, sample college essay 1 with feedback, sample college essay 2 with feedback.

This content is licensed by Khan Academy and is available for free at www.khanacademy.org.

College Writing Guide

• Generating Ideas
• Evaluating Resources

How to Organize

Create a thesis statement, general printable organizers and outlines, specific printable organizers and outlines.

• Crafting an Essay
• Revising, Proofreading, Grammar
• Understanding Plagiarism
• Citing Sources
• What to Expect in ENGL 101

Effectively organizing your paper’s ideas is key! If your paragraphs are well organized, your readers can easily read and understand your ideas.

The three most common ways to organize a paper are by:

• CHRONOLOGY : timing or steps
• IMPORTANCE : least to most
• LOGICAL BREAKS : reasons or solutions
• Hooks for Introductions
• Developing Introductions
• Developing Conclusions

Your thesis statement , usually placed at the end of your introduction, points to the purpose of your paper and sets up readers' expectations.

REMEMBER : the thesis is not a mere statement of fact; it is an assertion (SCOPE) you must support (POINTS)

• Tips for Writing a Thesis Statement: Purdue OWL
• Thesis Statements: University of North Carolina Chapel Hill
• Thesis Statements

Use these organizers and outlines to help you organize your paper.

• Paragraph Outline Organize your paragraph using an outline template..
• Paragraph Plan Organize your paragraph using a graphic template.
• Formal Outlines Templates for sentence and phrase outlines
• Essay Outline Simple Simple outline for 3 paragraph essay.
• Essay Outline Detailed This outline provides space for three major supports with three minor supports for three body paragraphs.
• Essay Organizer Use either a cluster map or an outline organizer to put together your ideas.

These organizers and outlines are based on thinking patterns.

• Cause and Effect Graphic Organizer
• Cause and Effect Organizer (Accessible Version) Optimized for screen readers
• Compare & Contrast
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• Next: Crafting an Essay >>
• Last Updated: Mar 28, 2024 11:51 AM
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About this Interactive

Related resources.

Expository writing is an increasingly important skill for elementary, middle, and high school students to master. This interactive graphic organizer helps students develop an outline that includes an introductory statement, main ideas they want to discuss or describe, supporting details, and a conclusion that summarizes the main ideas. The tool offers multiple ways to navigate information including a graphic in the upper right-hand corner that allows students to move around the map without having to work in a linear fashion. The finished map can be saved, e-mailed, or printed.

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The Persuasion Map is an interactive graphic organizer that enables students to map out their arguments for a persuasive essay or debate.

This Strategy Guide describes the processes involved in composing and producing audio files that are published online as podcasts.

This strategy guide explains the writing process and offers practical methods for applying it in your classroom to help students become proficient writers.

This strategy guide clarifies the difference between persuasion and argumentation, stressing the connection between close reading of text to gather evidence and formation of a strong argumentative claim about text.

Students will identify how Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream of nonviolent conflict-resolution is reinterpreted in modern texts. Homework is differentiated to prompt discussion on how nonviolence is portrayed through characterization and conflict. Students will be formally assessed on a thesis essay that addresses the Six Kingian Principles of Nonviolence.

Students develop their reading, writing, research, and technology skills using graphic novels. As a final activity, students create their own graphic novels using comic software.

Students are encouraged to understand a book that the teacher reads aloud to create a new ending for it using the writing process.

While drafting a literary analysis essay (or another type of argument) of their own, students work in pairs to investigate advice for writing conclusions and to analyze conclusions of sample essays. They then draft two conclusions for their essay, select one, and reflect on what they have learned through the process.

Students analyze rhetorical strategies in online editorials, building knowledge of strategies and awareness of local and national issues. This lesson teaches students connections between subject, writer, and audience and how rhetorical strategies are used in everyday writing.

It's not easy surviving fourth grade (or third or fifth)! In this lesson, students brainstorm survival tips for future fourth graders and incorporate those tips into an essay.

Students explore the nature and structure of expository texts that focus on cause and effect and apply what they learned using graphic organizers and writing paragraphs to outline cause-and-effect relationships.

Students prepare an already published scholarly article for presentation, with an emphasis on identification of the author's thesis and argument structure.

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How to Organize an Essay: 3 Graphic Organizers for Young Writers

By Pia Cisternino

As a parent, you may find yourself thinking, “My child is smart and articulate, so why are writing assignments so stressful?”  Writing is a complex task that requires a student to access multiple executive function skills. To be able to write an essay, a student must be able to 1) attend to and comprehend the teacher’s instructions, 2) create a plan for the form and content of an essay, and 3) follow through with that plan. When you think about the processing and planning skills that a student must integrate in order to compose an essay, it makes sense that even a small writing assignment can cause frustration.  

Many people, including students diagnosed with ADHD , students with high-functioning ASD , and students who are twice exceptional  (intellectually gifted students with special education needs) find that executive function skills are far from second nature. But when equipped with the proper tools and support, the same students can become effective writers. A graphic organizer is one of the tools that executive function coaches use to enable students to organize and plan their writing.   

We all use templates in our daily lives. Whether you’re balancing your checkbook or composing an email, a template helps you to keep your information organized. Similarly, a graphic organizer functions as a template, formatted to keep a student’s writing organized.  For students who feel overwhelmed by a writing task, graphic organizers provide a way to break up the task into clear and manageable parts. It’s like a road map to show them where to go. Many students find that once they learn how to organize an essay with a graphic organizer, writing becomes easier and much less stressful .

There are many different types of graphic organizers. So, one may ask, which are most effective? Just as your calendar template serves a different purpose from your resume template, the type of template a student needs depends upon the type of writing that has been assigned.

According to the Common Core , students are expected to become proficient with the following types of writing: 1) opinion/argumentative/persuasive writing, 2) informative/ explanatory writing, and 3) narrative writing.

The organizers listed below, the deliciously named OREO, BLT, and Ice Cream graphic organizers, are formatted to help students in elementary school organize their opinion writing, informative writing, and narrative writing, respectively.  

Opinion Writing

The OREO Graphic Organizer lays out the basic structure for an opinion essay. OREO stands for Opinion, Reason, Example, and Opinion restated.

Informative Writing

The BLT Graphic Organizer helps a student to plan a single, informative paragraph. The paragraph must include an introduction, a thesis statement, supporting sentences, and a conclusion.  

Narrative Writing

The Ice Cream Graphic Organizer is a template for narrative writing. It includes the basic components of a narrative essay: characters, setting, problem/event, and resolution.

Whether or not a student has a formal diagnosis of a learning difference , the truth is that everyone has strengths and weaknesses. Any approach to supporting executive function skills should capitalize on a student’s areas of strength, in order to improve their areas of weakness. For instance, if a student demonstrates high abilities in the visual spatial domain, then it makes sense to use a strategy that visualizes the writing process. These organizers allow young writers to visualize a framework for the kinds of information they will need to include in a given paragraph or essay. As students get older and writing demands become more complex , the structure of graphic organizers expands as well. As executive function coaches , we see that even the most gifted student can benefit from a structured approach to the art of writing.

Please see this page for comprehensive information about Executive Function in Elementary students.

Pia Cisternino, M.A., M.S. is an executive function coach at Beyond BookSmart and a speech-language pathologist, with over a decade of experience working with students diagnosed with ADHD, autism, Asperger’s, and learning disabilities. She received her B.A. from Tufts University, where she majored in English and Italian, and continued to study literature at Johns Hopkins University, where she received an Master’s degree in Creative Writing and Poetry. She went on to receive a Master’s degree in Speech and Language Pathology from Teacher’s College at Columbia University. A strong advocate for students with special education needs, Pia founded and facilitated a support group for parents of 2e (twice exceptional) children, and served for two years as co-chair of the Parent Advisory Council on Special Education (C-PAC) within her local school district.. Pia’s approach to coaching centers around enabling students to build skills by utilizing their own individual strengths.  

About the Author

Pia cisternino.

Pia Cisternino, M.A., M.S. is an executive function coach at Beyond BookSmart and a speech-language pathologist, with over a decade of experience working with students diagnosed with ADHD, autism, Asperger’s, and learning disabilities. She received her B.A. from Tufts University, where she majored in English and Italian, and continued to study literature at Johns Hopkins University, where she received an Master’s degree in Creative Writing and Poetry. She went on to receive a Master’s degree in Speech and Language Pathology from Teacher’s College at Columbia University. A strong advocate for students with special education needs, Pia founded and facilitated a support group for parents of 2e (twice exceptional) children, and served for two years as co-chair of the Parent Advisory Council on Special Education (C-PAC) within her local school district.. Pia’s approach to coaching centers around enabling students to build skills by utilizing their own individual strengths. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts with her husband and children.

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The Secret Weapon to Powerful Narratives? Try Graphic Organizers!

Use graphic organizers to plan and draft powerful narratives.

By Marianna Monheim updated October 25, 2023

Characters, plot, and setting…oh my!

Narrative writing does not come naturally to most of our upper elementary students. The act of writing can seem difficult and time-consuming, and many students become frustrated after writing a sentence or two! This is why emphasizing the writing process  is essential. Once students begin to spend more time in the planning and drafting stage, the actual writing of a narrative will be a breeze.

It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of graphic organizers for reading. Did you know they can be just as effective for helping students plan and draft while writing? Narrative writing graphic organizers not only help students keep track of important story elements, but also show when and where each element should be focused on!

The Crucial Role of Planning in Narrative Writing

Planning is the blueprint of narrative writing. It’s where students decide on their story’s setting, characters, and plot. However, without a structured approach, planning can become chaotic and counterproductive.

Unless students are avid readers, they will not have an intrinsic understanding of each story element’s role in a narrative. Therefore, when developing graphic organizers, it’s important to go beyond just a box for characters, one for setting, and one for plot . In stead, have students create detailed character descriptions that include both “inside” and “outside” traits. Then, have them use those descriptions to think about how their characters will react to the events at the beginning, middle, and end of the plot they’ve created.

Don’t forget the setting! The time and place a story is set in have huge implications for the plot. Help your students see that all these choices combine to create powerful storytelling .

The first time you introduce the idea of detailed planning, it may not go over so well! We know our students just want to do something once and be done with it. However, with repeated practice, they will begin to see the benefits of spending time on their narrative plan.

Narrative Rough Draft - Putting Things Together

Rough drafts can be frustrating for students- but they don’t have to be! Using a structured organizer to help students plan is one of the most beneficial things you can do to turn your students into writers.

You see, I used to help my students plan…then send them off to draft on their own. The problem? They aren’t sure how to translate the plan into paragraph form . Utilizing a graphic organizer at this point was a game changer. By breaking elements down paragraph by paragraph , students could see how a plot should develop , and how their characters should change from beginning to end . In addition, they focused on organizational elements such as transitions during the drafting process, instead of when revising and editing. 

When we frontload students and make sure they have the necessary components to their draft, they don’t feel like they have to rewrite their entire essay when it’s time to revise. Then, it becomes easier for them to focus on other elements such as word choice and sentence structure.

Creativity + Structure = Success

Some may argue that graphic organizers will limit the creativity of students when writing a narrative. My response: understanding and applying the basics of story structure is important . I want my students’ amazing output to be understood by their readers . For most students, a great deal of scaffolding is needed to get to that place. Graphic organizers can help you to achieve that scaffolding .

Engage Students with Holiday Narrative Writing Fun

Holidays (like Thanksgiving) are a great time to indulge in some narrative writing fun. This step-by-step resource (including the graphic organizers seen above) has students use their memories of past Thanksgivings to create a realistic fiction narrative. The best part? Students get to color while revising and editing!

This resource and other holiday narrative activities can be found in my TPT store .

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Graphic Organizers