Noodle – Why Do I Need Piles?
updated 10/2009
The Big Picture
You’ve written about 35 notecards in Noodle or you have about 35 handwritten cards. Now you need to wind up with a 5-6 page double-spaced Times New Roman 12 pt. paper. What are you going to do with all those notecards?
Sort them. Sort them into piles accord to similar ideas – according to your outline.
Remember the biography paper example? Make a pile of cards for family, another for education/training, and another for accomplishments/awards. Three piles. This first sorting is your Roman numerals. The first piles you’ll create are going to match the Roman numerals on your outline. These are your major categories of information.
I. Introduction
II. Family
III. Education and training
IV. Accomplishments and awards
V. Conclusion
Your outline is a grade, but the piles are just to help you organize all the notecards into the proper sequence for your paper.
Your outline is meant to help you organize all your information. So, it makes sense to use the outline to create your piles.
Once you have your main piles for the Roman numerals, then you need to orangize each pile. Rearrange the order of the notecards in each pile so that they are sequenced in logical order. This means organizing each pile according to the A, B, C, etc. for each Roman numeral of your outline.
For example:
II. Family
A. Parents and siblings
B. Spouse and children
It makes logical sense to put the notecards about the person’s parents and siblings first within the paragraph. Then you would talk about the person’s spouse and children. Place your notecards in order according to this logical train of thought! It’ll be how you write your paper. You want the notecards in the exact order that they’ll appear in your paper. It t’will make life easier!
