Organize note cards into an outline with a heading for each subtopic, grouping related facts together in a logical order.
An outline is the skeleton of your report -- a plan that groups your notes into subtopics before you write full paragraphs. Each HEADING names one subtopic (often, one of your research questions), and the facts from your note cards get sorted underneath the heading they answer.
A good outline puts subtopics in an order that makes sense to a reader -- often time order (what happened first, next, last) or importance order (biggest idea first).
Mastery looks like: They organize their note cards under logically ordered headings that will become the body paragraphs of the report.
Common stumbles: Sorting facts under headings that do not really match, or ordering subtopics in a way that would confuse a reader.
See it visually
Interactive, spoken-aloud tools that show this idea in motion.