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The
importance of organizing information cannot be overemphasized.
Organizing skills help in arranging information in such a way that it
can be used more effectively. This essentially involves the following:
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Comparing and contrasting: noting similarities and differences
between and among entities.
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Classifying perceptions: grouping and labeling entities on the
basis of their attributes.
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Ordering perceptions/events: sequencing entities according to a
given criterion.
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Representing ideas/perceptions: changing the form but not the
substance of information.
In today’s world,
information is being generated at such a pace that it takes almost no
time for any piece of information to become obsolete. Thus we must have
the skills to deal with this generation of information, make sense of
it, and implement it effectively. To do this, information needs to be
organized.
It is often thought
that information can be organized only after it is collected. This is
only partially true. Collecting information randomly without organizing
your thoughts about it also has its negative fallout. If you search for
information in a random manner then a lot of it is likely to be
irrelevant, and then needs to be sorted to sift out the relevant
information. This is time-consuming and you are likely to end up feeling
mentally exhausted.
So,
organization skills need to be applied much before the information
collection process begins. You need to identify what information you
need. To do this you should
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understand the objective of the task
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write it down
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simplify it
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talk to people about it to know its constituents
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be specific about the information needed
For
example, if a student were to write an article about the ecology in an
area, how would he/she identify the information required if
he/she did not know the answers to the following questions?
i. For
whom am I writing this article?
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For academia?
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For people who are working in environmental organizations?
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For people who want to start such an organization?
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For students interested in environmental issues?
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For students who are studying geography?
o
And so on…
ii. What
is the objective of my writing?
Writing
down the objective would mean being specific. For instance the statement
The purpose of the article is to orient people who want to work in NGOs
working towards preservation of forests in the coastal region of Andhra
Pradesh with the flora and fauna that exists there, and the type and
rate of change that is occurring there in terms of human activity is
better and more specific than the statement The objective of the article
is to orient people who want to join NGOs working for preservation of
forests.
After what you want
and why is clear, the next step is to get the relevant information.
After getting the information, you need to organize it. Proper
organization facilitates easier understanding of explicit and implicit
relationships and implications of the information. This helps you to:
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Find out the different themes of information obtained and the variations or the different points of view of the
themes. To do this you may encircle the common terms, put them down on
the left side of a page, and write down the different points of view and
their variations or data related to them beside each.
Ø
Explicitly organize the themes to show how they relate to one
another. To do this, you can use different tools described in the
digital medium.
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Specify the gaps in your understanding.
Now that you have
understood the importance of organizing skills.
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