Come up with a thesis statement. If your topic is "the effects of smoking on the human body," for example, then a good thesis statement would be "smoking increases blood pressure in the human body" or "smoking increases the likelihood of developing cancer in the human body."
Perform research and take notes on either a word processing system or on index cards. Notes should be on separate lines or index cards so they can be sorted easily. All of the notes you take on your subject should support your thesis statement.
Organize your notes into subcategories. All notes pertaining to the same theory, experiment or study should be grouped together. Create at least three subcategories.
Decide which order you would like to put each subcategory. Physically put each subcategory in the order you have chosen by either cutting and pasting or organizing all of the notes in subcategory 1 at the top of the page, subcategory 2 notes next, until you are through all subcategories. If you are using index cards, put all notes for subcategory 1 on the top, subcategory 2 behind subcategory 1, and so on until you are through all subcategories.
Write or type Roman numeral one (I) at the top of your paper, followed by the word "Introduction." On the line below, indent and write or type a capital "A" followed by your thesis statement.
Write or type Roman numeral two (II) on the next line down. This is where you will list your first subcategory. Using your notes, list any highlights that you want to be sure to include in the lines below, labeling with capital letters A, B, C, until you are finished with the subcategory.
Repeat Step 6 for each Roman numeral to follow until you have listed all subcategories.
Write your final Roman numeral, followed by the word "Conclusion." On the lines below, list three to four of your strongest evidence supporting your thesis. Each piece of evidence will be labeled with a capital letter (A, B, C).