"To art students, color is passion. Unfortunately, many others fail to realize its power, evening our everyday lives. Just think about how often we use color, especially to organize. We use post-it notes to color code texts or calendars, we use colored folders to sub-divide files, we cover school books to match our notebooks, use different colored cartons to distinguish children's belongings, and the list goes on.

Wouldn't it only be natural to apply color to organizing writing student essays?

For verbal learners, type on a page is fairly easy to understand and manipulate. However, for learners whose intelligence is not dominantly verbal, there can be frustration in not seeing the organization in a crowd of type. This technique essentially changes "verbal" to "visual."

Materials needed: a variety of colors. We suggest a wide selection of colored pencils or a similar medium. Gel pens are nice, but can become expensive, but the male students sometimes feel they are "girly" and become uncomfortable with this approach. Highlighters are great as well because many times the students already have their own set.

First, to use the highlighting technique, make sure that students have an understanding of how an essay is organized (i.e. introduction with thesis, body, conclusion, etc.). After, have them decide what the main topics are that they wish to explore most in the paper. Have them set up a key, assigning each issue a different color. Once they have chosen a "rainbow," ask them to go through their papers and to color each sentence that includes one of the issues according to the key. (Otherwise, just tell them to "make it pretty" and they get the general idea. Sometimes students simply need permission to "mess-up" their papers.)

The product is usually happy one. Once students can visually see the disorder of the colors, they can make informed choices for revision and can easily regroup sentences according to issue.
This technique appeals to visual and kinesthetic learners. Students have the benefit of 'seeing' their ideas and that ability to physically manipulate the highlighters."

From "Organization: Using Elementary Strategies in a College-Level Writing Center" written and prepared by the Woodbridge Campus Writing Center of Lori Leeker, Carla Abraham, Stephanie Mueller, Genny Marsh, and Sarah Potter with Brenda Mesiel, Writing Center Facilitator. Contact Brenda Meisel or the Woodbridge Campus Writing Center for more information.