After you have followed every lead from your working bibliography and have taken adequate notes, you are ready to begin the final phase of your working outline. Put all cards with the same slug in the same stack. For example, all cards with the heading "Ratings Race" should be placed in one stack. You should have as many stacks as you have sections for your working outline.

Read each stack of cards and arrange them in logical order. You may discover that you have some information that is irrelevant or a section that has too little information. Do more research, or combine the content with another related stack or section, or omit the irrelevant or weak information.

Organize the note cards in each stack to form subtopics. Arrange these subtopics in logical order and number each note card accordingly.

Using your note cards, begin writing the formal outline. The major divisions of your working outline will be the major headings of the formal outline. Take the subtopics from the information gathered within each major division.

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