Graphic organizers are a whole topic unto themselves (see several examplesat our sister site, expertlearners.com), but one quick example will show how Principle #1 (“Don’t make everything look equally important!”) can be observed even in the graphic format. In the following simple branching diagram, it’s clear that there is a main idea (U.S. Government), there are branches sprouting off that main idea (Executive, Legislative, and Judicial), and there are items subordinate to each branch