Difference between revisions of "Ideas and Outlining"

...by students

Why use an Outline?

Consider going on a road trip to a place you have never been. In order to get there you need a list of all the packing essentials and then you need to plot your course on a road map. You may be able to get to your destination without using a map at all, but the trip wouldn't be as smooth and enjoyable as if you did know where you're going. Similarly, with an outline you have a list of everything you need (ideas), and now it's time to plot your course (outline) for a smooth writing experience.

Ideas

Starting to gather ideas can often be the hardest part of writing anything, but having identified your purpose and audience prior to this makes the process quite painless.

Decide What Type of Information You Need

• Keeping in mind both your audience and purpose, what type of information do you need to accomplish your goals? Do you need scientific information to show certain health benefits? Would product reviews from trusted sources help convince the purchasing manager to buy a particular product? Each of these examples fall into different research catagories: Primary Research and Secondary Research.
  • Primary Research is any type of research that you do first hand. This includes:
    • Interviews
    • Surveys and Consumer Panels
    • First-hand Field Experience and Personal Observations
    • Laboratory Work
  • Secondary Research is any sort of research that you gather from outside sources, such as:
    • Books
    • Reviews
    • Articles or Research Papers
    • Newspapers
    • Government or Company Reports

Create a Plan For Your Research

• Holding an interview without knowing what questions to ask beforehand won't help your quest for information. At the very least, before you start looking for information think about and write down some questions that you want answered. Your questions should pertain to the purpose of your writing.

Take Proper Notes

• All the information in the world won't help your cause if you forget what it is. Here are a few tips for taking notes that will help you in the future:
  • Record your information carefully so you have complete quotes, statistics, names, etc.
  • Always make a note of where you get your information so you can acknowledge your sources properly in your writing
  • Create a bibliography as you find your information, that way it will be easier to put together at the end of your paper

Outlining

Having all your ideas on paper, you now need to work them into a form of writing. Before you begin writing it is important to have an outline to guide your thoughts and the flow of the project. Here are some basic steps to help you along your way.

Jot Down Your Points

• Almost as if you were brainstorming, take a piece of paper and quickly jot down all your main and secondary points.
  • Order doesn't matter - don't think about organization yet
  • Don't use full sentences, simply write down the points in topic form

Connect the Dots

• Now it's time to make sense of your points
  • Circle your main points
  • Draw lines connecting your secondary points to the main points under which they belong
  • Cross out any points that don't belong anywhere. If it isn't a main point or doesn't belong to one, then it is of no benefit to your final writing no matter how good it may seem

Organize Your Points

• Decide what is going to go where. This is entirely based on the way that you need to approach your subject. Are you talking about a problem and then trying to sell a solution? Perhaps you are reporting on manufacturing issues and solutions. You can list all the major issues, followed by the minor ones, followed by further analysis and solutions.
• In any case, here's what you want to do:
  • Number your main points in the order that you want them to appear in your paper
  • Number each of the secondary points within their respective main points according to the order they should appear
• If you notice that a main point doesn't have enough secondary points to sufficiently develop the idea, then you may want to reconsider using the point or go back to brainstorming for that particular idea.

Write the Final Outline

• This is the final step in creating your working outline. It's one part clean up, one part rewording, and one part reorganizing.
  • Write down all your points in their number orders, reorganizing them if it makes sense to do so
  • Reword your points to better suit the content and context in relation to their surrounding points
• Instead of using sentences, write each point as a topic; a sentence may prematurely lock you into particular wordings that may not flow well when you begin the next phase: Writing the First Draft.

External References

http://www.ipl.org/div/aplus/step4.htm

http://www.trinity.wa.edu.au/plduffyrc/library/study/default.htm

http://homeworktips.about.com/od/paperassignments/a/sloppywriter.htm