By Emily Long Olsen
I have heard many writers say that they don’t outline. Maybe they don’t like it, they find the structure limiting, or feel they don’t need it. To me, outlining is the equivalent of zooming out on a map. I really need the visual of the big picture to understand where I am and to maintain perspective. Outlines help me stay focused on the thesis and its sub claims, and help me avoid feeling overwhelmed and lost in a sea of body paragraphs. My outlines are long and involved, often with references and rough topic “phrases” (because my outlines rarely include complete sentences).
In the classroom, I have required students to submit a brief outline with their project proposal, so that I know the student is on the right track before getting started. In the Writing Center, I often wrap up brainstorming sessions with a rough outline so that students have a plan before they head out. How can we help students stay focused on the big picture and avoid getting lost without suggesting they build a typical outline? Here are three alternatives to outlining I’ve heard, and their pros and cons for students who are adverse to outlines.
Branching is one way to represent the connections between ideas on a page. This strategy places the central idea or thesis in the middle, and shows related ideas as branches extending from it. The benefits of this approach are that it’s not linear, so it avoids the sequential structure that some find unappealing. The drawbacks are that it doesn’t reflect the form of a paper, which does have to assume some linear structure in the ordering of paragraphs, and it isn’t really conducive to typing, so students must use a pen and paper. I see branching as a really useful strategy, but afterwards, students still must plan: they must determine how that more abstract representation will translate to paragraphs on the page.
Freewriting is sometimes considered an alternative to outlining because it is, like an outline, an outlet to “dump” ideas onto the page. Writing can feel limiting and stressful, in an effort to be at once clear, concise, and accurate. Freewriting frees the writer from these priorities for the moment, and allows the ideas to be the focus. Still, after freewriting, the student must move on to the next step: planning. Freewriting does not offer an organization, and thus doesn’t really provide the student with a clear view of what the paper will be. So, like branching, freewriting is a great way to brainstorm, but still leaves steps that the student must take before she is ready to write.
The Question Outline is one that I sometimes use myself. It’s not really an alternative to outlining, but it’s a type of outline that may appeal to some outlining naysayers. In a question outline, the structure doesn’t have claims or evidence, but rather questions that the student still needs answers to. One benefit of this strategy is that it can be formulated before the student has really begun to research or analyze. So for students who don’t feel “ready” to outline, the Question Outline might work. Developing a question outline can help the student see what research or evidence is still needed. Once the answers have been found, he needs only to take the additional step of updating the outline with these answers. As a result of the research and analysis, there may be rearranging and reorganizing to do, but the visual remains.
Not all writers are interested in outlining, but all writers need some pre-writing. Maybe some writers can see the overall structure of their paper without writing it down on the page, but for those of us who can’t, it seems that outlining can be modified, but not replaced.
Published March 30, 2017
