I would like to discuss the use of outliners in the writing process. I'm doing my thesis, and made a huge and very detailed outline of the first two chapters, their sections, subsections, and ideas about what to write in each subsection. For months I've been filling on this outline, and lately, I've used Reference Manager to categorise my 400+ references according to the outline. So, I thought, NOW I can begin writing. But what happens? I can't get it going. I see an entry in the outline, that I should write, but I'm just not inspired. Maybe because I've worked on the outline for so long, the issues have kind of become cold.

Then, today, I started writing, just freewriting, without caring much about structure, but following my argument through. And it felt like a liberation. I felt like in control again. The words had come alive, and I felt the entusiasm returning.

So, I started to wonder: Maybe its not such a great idea to make outlines. Maybe it goes contrary to human storytelling? Maybe we humans are better at telling stories in a linear way, developing an argument along the way?

I would be keen on hearing from members of this forum how you feel about this. Can you follow me? I still like the idea of outlining, producing text in a top-down fashion. But if it just doesn't work...? How do you use outlines? Just as a guide, or do you actually "fill it in" with text? How does it contribute to the progression of drafts? I mean, is your first draft more finished if you have made an outline, then if you haven't, so that you can make fewer revisions? Do you complete your outline before starting writing? Do you sometimes ammend your outline as a consequence of your writing?

Best regards,

Peter

How do you use outlines?

Peter,

I've had similar experiences to the one you describe. There are many times when I've had to chuck the outline and just write the damn thing. I've always felt whenever that has happened that all the time with the outlining helped prepare the way for the creative writing. I've also tried writing without doing the necessary thinking about the project and have found that to be futile also. Outlining helps me to think through my arguments, decide what information I'm still lacking, and basically gives me a foundation from which to write.

I'm willing to bet that your writing session would not have been as fruitful if you hadn't done the outlining ahead of time, even though you may have discarded at the time of the writing.

Steve Z.

Peter,

There are no rules, and I suspect that everyone here will use Outlines differently, and will use them differently for different tasks.

For me, the importance of the outline (most of the time) is to give the intitial structure to the document: headings and sub headings plus bits of text that I think of as I create the outline.

At some stage the outline breaks down because it forces you to think in terms of "text chunks" rather than a flowing document, and at that stage you need to start writing, but possibly only one chapter.

In a science thesis I would be looking to write the results section first. Then after reviewing the objectives and seeing how they fit in with the results I would write the conclusion. The structure of everything else being dictated by how I want to lead the reader through from the introduction to the conclusion. Onc you know the conclusion it is easier to build an argument supporting that conclusion.

Then I would re-visit the results when writing the discussion, often undertaking new anlalysis, and adding new charts to illustrate points I now know I want to include in the discussion.

You will gather that I am constantly re-structuring a document, and I certainly would not be bound by the original outline.

The most important aspect of the outline is that it forces you to think about the structure, what you want to say, and where you want to say it. For me it is going through that thinking process that is important - even if I completely scrap the outline and start again.

The free writing that you did today almost certainly benefitted from the thought you put into the outline, because you "knew" what you wanted to free write about. I would continue to free write and use the Outline as a reference to check that you are still including all the topics you need to include.

Subject matter, end product and mood all affect the way you write.

Sometimes, I just create a quick mind map of key ideas and then start writing. Or I will use Brainstorm to collect thoughts and data restructuring that data into an approximate order of writing and then use the Brainstorm model as reference material when I begin writing. I have just bought NoteMap, which seems to give me an ideal mid-way point between Brainstorm and Word as it has enough word processing power to start writing some sections while still working on the outline of others.

So to return to the beginning, there are no rules. However, most of the time, if not all of the time, it is important to make the effort to review/plan what you want to say in your writing together with how it should be said and structured. An outline is a good way of doing this.

Graham

In DOS days, I used GrandView for virtually everything. Of course, it was 1) The best DOS outliner and 2)had many other info management features.

I used GV to collect information and to write my reports, etc. However, I did not use its outlining features to create a structure for what I wrote... that I did in my head. I used its outlining features to easily rearrange material AFTER I wrote it. That is, I started writing in GV using the structure I had developed in my head, and then used the outlining features of GV to rearrangeh text as my writing progressed.

Inspiration is a Windows outliner, but is too "clunky" to use in the fashion I used GV. I don't know about NoteMap.

By the way, when I was in school (pre-PCs) and was required to produce an outline for a piece of writing, I always wrote the outline AFTER I wrote the piece.

-sc

It's hard to answer without knowing more about your outline.Sometimes it is necessary to get away from the outline to get a fresh perspective. One tactic is to write a mini-draft of the document without consulting the outline. Then see what you thought was important in the outline that you omitted from the draft, and the reverse. You will be likely to remember what's most important, and this can be a basis for excluding material you have outlined or analyzing why your concept did not permit you to easily recall the important point.

But sometimes the outline gets in the way because of bad outlining practice. If you just cut and pasted reference material into the outline, this material can help you write the document, but don't think you can avoid actually writing. When writing, you should distinguish between what you wrote from material you have gathered. Confusion arises when the writer tries to follow the course of pasted material in the outline as though it were part of the architectonic of the document.If you use an outline as the equivalent of note cards, you need to organize and rewrite the note matter, whether you do it in the outline or while writing the paper.

Another kind of bad outlining that can stymie the writer is to outline the research instead of outlining the topic. After doing some preliminary reading and notetaking, the writer should develop a sharp if tentative thesis before beginning to outline.Or if the writer has done the research by plugging into the preliminary outline not focused on a precise thesis, then he should be prepared to abandon material completely that turns out to be irrelevant.

If I had to guess about your problem, it would be that you have far too much in the outline for it to serve as the direct basis for a document. But that's just a guess; my apologies if I am completely off target.

Stephen R. Diamond