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English teachers have always been fond of outlines, but when people write history papers, or memos, or reports, they rarely use them. One of the lessons I remember most vividly from grammar school is Miss Gaffney's fourth-grade outline lesson, demonstrated at the board and tested over and over again. This outline, in increasingly meticulous versions, was the mysterious treasure map to success that term, demarcated by Roman numerals, large and small letters with prime marks and sometimes even double-primes. Some of our outlines were beautiful; others were chaotic disasters. Nobody mentioned at the time, least of all Miss Gaffney, that outlines could help us order our thoughts. Instead, we took quizzes on what kind of thought went where: did a phrase including a noun and an adjective get a prime or a double-prime? When did a generalization merit a capital letter? There was much anguish about these matters, although a few people seemed to thrive on them. Still, I wish someone had linked those exercises with the act of writing, because it took years of frustrating, disappointing work before I understood the usefulness of thorough planning, and years more before I taught myself how to speed up the writing process by using, among other things, a good outline.
The QUICK WRITING PROCESS argument-outline is neither theoretical nor abstract. It is a quick Beginning-Middle-End outline that will help you create the best order for the chunks of material you've selected in analyzing the because-clauses. Almost all rhetoric books and writer's handbooks spend at least some time listing possible patterns of organization. English courses spend weeks on such exercises: compare and contrast; classification; definition. As a writing teacher, I would be happy to know that everyone understood the characteristics of deductive and inductive thinking and had developed some facility for combining the two, as Orwell does in many of his essays. But patterns and outlining exercises can become ends in themselves, without reference to what the writer needs to discover and then tell the reader. Whatever pattern you might choose, however complex the comparisons or the underlying metaphor, your reader will still expect and seek a beginning, middle, and end, so it's safe and efficient to begin with that sense of structure. After analyzing the because-clauses to select those blocks of material I want to include in my raw draft, I see that the first several clauses point out problems in giving a competency exam. The next few have to do with the negative effects such an exam will have on students, teachers, and the college environment. Then there are blocks of material that express my own feelings and ideas about specific and general alternatives. Almost always, there is this inherent order in the material. Writers, like sculptors, work to bring the figure out of the stone. First, I can group my selected material under these three main ideas: problems, negative effects, and my own alternatives. Next, I can arrange the three groups in the most persuasive order. I'll put the other side first, setting up the tension to counter it with my own views. If it comes first in the middle section, I'll have the rest of my paper for what I want the reader to think about.Immediately after the other side, I'll want to state my most pragmatic arguments against the exam. These are the least open to interpretation, and may appeal to the reader's common sense. If I remind the reader that such an exam would be too expensive, too inefficient to administer, and labor intensive, my more complicated arguments might not even be necessary.Next I want to explain the more general idea of how such an exam would demoralize not only students and teachers, but also the environment for learning at the college. Once that is established, I'll combine the problems of giving the exam with the difficulties caused by the exam itself to explain how an exam will not ensure competency. Finally, I'll end the middle section of my paper with my discovery that the exam is self-defeating and destructive to the goal of competency. This idea, in turn, provides a natural transition to the conclusion, where I'll recommend alternatives.With the order of the middle section roughed out, I can rearrange the several clauses or sentences of the thesis to fit it, and this now becomes a full-fledged introduction. The conclusion will provide the reader with my alternatives, and then go one step beyond anything I've said so far to a new perspective on the subject. This, too, will be reflected in a final adaptation of my original thesis.The quick argument-outline balances material in the best order. Once you're satisfied with it, you can move on to block out and then cut the raw draft. A Quick [Annotated] Argument-Outline | 1. | BEGINNING [The thesis, condensing the selected, ordered because-clauses into the phrases and sentences of a full-fledged introduction, including the other side--the although-clause--and the broader perspective of the conclusion.] Although the idea of a writing competency exam is appealing on the surface as a way of strengthening a basic skill (see below, IIA1), such an exam would be self-defeating and destructive (IIB4). It is expensive, inefficient to administer, and demoralizing for both students and faculty (IIB1). It would destroy the English department's effectiveness in helping all students to learn (IIB2), and will not ensure competency in writing, a skill that cannot be legislated for a wide spectrum of our students in a set period of time, or through programmable steps (IIB3). Such a goal can only be accomplished by a creative, flexible, highly motivated teaching staff making instruction as individualized as possible toward the goal of writing as a lifelong skill (IIIA) and, in a broader perspective, as a citizen's advantage in a democratic society (IIIB). |
| II. MIDDLE [Main points of my argument, structured in a balanced order of importance, beginning with a look at the other side and leading toward my most important discovery which, through a transition, opens out to a broader perspective at the END.] A. Arguments for the competency exam (the other side) 1. [Introduced by the appropriate phrase in the thesis.] "Although the idea of a writing competency exam is appealing on the surface as a way of strengthening a basic skill. . . ." (use because-clause 10)B. Arguments against the competency exam (transition phrases taken directly from the thesis statement to introduce separate, interrelated points) 1. Practical problems in giving the exam: would be expensive and inefficient to administer (use analysis of because-clauses 1, 3, and 4)2. General negative effects: demoralizing for both students and faculty (use analyses of clauses 5 and 6)3. Specific negative effects: would destroy the English department's effectiveness in helping all students to learn (use clauses 6, 7, 8, and analyses) | | 4. | Summarizing issue: would not ensure "competency" in writing, a skill that cannot be legislated (use analysis of clause 2) | | 5. | Discovery and transition: would be self-defeating, and destructive (use clause 8 and analysis, and new writing from the analysis of the other side) |
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II. END [Concludes the argument by recommending alternatives and a broader perspective.] A. Summary and critique 1. Exams become ends in themselves (clause 5 analysis)2. But writing is a lifelong skill (clause 12 and analysis)B. Recommendation and new perspective 1. Specific alternative: a new writing requirement, a new commitment among writing teachers (clause 6 analysis; clause 12 and analysis)
2. Larger perspective: the new goal of empowering people to have their say beyond the college walls, throughout their lives as members of society (clause 12 and analysis) So far, I've used about half my allotted time to arrive at a solid outline correlating the language of my thesis with the key points supporting it, and a broader perspective arising from it. Now I can fill out the raw draft on the framework of the argument-outline. The time for generating material is over; the time for producing has begun. |
