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To Outline or Not to Outline?
When you visit the grocery store, do you go with list in hand and methodically check off each item as you add it to your shopping cart? Or do you breeze in and simply cruise through the aisles grabbing whatever you think you need? Personally, I prefer the breeze-cruise-and-grab method, but I know I do a much better job of shopping if I go in with a plan. Writing, too, is easier if you have a plan or outline before you begin.
Now, I know what you’re thinking. Just because I’m a writing instructor, you assume I have to be in favor of outlines. If I weren’t, those in charge might kick me out of the English Department and take away my thesaurus. And while that might be true, I really learned the importance of outlines when I worked as a technical writer for over ten years.
During that time, I wrote tax and financial articles for bank newsletters, and I dealt with two types of customers: one type allowed me to suggest article topics alone for each newsletter while the other type wanted both topics and outlines for each of the topics suggested. The second type wanted to have a better idea of how the topic was going to be handled before it was approved.
Naturally, I had to invest more time and energy up front for the customer who wanted both topics and outlines. Later, however, I found it so much easier to write the articles themselves when I had…
