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Download the reverse outlines worksheet here
This exercise is adapted from materials published on the Explorations in Style blog by Rachel Cayley (http://explorationsofstyle.com/2011/02/09/reverse-outlines/) and on various writings by Dr Claire Aitchinson on the ‘story line’ technique.
We are taught at school to make an outline or plan before committing to writing. This approach assumes that you can know in advance everything that needs to be included in your draft. In reality, many thoughts develop as you are writing. They are a product o a dialog between you and the paper/screen. This is why reverse outlines are helpful.
A reverse outline is a plan made from an existing draft. A reverse outline can be a sanity check, a plan for complete rewriting, or just an outline to guide minor revisions. The idea of the reverse outline is to diagnose any potential problems with your arguments and find a way forward without mucking around too much with the existing text and potentially destroying good work. Here is a step by step approach.
1. Number the paragraphs in your original draft. Cut and paste sentence containing the key idea from each paragraph into a new document, preserving the paragraph numbering. Turn these sentences into bold type.
2. If you can’t find the key idea, or there are two, write a brief description of what the paragraph is about (or should be about) under each of the sentences.
3. Read through the new document – is there a coherent story emerging?
4. If you feel the overall story does not flow properly, or has gaps, rearrange the sentences in your story line and add in new ones as appropriate. Preserve your numbering (this will help you when you get back to your original draft).
5. When you are happy with your story line, look at the rest of the content of each paragraph. Check there are some, or all, of the following argument components:
· ‘Knowledge claims’ or ‘truth statements’
· Reasons / warrants
· Inferences
· References to prior work
· Definitions
· Evidence/examples
· Acknowledgement of counter arguments / examples
· Conclusions
Note: This handout is released under the creative commons share a-like attribution license. You may circulate and change it, but be cool – acknowledge Dr Inger Mewburn as the original author.