Many writers find that new ideas or topics appear near the end of a reverse outline. Does every paragraph relate back to your main idea?.Listed below are specific questions that will help as you begin editing.Īsking Questions about Your Writing with a Reverse Outline Edit your writing, expanding or condensing passages to achieve greater concision and clarity.Number your outline for ease of reference.Otherwise, write a one-sentence summary to express as concisely as possible the main point of the paragraph. If a paragraph's topic sentence provides a succinct version of the paragraph's argument, you can simply copy that sentence into the outline as a summary for that paragraph. List the main idea of each paragraph, working systematically through the entire paper.It’s important to keep the original writing separate from the reverse outline you’re about to create. Start a new document or use a blank piece of paper.This can be particularly valuable if you wrote without an outline (never recommended for academic writing!), or if you modified the structure of your draft as you wrote.Īs shown in more detail on the next page, reverse outline of your own writing can help you (1) determine if your paper meets its goal, (2) discover places to expand on your evidence or analysis, and (3) see where readers might be tripped up by your organization or structure. All writers need ways to test their drafts for the logical sequence of points – its structure – and a reverse outline allows you to read a condensed version of what you have written. You can also use reverse outlining to revise your own work and to ensure that your writing is clear, well-structured, and logically coherent. Look for key terms and concepts that can help define these main ideas – but also make sure that you understand what they each mean in their context, since simply copying down key terms won’t automatically guarantee that you understand them! Reverse Outlining for Writing and Revision In such cases, reverse outlining a text or lecture can help you distill the main ideas into short, clear statements. Some assignments ask you to read and analyze complex information. Your reverse outline provides a bullet-point view of the paper’s structure because you are looking at the main points of the paper, whether written by yourself or by someone else. Reverse outlining is exactly what it sounds like: a process whereby you take away the supporting writing and are left with a paper’s main points or main ideas, sometimes represented by the paper’s topic sentences. This handout is available for download in DOCX format and PDF format. Graduate Professional Studies (Online Programs) Rabb School: Graduate Professional Studies Heller School for Social Policy and Management
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