{"id":92,"date":"2021-11-29T20:03:12","date_gmt":"2021-11-29T20:03:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/books.chrisfriend.us\/2020\/chapter\/diversify-your-outlines\/"},"modified":"2024-04-30T20:19:50","modified_gmt":"2024-04-30T20:19:50","slug":"diversify-your-outlines","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/books.chrisfriend.us\/2020\/chapter\/diversify-your-outlines\/","title":{"raw":"Diversify Your Outlines","rendered":"Diversify Your Outlines"},"content":{"raw":"When teaching students how to write there's always been a debate between process and product.\u00a0 Some teachers\u00a0 would argue that the process of writing is more important than the product as it is the\u00a0 process that informs the product.\u00a0 Some say that regardless of the methods, the product will present the process, it doesn't matter how you hit it,\u00a0 gold is gold. However, while these two may not be the same concept; they are not mutually exclusive. By and large, when\u00a0 Teaching students how to write,\u00a0 teachers focus on structure and process. Regardless of whether this approach to teaching English is correct or incorrect, one tool commonly used in teaching writing structure is outlines, specifically formal outlines. In a formal outline structure dictates that a student use section headings to break up their overarching arguments and ideas to fit the structure of what they're writing. The structure of\u00a0 formal outlines\u00a0 require students to use full sentences and maintain the structural standard of a formal outline, those being capitalization, indentation, etc.\n\nTo start, it is true that the use of formal lines can be extremely helpful in assisting\u00a0 writers to organize their thoughts and ideas and help with the structure and flow of the writing. However, this is all but guaranteed not to be the best organizational tool for most students. Imagine being a freshman in English class, your professor just signed you a two page\u00a0 essay about the\u00a0 biggest family trip you've ever taken.\u00a0 While seeming like a simple enough task to\u00a0 recount the events of your family vacation, \u00a0 You run into a hiccup.\u00a0 That Hiccup being that your teachers require you to write a formal outline for\u00a0 20% of the assignment. While in theory, regardless of the piece of writing, formal outline should work to help in the writing process, in this instance not only does it fail to do so but it works as an active hindrance to students' writing process.\n\nWhat's important to remember is that outlines are a tool, And while built to serve the specific purpose of helping writers to organize and develop their thoughts, it's not always the only, or even the best tool available.\n\nIf\u00a0 formal outlines aren\u2019t the best tool, then what is? The answer is, there is no best tool. There are, in fact, many tools open for students to use,\u00a0 and the goal is Define the one tool that's going to serve the biggest benefits to them. I once had a professor\u00a0 with extensive writing experience, but found traditional means of organization like formal outlines to be too restrictive and found its structure oppressive in his creative process. In this instance, the organization system that worked best for him is what I'll call storyboarding. Storyboarding is when a writer draws visual representation of what he plans to write. For Professor Chris' friend , visual\u00a0 representations\u00a0 we're the best way for him to reflect the ideas, Concepts, and avenues for his writing\u00a0 that he wanted to map out. In my case,\u00a0 while I do prefer something\u00a0 with a bit more structure and less room for interpretation,\u00a0 I still need a certain level of freedom. Which is why when I\u00a0 make up an outline for a piece of writing,\u00a0 it's an overview of key Concepts at important points of the writing.\u00a0 Having only important\u00a0 ideas\/concepts with which to direct my thinking\u00a0 and a few\u00a0 key ideas to put in between,\u00a0 I have free reign\u00a0 to link those points and whichever way I see fit.\u00a0 While the structure of a formal outline is conducive to people who require a lot of structure in their writing to help guide them through the process, It's too stifling to people like my professor and I While on the other end of the spectrum a student who needs that additional structure to keep them from falling off course but never be able to use storyboarding.\n\nSo how are you supposed to implement this new process in the classroom? Since by and large most writing assignments\u00a0 already have a section\u00a0 that requires students to make a formal outline, all that needs to be done is remove the \u201cformal\u201d. No page length or word requirement, no grammar or spelling checks, and no requirements on indentation and full sentences. While teachers have the right idea in mind of getting students to organize and plan out their writing ahead of time,\u00a0 the\u00a0 extent to which students plan their\u00a0 writing should be up to them.\u00a0 Instead of forcing students to follow formal lines which they probably won't do until after the assignments are already done, try instead to give them three to five options of outlines\u00a0 and have them use the one that works best for them.\u00a0 Since only the student knows why they need more structure or freedom to raise the quality of their writing, This choice\u00a0 is all but guaranteed to lead to\u00a0 an uptake in quality.\n\nThe important thing to remember is that when helping students with their writing ,\u00a0 there's a scale between Quality\u00a0 and effort. The goal of an outline, formal or otherwise is to give a student easier time\u00a0 in creating better writing. Whether students need more\u00a0 structure or more freedom and their writing process is something only they will know for themselves. While formal outlines are the standard,\u00a0 taking the\u00a0 extra step\u00a0 to find what works best for each student,\u00a0 personally, is what's going to lead to long-term success.","rendered":"

When teaching students how to write there’s always been a debate between process and product.\u00a0 Some teachers\u00a0 would argue that the process of writing is more important than the product as it is the\u00a0 process that informs the product.\u00a0 Some say that regardless of the methods, the product will present the process, it doesn’t matter how you hit it,\u00a0 gold is gold. However, while these two may not be the same concept; they are not mutually exclusive. By and large, when\u00a0 Teaching students how to write,\u00a0 teachers focus on structure and process. Regardless of whether this approach to teaching English is correct or incorrect, one tool commonly used in teaching writing structure is outlines, specifically formal outlines. In a formal outline structure dictates that a student use section headings to break up their overarching arguments and ideas to fit the structure of what they’re writing. The structure of\u00a0 formal outlines\u00a0 require students to use full sentences and maintain the structural standard of a formal outline, those being capitalization, indentation, etc.<\/p>\n

To start, it is true that the use of formal lines can be extremely helpful in assisting\u00a0 writers to organize their thoughts and ideas and help with the structure and flow of the writing. However, this is all but guaranteed not to be the best organizational tool for most students. Imagine being a freshman in English class, your professor just signed you a two page\u00a0 essay about the\u00a0 biggest family trip you’ve ever taken.\u00a0 While seeming like a simple enough task to\u00a0 recount the events of your family vacation, \u00a0 You run into a hiccup.\u00a0 That Hiccup being that your teachers require you to write a formal outline for\u00a0 20% of the assignment. While in theory, regardless of the piece of writing, formal outline should work to help in the writing process, in this instance not only does it fail to do so but it works as an active hindrance to students’ writing process.<\/p>\n

What’s important to remember is that outlines are a tool, And while built to serve the specific purpose of helping writers to organize and develop their thoughts, it’s not always the only, or even the best tool available.<\/p>\n

If\u00a0 formal outlines aren\u2019t the best tool, then what is? The answer is, there is no best tool. There are, in fact, many tools open for students to use,\u00a0 and the goal is Define the one tool that’s going to serve the biggest benefits to them. I once had a professor\u00a0 with extensive writing experience, but found traditional means of organization like formal outlines to be too restrictive and found its structure oppressive in his creative process. In this instance, the organization system that worked best for him is what I’ll call storyboarding. Storyboarding is when a writer draws visual representation of what he plans to write. For Professor Chris’ friend , visual\u00a0 representations\u00a0 we’re the best way for him to reflect the ideas, Concepts, and avenues for his writing\u00a0 that he wanted to map out. In my case,\u00a0 while I do prefer something\u00a0 with a bit more structure and less room for interpretation,\u00a0 I still need a certain level of freedom. Which is why when I\u00a0 make up an outline for a piece of writing,\u00a0 it’s an overview of key Concepts at important points of the writing.\u00a0 Having only important\u00a0 ideas\/concepts with which to direct my thinking\u00a0 and a few\u00a0 key ideas to put in between,\u00a0 I have free reign\u00a0 to link those points and whichever way I see fit.\u00a0 While the structure of a formal outline is conducive to people who require a lot of structure in their writing to help guide them through the process, It’s too stifling to people like my professor and I While on the other end of the spectrum a student who needs that additional structure to keep them from falling off course but never be able to use storyboarding.<\/p>\n

So how are you supposed to implement this new process in the classroom? Since by and large most writing assignments\u00a0 already have a section\u00a0 that requires students to make a formal outline, all that needs to be done is remove the \u201cformal\u201d. No page length or word requirement, no grammar or spelling checks, and no requirements on indentation and full sentences. While teachers have the right idea in mind of getting students to organize and plan out their writing ahead of time,\u00a0 the\u00a0 extent to which students plan their\u00a0 writing should be up to them.\u00a0 Instead of forcing students to follow formal lines which they probably won’t do until after the assignments are already done, try instead to give them three to five options of outlines\u00a0 and have them use the one that works best for them.\u00a0 Since only the student knows why they need more structure or freedom to raise the quality of their writing, This choice\u00a0 is all but guaranteed to lead to\u00a0 an uptake in quality.<\/p>\n

The important thing to remember is that when helping students with their writing ,\u00a0 there’s a scale between Quality\u00a0 and effort. The goal of an outline, formal or otherwise is to give a student easier time\u00a0 in creating better writing. Whether students need more\u00a0 structure or more freedom and their writing process is something only they will know for themselves. While formal outlines are the standard,\u00a0 taking the\u00a0 extra step\u00a0 to find what works best for each student,\u00a0 personally, is what’s going to lead to long-term success.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"menu_order":1,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":["cmorales"],"pb_section_license":"cc-by-nc"},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[90],"license":[56],"class_list":["post-92","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry","contributor-cmorales","license-cc-by-nc"],"part":90,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/books.chrisfriend.us\/2020\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/92","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/books.chrisfriend.us\/2020\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/books.chrisfriend.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/books.chrisfriend.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/books.chrisfriend.us\/2020\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/92\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93,"href":"https:\/\/books.chrisfriend.us\/2020\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/92\/revisions\/93"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/books.chrisfriend.us\/2020\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/90"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/books.chrisfriend.us\/2020\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/92\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/books.chrisfriend.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/books.chrisfriend.us\/2020\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=92"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/books.chrisfriend.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=92"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/books.chrisfriend.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=92"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}