Students can't create outline
But they can craft, make, or do one.

Avoid terms like create outline if you want your students to plan their writing before they start writing. Many students hear the word outline in the same sentence as create and panic at what experience has led them to believe will be difficult and frustrating work.

Watch your terms and do no harm

Use language that makes preparing an essay outline or research paper outline sound like something that can be done at the kitchen table or garage workbench. Josh can make an outline, Sean can construct an outline Caitlin can craft an outline, and Tiffany can do an outline and all of them can make plans.

I never cease to marvel at how most of my college students' distaste for writing disappears when they learn they will not be required to do any creative writing in my classes.

In teaching writing, getting students past their reluctance to attempt basic writing tasks is the first step toward making them into competent writers. Sometimes the easiest way to overcome fears and negative responses is to avoid using terms associated with those negative feelings toward writing, words such as create outline.

Language shapes behavior

Josh, Sean, Caitlin, and Tiffany aren't the only people whose behaviors are shaped by language. Consider, for example:

• Preowned vehicles are more desirable transportation than used cars.

• Designer dog breeds are far more desirable pets than mutts.

• When governments don't want to donate to antipoverty programs, they say the proposed recipients suffer from food insecurity. When they want to be seen doing good, those governments give to people who are starving.

As you are teaching writing, look for ways to:

• Use language to overcome reluctance to engage in writing activities, such as by substituting other terms for the phrase create an outline.

• Cultivate students' awareness of how language shapes behavior.

Language matters. What better place to teach that to students than while you are teaching writing?