Teach how to write an outline
that is memorable as well as useful

You can teach all students how to write an outline or a strategic planning device like a writing skeleton™ without too much difficulty. Some students, however, need to know more than basic outlining principles. Many students also need grammar skills they can learn and/or practice in the context of outline format.

4 principles for outlines

When you teach students how to write an outline, you should teach them to write outlines in which:

1. Each point is clear and unambiguous.

2. Each point is concise.

3. Parallel items are presented in parallel grammatical structure.

4. No compound constructions are present.

These characteristics enable an outline to be useful and memorable to its author and other users.

Teach outlining in grammar

Each of these outline format characteristics can be taught in the context of teaching grammar. Alternately, you can teach the grammar as part of your instruction in how to write an outline.

However you choose to teach the material, you should cross reference your instruction. In other words, tell students explicitly about additional applications of the material you are presenting.

Clear, unambiguous wording

Students who are used to using terms like "everybody knows" and "lots of students" must be forced to define who "everybody" is and how many students constitute "lots."

Precise terms help authors define in their own minds what they want to say. Only when the authors have a clear understanding of their material can they communicate with an audience.

Concisely written points

Ideally, points should be written so they are no more than a line of type. The fewer eye movements required to take in the line, the better.

To achieve that conciseness:

Did you notice all the grammar terms in that list of ways to achieve conciseness?

Parallel items in parallel structure

Using parallel structure for parallel points simplifies reading and facilitates remembering.

Each section of an outline is essentially a list of points to be discussed in that section. Good readers expect parallel ideas in a list to be in grammatically parallel format.

If items one and two are nouns, readers expect the third item in the list to be a noun as well. An unexpectedly different format will distract them from the ideas.

Compare:

teachers, doctors, and running a forklift

teachers, doctors, and forklift operators

Any time a reader stops to wonder why a writer wrote something in an unexpected way, that reader stops paying attention to the writer's ideas. Parallel structure eliminates one source of distraction.

Absence of compounds

Any time a working thesis or a point of a working outline contains compound elements, the compounds are a distraction. The exception to this principle is compounds that are considered a unit, like bread and butter.

(Since each elements of a compound must be supported with roughly equal amounts of evidence, compound elements also increase the work writers must do to develop an essay.)

These characteristics should be present regardless of the outline's type (formal, informal, topic, sentence) or intended use (essay outline, research paper outline, speech outline). These characteristics should also be present in a writing skeleton™.