Dreading the Writing Assignment? Outlines to the Rescue

Written by Christine Taylor


Dreadingrepparttar Writing Assignment? Outlines torepparttar 129107 Rescue By Christine Taylor

Writing technical articles is a challenge. There you sit, surrounded by reams of research, notes and interviews. Where do you start?

Remember 5th grade English? You start with an outline.

Outlining has fallen on hard times lately. Mind mapping and brainstorming are much more fashionable. These techniques are great when generating ideas, but once you’ve got your ideas germinating you’ve got to outline them. Without an outline, your article will: 1.Be an unstructured mess. 2.Take three times as long to write.

Don’t let this happen to you – outline. If it’s been a while since 5th grade – or if your “progressive” school didn’t stoop to teach you actual English skills – let me remind you why it’s important and how to do it. •Outlining keeps you from writing an unstructured mess. Readers, especially American readers, prefer distinct sections in their media. For example, look at American screenplays. Movies invariably have three acts, and anything that doesn’t have them is considered an art film. Effective speeches often contain three parts, and readers like three points becauserepparttar 129108 structure makes easier to retain information.

Slow Pokes: Short story on the changing world of writing.

Written by M6.net


“No one will ever know who I am, I’m a nobody-writer from nowhere… I’ve had a thousand rejections from allrepparttar major publishers. It seems my destiny is never to be read, another nameless soul lost torepparttar 129106 sands of eternity.” Johnny’s face twisted into a pained grimace, you could tell his heart was tied up in a pretzel knot of self-deprecation.

“What’srepparttar 129107 use in writing if I know no one will ever read my stories?’ He looked at me for some kind of comfort or wisdom; luckily I was ready withrepparttar 129108 answers. I don’t know much, but I do knowrepparttar 129109 world is constantly changing, and I also know a bit aboutrepparttar 129110 Internet.

“Well, you could quit altogether, become a door to door knife salesman, or if it’s really bad- hey, suicide’s an option! But seriously, you’ve been locked away in your room reading and writing for too long, things have changed brother.”

Johnny looked up from where he was holding his head in his hands. He snorted, “What’srepparttar 129111 answer then? Don’t tell me it’s your bloody Information Technology computer world; you guys think you’ve got allrepparttar 129112 answers. You probably also haverepparttar 129113 recipe forrepparttar 129114 world’s best pizza,repparttar 129115 equation that solvesrepparttar 129116 riddle of space travel, a new gadget that regulates bowel movements, andrepparttar 129117 ingredients necessary for a deodorant that makes chimpanzees smell like roses!”

Johnny’s face lit up with an intensity I hadn’t seen in ages, his cheeks went bright pink as his words sputtered out in rapid succession usingrepparttar 129118 last of his current breath. However, I stayed calm. Hey, these Tai Chi classes were obviously doing their job!

I spoke softly and clearly, “ I don’t have allrepparttar 129119 answers buddy. But, do you know what E Books are? Do you know you can publish your own work onrepparttar 129120 Net, send it to a multitude of publishers at once electronically? You can also join writer’s chat rooms and web log journals on-line to get constructive criticism from professionals and other amateurs like yourself. I smiled my famous Cheshire cat smile. Poor Johnny looked astonished, his eyes bulging wide.

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