It is always useful to brainstorm and make notes before you start a piece of writing. Many of you might know how important it is to write a draft before you write the final thing. However, many others might not know about reverse outline. Reverse outline is, as the name suggests, outlining in reverse. Just like mentioned earlier, before you start writing you produce a draft. Reverse outline is regarded as producing an outline after writing the draft. The difficult part of writing is placing your thoughts on paper in a way that your readers can readily grasp them. Amending is one of the most challenging aspects of writing. It is hard to judge your own writing with precision. Thus, by extracting the essential concepts of your draft write-up, reverse outlining allows you to acquire a higher degree of impartiality. If you succeed in doing so, it results in a simpler form of your writing that you can analyse without becoming trapped in your own writing.
In order to know how you can benefit from a reverse outline, this article will be helpful. You may use a reverse outline to help you check to see whether your paper achieves its purpose. It can help you find locations where you can elaborate on your evidence or analysis. Reverse outline also helps to fix places where your organization or layout could cause inconvenience to readers.
A Complete Reverse Outline Guide Involves The Following Essentials:
- Begin with a thorough draft to get a more complete perspective of the plan you implemented. A partial draft might be used to go over the arrangement of the paragraphs you’ve written thus far.
- In a specific document, create an outline by stating the core concept of each paragraph in your manuscript. If the purpose statement of a paragraph gives a succinct summary of the paragraph’s logic, you may copy and paste that phrase. You can use that phrase in the outline as a synthesis of that paragraph too. Also, provide a one-line summary of the paragraph’s primary topic.
- Number each point or list for accessibility.
How Should I Make A Reverse Outline?
You should write a reverse outline paragraph wise. Review one paragraph at a time and note the primary concept of each within the premises of your work. Also, note that the main point about your first paragraph must be your topic sentence. Next, on another document, outline these points paragraph wise. Remember that your draft is not flawless, thus, there may be sections with no major concept and some with many concepts. Do not be alarmed if you encounter these issues as that is the goal of revision.
Few examples of reverse outline are under-mentioned:
- Mental health is just as important as physical health.
- If you are not mentally healthy, you may fall ill more often.
- Mental illnesses such as depression cause stomach problems.
- When you are often stressed your cortisol increases leading to heart problems.
- You need to seek counselling and therapy to solve mental problems and stay fit.
With these points you are good to go with a clear argument. Now you need to evaluate your argument. You can get help from a good dissertation writing service in case of any issue.
Characteristics of a Reverse Outline
Apply Your Key Ideas To The Write-Up
Once you have created the reverse outline, your first step is to match it to your topic. Afterwards, assess if your statement has improved while you write, or whether it needs further improvement. This means you might want to edit your topic sentence to compliment with what you have written. If you think you have diverted from the actual aim of the write-up, you need to revise the body paragraphs. This may includereturning between thesis and body rewriting. When every primary point in your main argument relates to and complement your purpose statement, you are good to go.(University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2020)
You May Need To Revise The Order Of Your Reverse Outline
Check to see if your thoughts flow reasonably from one point to another as you write them. Ask if there could be a better way to deliver your thoughts to the reader? Such as, you may feel the need to discuss the physical problems first then mental health problems. This could strengthen your argument by backing it up with facts.
Look for Pointers
You might know the purpose of your paragraph and the reason you placed it at a particular place. But do you think it connects with to your reader? Are you sending out clear cues about where your argument is heading? Is your style a theme that runs through your article, directing and connecting the reader? This will most likely include reviewing or changing your transition statements throughout different paragraphs.
Look Out For Paragraphs Without Any Goal
Paragraphs without a goal are the ones whose core concept you are unable to discern. If you are not sure what the purpose of your paragraphs is, fix it. But if you know the purpose belongs there and is significant then write to yourself about it. You could start by saying:
As I previously mentioned…
The point I want to emphasize here is…
When you discover that these phrases are hard to accomplish, it is possible that your paragraph is at the wrong place or is not needed. Do not be afraid to remove paragraphs that undermine or confuse your point needlessly. Also, make sure your paragraphs are not too long or short. If one of the points on your reverse outline discusses more points than others, you need to divide that point in two paragraphs. This way, your reader will be able to follow the flow of the argument. In the same way, you can merge two paragraphs in one if you see both points in your reverse outline discuss similar topics.
This is how your reverse outline helps you finalize your writing and refines your argument. This is a complete reverse outline guide you’ll ever need to produce a perfect write-up.
