Comments on: Monday Master Class: How to Use a Flat Outline to Write Outstanding Papers, Fast

By: Sarah

Sarah — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 03:23:24 +0000

This is basically what I do, but what about papers written in parts? They’re totally obnoxious, forcing you to either A) Write your paper all before the first part is due, and hand it in part by part, or B) you write it in parts, and have a messed up train of thought. Should I make the outline all at once, and transform it part-by-part?

By: Doug Sibley

Doug Sibley — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 06:44:06 +0000

I did the same with most of my papers in grad school (at least the ones I did well on). The first step for me though, was to get a stack of books on a topic I was interested in and then just read them putting scraps of paper on interesting pages. When I had some brain-dead time (i.e. time set aside for ’studying’ but was too tired or burnt-out to do it) I would put large quotes into an outline with a few sentences of my own that related.

I’d do the same with web sources another day (though the cutting and pasting of quotes was easier). For the paper, I’d expand on each quote in a narrative paring most down and eliminating a fair number that didn’t end up on-topic. So in the end my problem wouldn’t usually be to “get enough sources” or to “write enough words” but to keep the length manageable and the topic focused (which is usually a nice problem to have!)

By: alice

alice — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 11:36:31 +0000

OMG this is exactly what I do too! It feels like so much less work because its more like connecting the dots than building from scratch. And depending on how you do it, most of the writing is already done in the planning stage.

By: carrie

carrie — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 07:13:25 +0000

hey, this is exactly what i do! glad to know someone else likes this idea.
it’s so much easier to pull the quotes and build around them. writing within the outline doesn’t even feel like work - “hey, just outlining here” - and soon enough the work is all done.

By: Political Issues W Fall 2009 » A useful post…

Political Issues W Fall 2009 » A useful post… — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:51:54 +0000

[…] might help with your writing process: Using a Flat Outline. Misc., Tools, […]

By: Kam

Kam — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 14:56:49 +0000

I just wanted to thank you for the great advice. I’ve been using this and it really does make writing essays a lot easier. I used to write just the minimum, but now I find myself writing a little more. I love the idea of putting quotes into the outline. I got A’s on all my papers since using this. So thank you!

By: Study Hacks » Blog Archive » How to Quickly Capture Quotes from Electronic Sources

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 18:47:05 +0000

[…] reader recently wrote me with an improvement to my flat outline method for research paper writing. The original method asked you to build an ordered list of the topics […]

By: Ismail Fan

Ismail Fan — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 14:06:09 +0000

I really like your articles and by implementing some of your advice I’m beginning to enjoy life more. Thank you!

By: Jordan

Jordan — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 19:37:12 +0000

This definitely goes along with my thinking process. It seems less scattered than the usual trying to squeeze info into an outline somehow. Thanks for the great tip.

By: Christopher Weuve

Christopher Weuve — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 20:42:33 +0000

I’ve used two different systems over the years. With the first, I put all of the quotes on index cards or a sheet of paper, and then draft an outline afterwards. The second system puts more premium on the outline first, and then I go and look for citations supporting the points.

I find that which method I use really depends on the subject — if I am inspired and an outline comes to me, I do the second. If I need a little bit of oomph to gte going, the act of extracting quotes usually does it.