Week 1: Outlining your argument
- Discussion: During this first week of the course, we’re asking you to share your experiences of academic writing. Please explain your main ‘barriers’ to writing
- Activity: Share an outline for your project-in-progress via google slides. Let us know if you have any trouble creating your slide.
- Video: Kathy Greethurst talks about getting ideas for writing.
- Video: Chris Bulman talks about key ideas in writing.
- End of week reflection: How has your project progressed this week? We hope you can work on your project-in-progress during this course, as we aim to support you in completing this! Let us know what you've managed to get done on your own project this week.
Outlining
Our main topic this week is outlining your argument. Please generate an outline for either a section of the project you are currently working on, or the whole project if you feel that’s appropriate.
You can make an outline retrospectively by identifying the main points in your argument. One way to do this is to check the first sentence of each paragraph, which often indicates the main point you’ve made in that paragraph.
A well-constructed argument has an underlying outline that moves from contextualising the argument in the introductory section, to articulating the argument in explicit terms, then unpacking this argument and marshaling evidence to support and counter it in the main body. The concluding section usually re-articulates the argument and sums up the main points.
However, the structure of your outline will depend upon the type, or genre of your project. If you are not sure about the structure of your own project, ask one of the course tutors for advice, by posting a question in one of the discussion fora.
In addition to asking you to make an outline for your project-in-progress, we want to focus on the beginning stages of the writing process this week.
The beginning stages of the writing process
Last week we discussed the writing process, and the fact there are many ways to break writing down into stages. This week we’d like to offer you tips on two important stages of the writing process that tend to happen when writers begin a new project. You are probably past these stages for your own project-in-progress, but for completeness we are spending some time on these vital early tasks within the writing process.
Generating ideas
Many writers begin the process by generating ideas. This is often through discussion with colleagues and friends, reading, thinking, and jotting down notes. Figure 4 shows one way of generating ideas, using a ‘spider diagram:’
Figure 4. Generating ideas.
When generating ideas, writers are not sure where their research and thinking will lead, so it’s important not to dis-count any ideas at this early stage - they might be valuable!
Rather than censoring your own thoughts at this early stage, try to record them in the manner you like best. Some writers choose to use visuals like flow charts, and other writers use bullet points.
One technique for generating ideas is ‘freewriting.’ To do this you should give yourself a prompt, such as a keyword of the topic you’re working on, and give yourself a time limit, for instance, 2 minutes.
Then jot down all the ideas you come up with during that timeframe, in response to your prompt. Then leave your freewriting for a while and do something else.
When you come back to read your freewriting afresh, you may find some superb ideas buried within the more messy freely flowing thoughts. You can use these as the basis for making a plan.
Freewriting can also be a helpful technique when you have ‘writers’ block.
Planning
Some writers struggle with the planning stage of the writing process. We all have different methods for planning; some people like to talk through their ideas and make notes; others prefer to use graphics to map out a structure. Figure 5 shows one way to make a plan:
Figure 5. Planning.
When planning, writers are usually still not sure where their research and thinking will lead. This means that most writers produce a range of plans which chart the development of their ideas.
Plans produced early in the writing process may be a vague sketching out of the key sections of a project. Plans make later on in the writing process may provide the details in a particular section, with notes about key points, and often ideas about references to back up these points.
When you are working on a more detailed plan, for example the main body of your argument where you’re thinking about the structure of paragraphs, you might find this formula useful:
Point: make a point at the start of your paragraph. This is known as the ‘topic sentence’ because it announces the topic to be addressed. As you know, you should not make more than one key point in a paragraph within the main body of your argument.
Evidence: back up the point you have made with evidence, which may be an example, or a citation from your research or reading. Cite sources using the referencing style that is appropriate for your project.
Explanation: unpack the point you have made. Here you should reveal your own original thinking and ability to critique sources, ideas, and information. You may be able to point out limitations of the point or the evidence you have used, or to highlight strengths in your point or sources. Your explanation should show your own criticality as a scholar, and move beyond a descriptive mode of writing.
Back to your project-in-progress
Hopefully, this week you can protect some writing time in order to move forward with your own project. Check out your commitments this week, and plan the best times for getting down to work.
Please make a note of the amount of time you have managed to protect for your own writing this week, and record your progress by contributing to the 'end of week reflection' discussion thread. The strategies you're developing to safeguard time for writing may inspire some of the other participants!
