List key ideas. Scratch outlines usually begin with ragged lists. You simply write down your preliminary thoughts and key ideas so you can see exactly how they relate, merging any that obviously overlap. Keep these notes brief but specific, using words and phrases rather than complete sentences. At this point, you might find yourself posing questions too. In fact, your initial scratch outline might resemble a mildly edited brainstorming list (see Chapter 19). Here’s the first stage of a scratch outline addressing a topic much discussed in academia: the impact that massive open online courses (MOOCs) may have on higher education. (If you are unfamiliar with the term, you might do a quick Web search.)

Massive open online courses (MOOCs)

Taught by top-notch professors from prestigious schools

First-rate MOOCs are complex — expensive to produce

Rely on “superstar” professors

Can reach unlimited numbers of students across the country

How different from old-style correspondence or online courses?

Cheap: no classrooms; less administration; less “brick and mortar”

Less interaction with faculty

No face-to-face work with classmates

Available anytime and anywhere

Education through watching slick videos

Promise equal access to first-rate educational opportunities

Could replace large core courses at many schools

Use interactive online activities

Might drive down the high cost of postsecondary education

Differences between learning facts and gaining knowledge?

Very high attrition rate in early MOOCs

Depersonalized and dehumanizing: no real faculty-student interaction

A sprawling list like this could easily grow even longer, so you need to get it under control. To do that, you can apply the three principles that make outlining such a powerful tool of organization: relationship, subordination, and sequence.

Look for relationships. Examine the initial items on your list and try grouping like with like — or look for opposites and contrasts. Experiment with various arrangements or clusters. In the scratch outline above, for example, you might decide that the items fall into three basic categories. A first cluster explains what MOOCs do, a second cluster focuses on their advantages, while a third and lengthier cluster considers their weaknesses.

What MOOCs do

Taught by top-notch professors from prestigious schools

Use video lectures and interactive online activities

Available anytime and anywhere

Can reach unlimited numbers of students across the country

Strengths of MOOCs

Cheap: no classrooms; less administration; less “brick and mortar”

Promise equal access to first-rate educational opportunities

Could replace large core courses at many schools

Might drive down the high cost of postsecondary education

Weaknesses of MOOCs

How different from old-style correspondence or online courses?

Less interaction with faculty

No face-to-face work with classmates

First-rate MOOCs are complex—expensive to produce

Rely on “superstar” professors

Equate education to watching slick videos

Differences between learning facts and gaining knowledge?

Very high attrition rate in early MOOCs

Depersonalized and dehumanizing: no real faculty-student interaction

Subordinate ideas. In outlines, you routinely divide subjects into topics and subtopics. This means that some ideas belong not only grouped with others but also grouped under them — which is to say, they become a subset within a larger group.

For instance, looking again at the lengthy group of “Weaknesses of MOOCs,” you might notice that MOOCs seem to differ from old-style correspondence or online courses chiefly because more money is spent to develop them — an idea you connect to several supporting points, some of which you modify and amplify.

MOOCs are high-class correspondence courses

Rely on well-paid “superstar” professors

Require slick videos to keep students entertained

Cost more to produce than most schools can afford

Narrow the range of academic experiences

Then you notice a second cluster within the “Weaknesses of MOOCs” grouping, one related to your claim that MOOCs are “depersonalized and dehumanizing.” Once again, you subordinate some initial points to a broader claim, enlarging and connecting them.

MOOCs are depersonalized and dehumanizing

Support little interaction between online faculty and students

Minimize face-to-face work with peers: no true classmates

Equate learning facts with gaining knowledge

[Consequently?] have a high attrition rate

At this point, you have pushed well beyond a list. You are using the outlining process to explore your ideas and turn them into, in this case, an argument.

Decide on a sequence. Once you have sorted out the patterns within an initial list of ideas, you are ready to arrange them to support a thesis. At this point, you have a great many options, depending on what type of project you are developing — a narrative, a report, an argument, or something else. You might sequence the items chronologically or by magnitude (for example, least to most important). Or you might determine your order rhetorically — by how you want readers to respond.

Continuing to pursue the MOOC project, you could, for example, do a detailed report on these new types of courses, focusing on what MOOCs do — the first cluster in your initial list of relationships. But, given the number of criticisms you generated of this technology, perhaps your heart is in writing an evaluation, one that weighs the strengths of MOOCs against the more numerous weaknesses you have identified. Your working outline, now considerably more formal than a scratch version, might look like the following:

Needless to say, this is but one of many possible takes on this subject, as proponents of MOOCs would be quick to point out.

Move up to a formal outline.You may be required to submit a formal outline with your final paper. When that’s the case, be sure to follow the following guidelines—which may help you to detect even more relationships between your ideas:

Thesis: Though massive open online courses (MOOCs) promise to solve the problems of higher education, they are just upgraded versions of older correspondence courses that will dehumanize learning.