Outlining

508

Outlining is an especially helpful reading strategy for understanding the content and structure of a reading. Outlining, which identifies the text’s main ideas, may be part of the annotating process, or it may be done separately. Writing an outline in the margins of the text as you read and annotate makes it easier to find information later. Writing an outline on a separate piece of paper or online gives you more space to work with, and therefore such an outline usually includes more detail.

The key to outlining is distinguishing between the main ideas and the supporting material, such as examples, quotations, comparisons, and reasons. The main ideas form the backbone that holds the various parts of the text together. Outlining the main ideas helps you uncover this structure.

For more about the conventions of formal outlines, see Chapter 11.

Making an outline, however, is not simple. The reader must exercise judgment in deciding which are the most important ideas. The words used in an outline reflect the reader’s interpretation and emphasis. Readers also must decide when to use the writer’s words, their own words, or a combination of the two.

You may make either a formal, multileveled outline or an informal scratch outline. You might choose to make a formal outline of a reading about which you are writing an in-depth analysis or evaluation and a scratch outline to help you identify the main idea in each paragraph of a reading assignment. For example, here is a formal outline a student wrote for an essay evaluating the logic of the King excerpt.

Formal Outline of “Letter from Birmingham Jail”

  1. “[T]he Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is . . . the white moderate . . .” (par. 1).

    1. White moderates are more devoted to “order” than to justice; however,

      1. law and order exist only to establish justice (par. 2).

      2. law and order without justice actually threaten social order (“dangerously structured dams” metaphor, par. 2).

    2. White moderates prefer “negative peace” (absence of tension) to “positive peace” (justice); however,

      1. tension already exists; it is not created by movement (par. 2).

      2. tension is a necessary phase in progress to a just society (par. 2).

      3. tension must be allowed outlet if society is to be healthy (“boil” simile, par. 2).

    3. White moderates disagree with methods of movement; however,

      1. nonviolent direct action can’t be condemned for violent response to it (analogies: robbed man; Socrates; Jesus, par. 3).

      2. federal courts affirm that those who seek constitutional rights can’t be held responsible for violent response (par. 3).

    4. White moderates paternalistically counsel patience, saying time will bring change; however,

      1. time is “neutral”— we are obligated to use it actively to achieve justice (par. 4).

      2. the time for action is now (par. 4).

  2. Contrary to white moderates’ claims, the movement is not “extremist” in the usual sense (par. 5 ff.).

    1. It stands between extremes in black community: passivity, seen in the oppressed and the self-interested middle-class; and violent radicalism, seen in Elijah Muhammad’s followers (pars. 5–6).

    2. In its advocacy of love and nonviolent protest, the movement has forestalled bloodshed and kept more blacks from joining radicals (pars. 5–7).

    3. The movement helps blacks channel urge for freedom that’s part of historical trend and the prevailing Zeitgeist (par. 8).

  3. The movement can be defined as extremist if the term is redefined: “Creative extremism” is extremism in the service of love, truth, and goodness (examples of Amos, Paul, Luther, Bunyan, Lincoln, Jefferson, Jesus, par. 9).

  4. Some whites—“few in quantity, but . . . big in quality”— have recognized the truth of the arguments above and, unlike the white moderates, have committed themselves to the movement (par. 10).

    509

For more about making a scratch outline, see Chapter 11.

The annotations include a summary of each paragraph’s topic. Here is a scratch outline that lists the topics:

Scratch Outline of “Letter from Birmingham Jail”

  1. White moderates block progress

  2. What the moderates don’t understand

  3. Questions clergymen’s logic

  4. Time must be used to do right

  5. Puts self in middle of two extremes: complacency and bitterness

  6. Offers better choice: nonviolent protest

  7. Says movement prevents racial violence

  8. Discontent normal, healthy, and historically inevitable, but it must be channeled

  9. Redefines “extremism,” embraces “extremist” label

  10. Praises whites who have supported movement

ANALYZE & WRITE

  1. Reread each paragraph of the selection you have been working with in the previous activities in this chapter. Identify the topic and the comments made about the topic. Do not include examples, specific details, quotations, or other explanatory and supporting material.

  2. List the author’s main ideas in the margin, on a separate piece of paper, or in a new document.