By Reilly Fitzpatrick, Consultant
Perhaps even more than the actual drafting process, revising your writing can be challenging and intimidating. As a writer, I feel pretty confident about my ability to go over my sentences with a fine-tooth comb and correct typos, resolve grammatical errors, or improve my word choice. However, trying to make big-picture edits—things like paper organization, cohesive argumentation, paragraph structure, and the ever-elusive pursuit of “flow”—often seems much more overwhelming to me. Is this true for you?
One of the strategies I have implemented in my own writing process, as well as when I teach revision practices to undergraduates, is reverse outlining. Reverse outlining is exactly what it sounds like: it is the process of creating an outline of your paragraph or paper in reverse, once you have already written it. Most of us use an outline when we write our original draft, but reverse outlining helps you to identify and analyze the specific goal of each paragraph and sentence in light of your overarching objective for the paper and evaluate how effectively you are accomplishing those goals. Reverse outlining is a practice that allows you to revise your writing on both a paragraph and sentence level, but more importantly, it gets you to think about your writing choices, not just what you are arguing.
While the writing process is rarely formulaic, reverse outlining is a strategy that works best with a checklist. Here’s a step-by-step guide to reverse outlining and revising your writing that I’ve created based on my own writing and teaching experiences. You’ll notice that most of these steps prompt you to answer questions about your writing, which means that your progression through the reverse outlining process will vary based on your answers and you will end the reverse outlining process with reflection and revision that is tailored both to your project and your individual writing style.
- Choose a paragraph to reverse outline. Usually this process works best if you make your way through your paper chronologically, but you can also jump right to a problem paragraph if you’re short on time!
- Start a page of notes where you will answer the following questions. These notes will ultimately constitute your reverse outline and help you identify strategies to revise.
- Without re-reading the paragraph you’ve chosen, write down what you think the main idea of this paragraph is. What are you trying to explain, argue, or persuade the reader of?
- Next, write down how this paragraph connects to your thesis as a whole. Why is it important to include this paragraph? How does it help you accomplish your overarching goal in this paper?
- Now, let’s look at the paragraph itself. Start with the topic (or first) sentence: what does it communicate to the reader? Write this down. Remember, topic sentences need to articulate 1) the main idea/claim of the paragraph, and 2) how it relates to your thesis. Hint: You just identified both of those goals in steps 2 and 3, so make sure they match up with your topic sentence! If they don’t, think about how you might rewrite your topic sentence to more effectively meet these goals.
- Move on to the next sentence in your paragraph and identify the goal of the sentence. Remember to think about the goal of the sentence not in terms of content (What am I saying here?) but rather structure (Why am I saying this here?). Here are some possible goals for sentences in your paper. Does the sentence…
a. Provide context for the main idea of the paragraph to my reader?
b. State my sub-claim and how it relates to my thesis?
c. Summarize my stance on the topic?
d. Explain what a scholar has to say about this idea?
e. Provide evidence (like a quote, statistic, or example) to support a claim I am making in this paragraph?
f. Explain how a direct quote or paraphrased idea from a source is relevant to my claim?
g. State how my claim is different from other scholars’ arguments?
h. State how my claim relates to an idea I discussed in a previous paragraph?
i. Something else? - Once you have identified the goal of the sentence, ask yourself these questions:
a. Does the sentence actually accomplish its identified goal?
b. Does this sentence directly connect to the main idea of this paragraph as I have identified it in the topic sentence, or does it contain ideas that are irrelevant or tangential?
c. Does this sentence fully explain an idea, or does it need to be developed further (either by expanding the sentence or adding another sentence)?
d. Is this sentence necessary in this paragraph, or could it be combined with another related sentence or deleted altogether?
e. How can I revise this sentence to be clearer, more relevant to the main idea of this paragraph and my thesis, and more persuasive? - Repeat steps 5 and 6 for every sentence in your paragraph, answering each question for the sentence in your notes.
- Once you reach the final sentence of your paragraph—the transition sentence—ask yourself these questions. (Remember, sometimes you will need more than one transition sentence at the end of your paragraph in order to accomplish all of these goals!)
a. Does this sentence sufficiently summarize the main idea of this paragraph and remind the reader of what I have argued in it?
b. Does this sentence connect the main idea of this paragraph back to my thesis?
c. Does this transition sentence guide the reader from the main idea of this paragraph to the main idea I will discuss in the next paragraph? - Now that you have finished reverse-outlining your paragraph on a sentence level, answer these questions about the paragraph as a whole:
a. Is this paragraph accomplishing what I need it to in this paper? Does it clearly connect to my thesis? Is it necessary to prove my argument?
b. Do I have one main idea in this paragraph, or do I jump around between several ideas? Does my topic sentence reflect this main idea and remind the reader of how this idea connects to my thesis, or does it just generally state the topic?
c. Do I fully explain, argue, and support my sub-claim in this paragraph? What do I need to add in order for my paragraph to be persuasive—more explanation of my stance, more evidence from sources, or more background information?
d. Does this paragraph repeat any information or ideas I have already talked about in another place? Which place makes the most sense for me to include that content?
e. Does this paragraph need to be combined with another paragraph or split into 2 or more paragraphs? Does this paragraph need to be longer or shorter?
f. Where is this paragraph placed in my paper? Does it work where it is, or does it need to be earlier or later in the paper? - Repeat these steps to reverse outline your next paragraph!
- After you have made a reverse outline of every paragraph in your paper, think about the quality and quantity of paragraphs you’ve written. Do you feel confident that your thesis has been effectively explained, argued, supported, and proven? Have you noticed any gaps in your argumentation or methodology? Do your introduction and conclusion accurately predict and reflect the actual content of your paper? Have you considered all the perspectives on your topic and sufficiently surveyed the scholarly conversation related to your claim? As you became the reader (or the audience) of your own writing, what did you notice about your clarity, persuasiveness, and tone? What are some aspects of your writing that you would like to change or improve as you revise this paper and work on other projects?
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Once you’re done reverse outlining your paper, take a step back and reflect on what you learned. What have you noticed about yourself as a writer? Are there specific writing strategies or skills that you are especially good at? Are there patterns in your paper that indicate a skill you need to develop? How might you adjust your writing or revision processes in the future based on what you have learned? While you might want to jump right into revisions, spending some time reflecting on your writing personality and processes will help you become a more competent and confident writer in the future.