Using Outline Notes to Better Understand, Analyze, and Retain What We Read

by Joshua S. Levin, Ph.D.

This short guide is designed to help with the completion of your outline assignments, as well as improving your understanding of course materials and your own writing.

Let us assume that every author is trying to say something meaningful.

Required reading is based on the premise that it is worthwhile to: 1) understand what the author is saying; 2) critically evaluate the validity and implications of the author's ideas. We can't critically evaluate a piece of writing if we don't first understand it.

Sometimes our efforts to understand the depth of an article is limited because modern media has conditioned us to skim everything. Academic writing often requires the opposite of skimming: careful, focused, engagement. Learning when to skim and when to cherish every word is part of refining and sharpening our intellect.

Are you skimming now?

Quality engagement with a piece of writing should help us to achieve the two goals of understanding and analyzing an author's work. Students will often skip these steps and go directly to expressing their own views, feelings, and opinions. This is unacceptable in educated discourse and in this class. Before we can express our own views and opinions, we are expected to first demonstrate understanding of the ideas at issue. The reason for this is that understanding the ideas may influence our own thoughts and opinions.

Good writing is like a well made building: quality materials are seemlessly joined together to make a series of parts that support one unified living environment. Similarly, in an essay, article, or book, a focused topic is explored through a series of related ideas and supporting points. When we are trying to understand and retain information from this kind of writing, it is often helpful to construct an outline that reduces the written piece back to its essential structure. In effect, this means deconstructing the article or book so that we can clearly see its organization in terms of key idea groups and the relationships between them. In practice, this means identifying: 1) the thesis or subject of the work; 2) the core set of related ideas; 3) the supporting points that give substance and depth to the topic and the core ideas. In writer's terms, these elements roughly correspond to: 1) thesis statement, 2) topic sentences, 3) key points; 4) supporting sentences. If you are confused about this, or even if you're not, you will find it helpful to take a close look at the online writer's guide. This guide reviews the organization of a professional academic essay, article, or book. Keep in mind that the goal of this kind of writing is crisp clear communication that enables people to understand each other's thoughts.

In this course you will need to outline a number of articles. This does not mean that you must outline every paragraph, but you will have to do the work of identifying the topic, as well as the key ideas and important supporting elements. Your assignment must be submitted in outline format with headings and indentions. Please email this to me as an attachment to a WebCT email in MS-Word format.

Once we are able to understand and summarize what an author has said, we can then meaningfully comment on and criticize his ideas. For example:

1. We can point out why we think an idea is illogical or unfounded.
2. We can point out additional reasons or evidence that support the ideas that were presented.
3. We can build upon the author's idea by adding our own insights.
4. We can explore the implications of an idea beyond the discussion presented in the particular piece of writing.
5. We can connect the author's ideas to other authors who are writing on the same topic.

When we have seriously considered a number of authors' ideas on a particular subject, we will begin to see how they interconnect and create an extraordinary architecture of thoughts. This kind of clarity maximizes the opportunity for meaningful insights and new ideas. The more familiar we become with a topic, the more interesting and complex these insights become.

In order to receive credit, you will need to post a discussion thread, based on your thoughts, insights, or reflections about the article to the WebCT discussion board. You can draw from the preceding five points of analysis in order to help formulate your response. Your post must include your name in the subject line. The first line of the message must also include the name of the article that you read.

Grading Criteria for your Outlines:

** you will earn a grade of 50% or less, if you have not properly followed directions **

Summary:

1. choose and read an article (making notes and underlining)
2. summarize the article in outline format
3. submit the outline as an attachment to a WebCT email in MS-Word format
4. write a post to the discussion area in WebCT. Title the post with your name. Put the name of the article you read in the first line of the message.