Blog Post #2 (Ian)

At least when it comes to academic writing I am a person that lives and dies by outlines. This is both because I find it extremely difficult to start writing - and I find that the work of outlining is a much easier way for me to ease into the writing process then simply letting it fly on a blank Word doc - but also because I get an almost narcotic head high from putting things in order. In this way I am, unsurprisingly, somewhat of an obsessive trip planner. Tickets, budgets, reservations, itineraries - the act of putting these things together may actually be my deepest satisfaction in life. Certainly more so than actually going on the trip. In any case, that's what outlining is for me: sitting down to map out the trajectory of my writing project.

Though I understand that this is a fairly personal and peculiar neurosis, I still always place particular emphasis on the importance of the "pre-writing" stage when I teach writing, whether in the classroom or in a writing center. Though I think the importance of drafting/revising gets plenty of attention in writing pedagogy, all the instruction I ever received about outlining was basically limited to being told I should do it vs. learning why, or how to do it effectively. Especially given how formulaic and circular undergraduate writing is expected to be, I feel like guiding the outlining process is the place I can make the biggest impact for my students in the shortest period of time.

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