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Dominic Jones

Professor Henken

ENC 1101

2 November 2023

Outlines as a Pre-Writing Strategy

For many, the first essay one ever writes is done with the help of an outline. This

provides a specific formula that can go on to be used for every essay one would go on to write in

the future. This formula includes a solid foundation to structure the essay. However, this formula

is limiting to writers and encourages robotic-like writing. Therefore, the use of outlines should

still be used to develop the foundation of essay writing at low levels, but they should not be used

in higher-level English classes.

Outlines do a great job at breaking up what would be a daunting task for a young and

inexperienced writer. Dr Muirhead, a professor at the University of Phoenix and student at

Columbia University, highlights the positives of outlines saying, “Creating outlines encourages

students to devote more attention to organizing their ideas and make thoughtful decisions about

their choices of words to communicate their ideas” (40). The use of outlines for a writer helps

them focus on the fundamentals of writing. Breaking an essay up into smaller pieces makes the

task of writing it more manageable. Additionally, Dr Muirhead describes outlines as, “a relevant

instructional technique to help students develop self-regulated writing skills and promote higher

order thinking” (36). Outlines can help develop these fundamental skills of writing that are not

yet built by inexperienced writers. In turn, this can create a stronger foundation of writing that

can be used in the future.

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However, once the fundamental basics of essay writing are established, an outline can be

limiting in essay writing. Students should not have to use an inorganic writing strategy. This

leads to students plugging in information into a preconceived format leading to a lack of idea

development and less critical thinking about the idea they are trying to communicate (Milligan

165). The robotic nature of this strategy leads to an inorganic, and often uninspired, writing

process. The writer does not think about what they want to say and how they want to say it; they

simply plug the information into the format to get the desired result.

Furthermore, Flower and Hayes make an effective analogy saying, “An outline, by

contrast, can encourage a writer to paint by numbers” (457). Paint by numbers is a very rigid and

methodical task. In paint by numbers, the artist does not get to pick the colors that they use for

the painting, which takes away all creativity – like outlines do. There is no room for creativity or

expression, one can simply follow the strict instructions to achieve the result. Moreover, the

process of writing is diminished when using outlines. Flower and Hayes describe the writing

process as “reduced” into “filling in details” (457). The organic writing process is essential to

being creative and expressive in one’s writing. If the process is minimized into something as

basic as filling in information, there is no creativity.

There are a multitude of different pre-writing strategies that differ greatly from outlines.

The short comings of outlines are highlighted by researchers and professors at Carnegie Melon

University stating, “This linear, text-bound image of planning seems inadequate for adults”

(Flower, Schriver, Carey, Haas, and Hayes 17). Outlines force the mentality that writing, and the

process of writing, is a linear task. This is not the case, and forcing that on advanced-level

writers is misleading and can be damaging overall to their writing. Another downfall of outlines

is that they are text-bound. Those of us that learn and organize information better visually are
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harmed by the use of outlines. If one is unable to properly and effectively organize information,

then they will struggle to be creative in communicating their argument. There are different and

more effective methods that can be used to create understanding and creative methods of

communication.

Ultimately, the use of outlines is effective in teaching the fundamental skills of writing to

young and inexperienced writers, however, they become a limiting factor once those

fundamental skills are developed. Creating a rigid formula to follow leads to uninspiring and

robotic-like writing, diminishing writing and its process to a stagnant formula. Therefore, the use

of outlines should not be permitted in higher-level writing.

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Work Cited

Milligan, Kristin. “Formal Outlines are Always Useful.” Bad Ideas About Writing, 2017, p. 163-

167.

Muirhead, Brent. “Using outlines to improve student writing skills.” I-Manager’s Journal on

School Educational Technology, vol. 1, no. 3, 2006, pp. 17–23.

Flower, Linda S., and John R. Hayes. “Problem-Solving Strategies and the Writing Process.”

College English, vol. 39, no. 4, 1977, pp. 449–61.

Flower, Linda, Karen A. Schriver, Linda Carey, Christina Haas and John R. Haves “Planning in

writing: The cognition of a constructive process.” CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF WRIT-

ING, 1989, pp. 1–13.