Writing a Descriptive Outline
Format:
Typed and double-spaced. Make sure your name appears at the top right of the first page and number
your pages. Grammar and mechanics count for this exercise, so please carefully proofread your work.
Instructions:
Choose one of the listed essays. Read the essay from beginning to end, but stop periodically to take
notes. Keep these notes handy for future reference.
The best writers pay careful attention to how other writers write. We are constantly on the hunt for tips, d
tricks, and strategies. Notice how well the article you have chosen meets the following 2 criteria:
1.
It is descriptive. That is, it is not purely narrative or purely a summary of data. Rather, it portrays
a scene, or profiles a person or issue in preparation for taking a stand.
2.
It is geared toward a post-secondary, relatively informed audience. That is, people who know a
bit about the subject also think the article is worth reading. Notice how facts are documented.
Ask who the author is quoting, nodding, or referencing. Are they names you recognize? If not,
can you find out who they are?
To write a descriptive outline, begin by mapping the essay section by section. Follow these steps:
1.
If your essay has headings and sub-headings, read them in sequence along with the first
paragraphs of each section and sub-section. Then write a says statement (literally, what does it
say? what is the main idea?) for each section and sub-section. Read your says statements in
sequence and revise them so that they make sense when you read them aloud as a paragraph.
Together, they should add up to an accurate paraphrase of the article. A paraphrase is a
“detailed restatement of all a source’s important ideas. It not only indicates the source’s main
points, but it also reflects its order, tone, and emphasis” (Kirzner & Mandel 266). When you write
a paraphrase, you use your own words to restate the original’s meaning EXCEPT where you
quote key words or phrases that “give readers a sense of the original” (Kirzner and Mandell 266).
For more on paraphrase, see the Purdue University On-line Writing Lab website:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_paraphr.html
After you have compiled your says statements, write out the position that you think the article
takes: that is, restate in your own words its main idea or proposition. If the article does not seem
to have a succinct position statement, write one out yourself.
2.
Decide how the sections are arranged (a section can be literally set off by a section heading or it
can be a group of paragraphs that work together). Do they follow a numerical, temporal, or
causal order (phase one, phase two, phase three; later as opposed to earlier; X resulted from Y)?
Do they follow a compare and contrast organization? Do they seem to pose a problem and then
offer a solution to it? What seems to be the logical order of the points made in the essay?
3.
Decide what role each section plays in the essay. Think of an appropriate label for each section
or paragraph sequence that names what it does: the function of each section inside the article.
Your labels should reflect the dominant pattern of each paragraph or paragraph sequence
(definition, exemplification, cause and effect, classification and division, compare and contrast,
narrative, descriptive). In thinking up labels for the sections, it will also help to decide
 How the sections differ from each other,
 How they are connected or related to each other,
 How they are related to what you understand to be the main point of the essay.
Write a does statement for each section. Base your does statements on the labels you have
given the sections. The does statement designates the function of a paragraph or sequence of
paragraphs. (For example, “The above paragraphs introduce and define the idea of a does
statement, and they give tips on how to label them.”)
4.
Subdivide each section. If the writer has already divided a section with subheadings, use those.
If not, divide the paragraphs into sequences and define what role you think each sequence plays
in that section, how it is related to the other paragraph sequences, and how it is related to the
main point of the essay.
Give the subdivisions labels and use them to complete your does statements by describing how
each paragraph or paragraph sequence is organized.
5.
If the article has an introduction, subdivide it and write says and does statements for it. What
does it say to introduce the piece? What does it do?
6.
If the article has a clearly defined ending, subdivide it and write says and does statements for it.
What does it say to end the piece? What does it do?
7.
Reread the outline you have written and then look at the position statement you wrote earlier.
Does it accurately describe what the article says and does? Revise and clarify the outline as
appropriate.
You may turn in your descriptive outline in outline form or you may revise it into paragraphs that describe
the article and explain what it says.