CM 220
College Composition II
UNIT 5 Seminar
1
Getting Started with your Big Idea
In unit 6, you will submit a 3-5 page draft of your Big Idea.
Why is beginning early, in unit 5, helpful to you as a writer?
What can you do to GET STARTED?
If you have trouble with Writer’s Block, how can you solve this
problem?
2
Audience and Purpose
How are audience and purpose KEY to successful writing?
Who is the audience you would like to communicate to?
What do you know about them and what do you need to know about
them?
What do you want to communicate to that audience?
How can you best communicate your information to that audience?
3
Organizing and Developing your ideas
• Establish a thesis
• Prewriting
What types of prewriting have you heard of?
Have you tried any? Have you had any success?
4
Why write an outline?
• 1.) If you figure out as you’re outlining where
the research will go, you won’t have to reread it all and try to juggle it all as you’re
writing the paper.
• 2.) You can’t get stuck writing the paper,
because you have a map to follow.
• 3.) You can see in advance how much material
you have for the paper.
• 4.) #1 biggest time saver in writing a paper!
Outlining
• No paper should be written without an outline!
• There are generally 2 types of outlines – formal
and informal
• Formal outlines follow a strict structure and are
often required to be turned in to your instructor
• If you are not required to turn in an outline, using
an informal outline for your own benefit is often
much more effective
Formal outline structure
(This outline is a 5-paragraph essay, but you could add as
many body paragraphs as needed)
I. Introduction
A. Engaging opening sentence
B. Background information to review with your audience
C. Thesis statement
II. Topic Sentence
A. Supporting details
B. Supporting details
III.
Topic Sentence
A. Supporting details
B. Supporting details
IV. Topic Sentence
A. Supporting details
B. Supporting details
V.
Conclusion
A. Restatement of thesis (not directly)
B. Key information to review with your audience
C. Concluding statement
Example formal outline
I. Introduction
A. One-third of American children are overweight or obese (Smith, 2009).
B. Childhood obesity is becoming a fast-growing and serious epidemic.
C. Schools should help to prevent childhood obesity by educating students on the issue, offering
healthy lunches, and requiring physical education classes.
II. Health education classes need to be mandatory to help prevent obesity.
A. Children need to understand the importance of a healthy weight
B. Due to school budget cuts, school nutritionists are rare (Max, 2008).
III.
Healthy school lunches set the right example for the rest of a child’s diet.
A. To save money, schools have traditionally offered foods low in nutritional value (Smith, 2009).
B. High-calorie treats like soda and chips should not be available.
IV.
Physical education classes may be the only time child get exercise.
A. Video games and computers encourage children to be sedentary. Physical education is one way
to combat that.
B. One-fourth of U.S. schools have cut physical education in the last three years in order to focus on
math and science (Miller, 2009).
V.
Conclusion
A. Schools need to make big changes to address the childhood obesity epidemic.
B. Extra spending is worth it to keep children from facing complications like heart disease and
diabetes.
Formal outlining, continued…
• Sometimes, the intro and conclusion are not
included in the outline, but the thesis
statement would still be given at the top
• Unless your instructor approves using phrases
or fragments, use full sentences in an outline,
as in a paper
• If you use research in the outline, cite as you
would in a paper
Informal outlining
• So what if you don’t need to turn in an
outline for your instructor? Informal/scratch
outlines are the way to go!
• Too many people think that formal outlining is
the only way to outline – not so!
• Informal outlining CANNOT be a waste of
time. It only takes a second to jot down rough
ideas, and you have to come up with those
ideas either way!
Plan out enough material for a paper with an
informal outline
• Say you need a 4-page paper
• About 3 paragraphs per page
• Minus intro and conclusion (since they are
overviews)
• Equals 10 paragraphs you need to have subtopics for
• Number the outline up to 10, and come up
with a topic for each
Example informal outline
(Normally, you’d just handwrite this on scratch paper – it doesn’t matter what it
looks like, and you’re not committed to it!)
• Thesis – Schools can prevent obesity with education,
lunches, gym class
1) Education
-- Health class
-- Nutrition knowledge
2) Lunches
-- No soda, junk food
-- Saving money with “mystery meat”
3) Phys Ed
-- Outside of school, kids play video games, TV, etc.
-- Too much focus on “traditional” classes – math, science,
etc.
Last word on informal outlines
• You’re just jotting down ideas – no need to be
perfect, so long as you can understand what you
wrote 
• If you can’t generate enough material, stop here;
don’t try to jump into writing the paper. You can
change topics, do more brainstorming, do more
research, etc.
• Without an outline, students often have many
structural problems with a paper – lack of
paragraph structure, organizational problems,
and sometimes no focus in general!