Further explanation about the project:

A reverse outline is an outline of a completed work instead of an outline used to create a new work. Reverse outlining can help you understand the problems in an essay or article. It is also useful when an article is particularly complex or difficult to understand. A reverse outline will help you better understand such an article because you break its structure.

Chapter 4 of Renovating Your Writing discusses the process of outlining and in understanding the elements and purpose of an outline. It also discusses the value of a reverse outline to improve your own writings (p. 58).

Your outline should include the following items:

1. The purpose statement or thesis statement of the speech

2. The main points of the speech.

3. Subpoints of the various main points.

4. Evidence and the sources of that evidence referenced by the author.

5. The Introduction, Body, and Conclusion portions of the speech clearly delineated. (Just as those are delineated in the course Outline Template.)

The statements in your outline must be declaratory sentences—not questions, phrases, or single words.

The outline should be in outline format—not bullet points, a list, or paragraph or essay form. (You can use roman numerals, numerals, or letters in your outline to signify the different levels in the speech.) The outline should not be a transcript of the article, which would be all or most of the article written out word for word but in an outline format instead of an essay format.

Finally, try to write the outline using your own words and sentences as much as possible. While some terms of art are necessary because you are outlining another’s work, you want to minimize the similarities in language between your outline and the original article.

Purpose of this project: Outlining a completed work (either your own or another’s) helps you understand the structure of that work and how its arguments are constructed and evidence is used to support the arguments.