Sign up for GC Writing Services’ Reverse-Outlining Workshop on April 16 in GC room 7209 from 3 to 4pm! Spread the word to your friends, classmates, and chartered orgs!

Many of us teach our students to reverse outline, but how can we incorporate this method into our own writing practice, which generally has us working with longer and more complex draft materials? How can we use sequence to strengthen the clarity of our ideas?

This workshop seeks to give participants a more logical and organized structure for already-written prose as well as to give students tools to ensure that there is a clear relationship between their stated argument(s) and the evidence their writing analyzes. It will equip workshoppers to better revise their own work and to provide guiding questions for outside readers (writing buddies, family members, faculty advisers) from whom they may seek feedback on early stages of their drafts.

Workshoppers should come with a working (though not necessarily full-length) draft of an academic paper they wish to revise and, particularly, to focus. We will spend the first part of the workshop concisely summarizing our drafts’ claims and reverse-outlining (and thus making notes toward revising) our own work, and the second part reverse-outlining and giving feedback on a partner’s work.

We will close with a short free-writing reflection exercise and a group discussion geared toward incorporating reverse-outlining into our ongoing writing practices. How do our own understandings of our work differ from those of our peer reviewers? Based on reverse outlining, what sequence makes most sense for the ideas expressed in the paper at hand? What is the relationship between each body paragraph and the essay’s stated argument?

If you’re planning on coming to our workshop, please RSVP using our event registration form.

April 16, 3-4pm, GC room 7209

Email writinghelp@gc.cuny.edu with questions.

*To join our new Writing Services email list, click here, fill out the form, and check the “Writing Services” box at the bottom.*

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