#AcWri Thread:

My students ALWAYS ask me the question:

"How do I go from having the Detailed Outline to actually writing a Memorandum (or a series of Memos) that I can then assemble into the full draft of the paper?"

Well, everyone: Grab a chair because HERE IT GOES.

As you all know I’m finishing a chapter on ethnography in comparative environmental politics.

Comparative is what I do and who I am.

This doesn’t mean that it’s any easier to write. So I always go back to basics.

1) Initial Outline. Basic layout of ideas, headings/thoughts.

2) Break down each chapter heading/main idea into ideas/Topic Sentences/Triggering Questions.

As you can see here, I grabbed the “ethnography in CEP” and started writing Triggering Questions that help trigger my thinking.

I start adding more detail to the heading outline.

This is the initial draft of my Initial Outline.

As you can see, there are still a number of major headlines that need to be detailed.

It's tempting to just go ahead with writing the first few elements of the Detailed Outline (I am IMPATIENT as hell).

DO NOT DO THIS.

My first advice to students when writing outlines is ALWAYS FINISH THE INITIAL OUTLINE FIRST.

My second piece of advice: is: FINISH DRAFTING THE DETAILED OUTLINE FIRST.

Reason for finishing the Detailed Outline first? You will be able to see the overall argument, "bird's eye"

Here is my post on Initial Outlines and Detailed Outlines.
http://www.raulpacheco.org/2020/11/writing-papers-using-initial-outlines-and-detailed-outlines/

Here is my post on Writing by Memorandums.
http://www.raulpacheco.org/2020/04/writing-by-memorandums/

Here is my post on how I develop outlines using Topic Sentences and Triggering Questions http://www.raulpacheco.org/2018/03/two-methods-for-writing-a-paper-outline-answering-questions-and-listing-topic-sentences/

Now, another key question that my students ask me regularly:

"Professor, how do you decide what goes into your memorandum?"

Generally speaking, I try to write ONE memorandum per Triggering Question.

For example, in this case: "what is ethnography?" would be ideal for a memo.

Now, for the "breaking down the big project into small pieces" part of this thread:

Different people use different strategies for outlining.

I teach most of them.

One of them is outlining by hand (as I have been doing)

Others outline directly on screen.

Yet others use...

... Mind Maps.
http://www.raulpacheco.org/2016/12/mind-mapping-as-a-strategic-research-and-writing-tool/

(I've written other posts on mind mapping for literature reviews, see below:)
- http://www.raulpacheco.org/2019/08/on-reading-up-a-lot-mind-mapping-the-literature-finding-the-gap-and-writing-paragraphs-in-your-literature-review/

- http://www.raulpacheco.org/2019/08/from-review-of-the-literature-to-mind-map-of-the-field/

- http://www.raulpacheco.org/2019/07/a-proposed-research-process-mind-map/

(for this particular mind map, I used https://www.mindmaps.app/# )

Personally, I'm not tied to any model for outlining (directly in Scrivener, Word, or whichever word processor you use, by hand, or using mind maps).

I find that combining these techniques (digital and analog) really helps me refine and hone the final product.