Palimpsest 2017
I often talk about how much I love working in the Writing Center (like here on my blog about the Word of the Year). Every year the Writing Center publishes a Palimpsest. There are two definitions for the word palimpsest on Merriam Webster:
1: writing material (such as a parchment or tablet) used one or more times after earlier writing has been erased
2: something having usually diverse layers or aspects apparent beneath the surface
Our version of the palimpsest is sort of a combination of the two; basically, each year, us tutors give other students advice on some aspect of writing or another. This week I've been working on my Palimpsest article for 2018. I should have started it a long time ago, but alas. It's past due and I'm struggling to finish it before our work meeting tomorrow.
Keep your eye out for it. It's about journalism in the era of fake news and I'm pretty excited about it, so it now doubt will be finding its way to a home on my blog one of these days when it's polished and pretty. But in the mean time, here are some of my thoughts from last year's Palimpsest on outlining:
"It’s midnight. Here you are again, sitting on your couch with no pants on and a cold can of Diet Coke in one hand. One minute goes by, and then another with no change; if you continue to stare at the blinking cursor on the completely white Google Doc, you know there is a pretty good chance you will by hypnotized and never get your paper done. You also know that you should start writing the paper that is due at nine o’clock the next morning, but you glance at the twitter tab and notice there is seven new tweets you could look at.
Okay… So many I am just describing what I do the night before a paper is due, but chances are one or two of you might find yourself in the same sinking boat. Luckily for you, there is something you can do to avoid the hypnotizing glare of the blank page and blinking cursor. That something—which is often associated with your 10th grade literature teacher who forced it upon you—is outlining.
I have a little secret for you: outlining does not have to be the most painful part of your paper. Personally, I find making an outline actually makes the writing process much less painful. One of the best things about outlining is that there is not one way it must be done; the best way to outline varies from person to person.
Although it seems a little boring, I am a big fan of the standard outline form. I find this format helpful because it is easy to get all of your thoughts down. When preparing the bare bones of my outline, I like to put down my main argument points first. However, rather than starting at the first main point and working all of the way through that, I find it most helpful to develop them all at the same time. This strategy is great for those of us who don’t want to forget something that you know will fit great later on in your paper. When you have all of your main ideas down, you can go through your sources and then when you find a quote, it is easy to plug it in under whichever main point it best fits until all of your main ideas are well developed.
Branching is a great alternative to the standard outline; branching is basically the spider-web like concept maps you maybe made in elementary school. The idea is to put your main idea in a circle in the middle of a piece of paper. From there, you draw as many lines out as quickly as possible without referencing your notes or material, and then continue on until there are so many lines and circles it looks similar to a spider web. This can be helpful if you feel a standard outline format makes it difficult for you to change your original plans.
The final outline strategy I find useful is a combination of some ideas in Anne Lamott’s memoir Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. Her writing is full of humor and helpful advice, including advice on getting started (which is basically just an outline, if you haven’t caught on). While I found everything she wrote helpful, my favorite part was the notion of “Shitty First Drafts”: writing as much as you can without allowing your conscience, necessity for perfect grammar, or anxiety about dying before you can revise the bad writing in hopes of finding a few great sentences that can turn into something beautiful.
Getting started is really, really difficult; getting started is arguably the hardest part of the writing process, at least in my opinion. So when you sit down the night before your paper is due and you have an outline—whether it is the standard roman numerals, or a branched out spider web, or a shitty first draft, or a one-inch picture frame, or any other way you are able to prepare your thoughts on a page— it is much easier to get started."
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