WEBCAM CLASS: OUTLINING (Learning the Ins and Outs of Outlining - the MOST Important Step of the Writing Process)

Methodology

Duration : 60 minutes - Price : $30.00 - Place : Castro Valley (94546)ALL MASTERCLASSES WILL BE HELD VIA WEBCAM.

Have you ever been given a writing assignment, and when you sit down to begin writing, you completely blank?

If you answered yes, this class is for YOU!

Prewriting is the first step of the writing process. If you don't already know that writing needs to be a process and not a one-step-thing, now you know :) ...this is also why it's a bad idea to wait until the night before your paper is due to begin writing.

Typically, prewriting begins with some form of brainstorming (listing, free writing, charting, etc.) and then moves to what I believe to be the most important step before drafting, which is OUTLINING. So often, students view outlining for an essay as an unnecessary step that wastes time. What they don't realize is that the time and effort spent outlining, results in LESS time and effort spent drafting, and a much happier, more satisfied feeling in the end.

Think of outlining for an essay as painting a room in your house. If the walls are hot pink and you want to paint them a light gray, you need to primer first. Priming is the step that so many people skip because they are eager to begin painting. Well, if you go over the hot pink paint with your light gray, you will likely need two, maybe even three coats of paint, which not only costs more (since primer is cheaper than paint) it takes MORE TIME. And the chances are, you will never cover the hot pink, so you'll end up priming anyway, wasting so much more time than you would have originally needed to take. If you invest a little time in priming before painting, you will save money and time, AND be happy with the end result.

Another example that shows the importance of outlining is driving somewhere you have never been without directions. Look at your essay as the final destination. If you don't have any plans telling you how to get there, you will get lost and end up taking much longer to arrive at your destination, and when you get there, you will be grumpy over how long the drive ended up taking because you didn't use a map.

So do I have your attention now? :)

Outlining is CRUCIAL to writing successful essays. The problem is that outlining is a skill that needs to be learned, which is where I come in. This MasterClass will teach you how to outline effectively so you end up with an essay you can be proud of, and your teacher will LOVE.