How to Use Your Outline to Create a Final Report

Remember, the outline is a blueprint.  Just as plans help a builder create a structure, your blueprint can form the foundation or frame for the first draft of your report.

1. Writing Piece by Piece:
If your outline is on computer, you can just click your cursor at any group or subgroup you have created, and fill in the details. This can help you overcome writer's block.   That is, write the third section first, if you want.  When you revise you can make sure all the pieces fit together.

2. Modifying the Design:
Outlines are not set in stone. As you write, you may discover that you've left out essential information.  If you keep a printed copy of your outline handy, you can figure out where in your outline the new information belongs and insert it (don't  be formal about it -- just pencil it in).  This way you can see how the addition alters the rest of the report.

3. Starting Again:
Sometimes you need to abandon your original blueprint and seriously restructure your ideas.  This is not a problemóIF you are careful.  Focus again on your purpose statement and audience, and create a new outline (even if it is just a brief sketch).  This will help ensure that your new ideas address the purpose of the report, and that they are well organized.  (Warning:  if you seriously restructure your report away from an outline already approved by your professor, you should check with him or her to ensure that your report is still structurally sound).

4.  Using the Outline to Cross-check the Final Draft:
Finally, if you update your outline as you work, rather than abandon it after it has been approved by your professor, you'll have a handy reference to double check the organization of the final report.  For a larger document, the outline can also provide you with your section headings and subheadings, and can be easily translated into a table of contents as well.  Because organization, not faulty grammar, is at the root of most serious writing problems, an outline can really help improve your writing throughout the writing process, not just at the beginning.

Last modified . Site designed and maintained by Engineering Communication Centre Staff.