By Divine Agodzo
I have heard some seasoned writers say you never need an outline while others swear you always need one to produce great communications. Neither of these positions is exactly right because it all depends. There are instances where spontaneity is helpful and the piece almost seems to develop organically as your write it. Highly creative, “inspired” writing (such as a poem) hardly needs an outline; in fact, it can get in the way of your creativity. Similarly, a short, non-technical speech on a topic you are conversant with, written for a speaker whose approach and preferences you know, may work fine without an initial outline. But for longer, complex pieces, make your task easier by spending time developing an outline of the content and key messages. It is especially critical to have an outline if you are writing for a client who likes to be closely involved in shaping the final outcome, as opposed to one whose approach is “just tell me what to say and I’ll say it.” If your speaker is heavily invested in the development of the content, skipping an outline can be a recipe for editorial disaster down the road.
For the rest of this article, let’s assume that an outline makes sense for your communication. How do you go about using it to shape your work? Imagine your communications assignment is a puzzle. You first need to know what pieces make up the complete puzzle before you can determine where and how they fit together to make sense. So you’ll need to spend some time thinking about what the vital elements are that you need to develop your speech, report, or whatever it is you’re working on. You can do this by interviewing the stakeholders to find out what areas they consider important to address. Also, put yourself in the shoes of the audience and ask yourself questions like, “What would they like to know or learn? What do they need to know? What concerns or questions might they have? The five Ws and H formula used by journalists (what, who, when, where, why and how) is helpful in exploring what to include in your content so make sure you have answered all these questions.
Now that you have all your puzzle pieces, so to speak, it’s time to organize them so that everything fits seamlessly and logically together. Broadly speaking, you need an introduction, body and conclusion, but the bigger question is what goes into these sections. There are various approaches to organizing content: cause and effect; problem and solution; chronological; topical; compare and contrast; or sequential, to name a few. Most presentations combine two or more of these approaches. For example, if are making a presentation about an innovative new product, your outline might look something like this.
- History of the company and some of its past accomplishments (chronological)
- The consumer or industry need/gap that this product is designed to meet (problem and solution)
- How this product is different from the competition (compare and contrast)
- Step-by-step demo of how product works (sequential)
Last, but not least, I suggest having your draft content outline reviewed by the party you are developing it for, as well as any other stakeholders. Make adjustments based on their feedback and get their final sign off. You are now ready to begin fleshing out your communication.
One final but important caveat. An outline is a guideline, not a prescription. Sometimes, in the course of writing, the various puzzle pieces and the organization that you thought would work fine turns out to be not so great on paper. You need to be flexible enough to amend course, just as would if you hit road construction while following a trusted map. You will need to explain the reason for the change to your client, but better this than doggedly follow an outline that doesn’t seem to be working. If it’s a major overhaul of the outline (hopefully not), you may need to discuss the change with the client sooner than later to avoid surprises when you present your work.
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