Creative Outlining with Word 2007

Although many of us learned about outlines for the first time in elementary school, working with outlines in the daily business world doesn’t have to conform to any rigid rules that may be floating around in the back of your head. The idea of an outline is just to get your ideas down in a way that gives you a structure for your document and helps you ensure you’re covering the major points you want to include in your document. If you find yourself stuck in the planning stage of your document, try some of these techniques to get the ideas flowing.

• The process outline  Does your document lend itself to a series of steps? For example, if you’re writing an article about managing an international project, plan out what you want to say as a series of steps. Perhaps the first thing you do in managing a global initiative is to determine the scope of the project. That’s step 1. Next you take a look at the resources you have available. There’s your second heading. Third, who are the members of your team? Continue until you have completed the process and then review your major steps. Your outline headings can evolve directly from those steps you’ve identified.

• The question outline  You can also use a series of questions to help you identify the important sections of your outline. Basic questions might include these: What is this document about? (This would be your “Overview” or “Introduction” section.) Who is this document for? What is the mission of our company? Who are our department managers? Where is our facility? What types of services and products do we offer? Who are our customers? How have we improved since last year? What’s new and exciting about us? What will we focus on next year?

  Each of these questions gives you a different vantage point from which to consider the content for your document. Put yourself in your readers’ shoes. What will they want to see? What do they want to know about you? Questions can help you make sure you are providing the information that will best connect with the readers of your document.

• The big-to-small outline  Another way to approach a writing task is to move from the big picture to the individual point of view. This works well in documents that you hope will influence others-for example, sales documents, annual reports, grant proposals, or fundraising materials. Your document starts with the big picture-the statement of a problem, concern, or desire that is common to most of us-and then moves toward the specific (how your company or organization uniquely meets the need you established in the big picture). For example, suppose that you are writing an annual report for Coral Reef Divers, a (fictional) nonprofit organization with a mission of preserving and protecting the remaining natural coral reef in the world. In the big perspective, you would talk about the environmental threats to the coral reef and the important role the coral reef serves in balancing the ecosystem. Then you could zoom in to talk about the specific factors your organization identifies as most important and finally, fully explore the services and options your organization provides as a response.