Reverse outline
Take the draft you have and write one sentence per paragraph saying what it actually says. The list is the argument you actually made, which is rarely the one you meant to.
For a Document · Writing centres everywhere; no single author · takes half an hour
How to run it
- Print the draft, or open it beside a blank page. Write the point of the whole piece in one sentence at the top of the blank page.
- For each paragraph, write one sentence that says what it says. Not what it is about: what it claims. If you can’t, the paragraph doesn’t say anything yet.
- Number them. Read the list on its own, without the draft. That is the argument you actually made.
- Check the list against the top sentence. Which paragraphs advance it? Which repeat one another? Which are there because you liked them?
- Mark each one: keep, move, cut. Move the ones in the wrong order on the list first, and see whether the argument reads better before you touch the draft.
- Fix the draft from the list: cut, reorder, and write the missing paragraph the list shows you need.
Where it falls down. Writing what each paragraph is about rather than what it says, which makes every paragraph look fine.
With a pen
The point of the whole piece, in one sentence
Paragraph by paragraph: what it says, not what it is aboutNumber / the claim / keep, move, cut
What the list is missing
What appears twice