Things that made my life easier, [ Psychology]
Which writing technique works best — outlining or revising multiple drafts?
A recent article published by American Psychological Association “To outline, or not to outline?” reveals that people juggle multiple and often contradictory demands of writing. Contrary to conventional wisdom, some studies suggest that the messier the thought process, the clearer the prose!
Psychologist Sarah Ransdell, a writing-cognition researcher and professor at Nova Southeastern University, noted that rather than following a series of steps — first planning, then writing, then revising — good writers do all three nearly simultaneously. Her research shows that asking students to engage in a stepwise process results in lower-quality writing.
However, a team of researchers in England suggests that a particular subset of students may benefit from outlining, while others may do best with a strategy of revising as they compose.
Students high in self-monitoring, for example, frequently evaluate their own text, perhaps taking the perspective of a potential reader. When they are taught to revise their writing through multiple drafts, they showed improvements over the course of five weeks. In contrast, the writing of high self-monitors taught to outline deteriorated. Conversely, the students low in self-monitoring improved if they learned to outline. However, they produced poorer essays if they learned to revise through multiple drafts.
Full article available at http://www.apa.org/monitor/julaug06/outline.html
Yew Boon
11 Aug 2006 Yew Boon 0 comments
