Chapter II: How to Write Exposition (3)

The outline helps to overcome these difficulties. In the first place, it is not final, can be changed at will, and makes no extraordinary demands on the powers of expression. In the second place, as regards logic, the outline shows the relation of ideas to each other and to the whole subject; you can estimate rather easily whether a detail is of sufficient value to warrant inclusion, and, if so, how much space it deserves. For in the outline you have the bare fact, succinctly expressed, which enables you to focus your attention upon the thought. But since logic is more than mere inclusion and order and spacing, and deals also with the logic of attitude, the outline is again of service. For it shows what should be the tone of the complete piece of writing, and how this tone should be modified by the individual section of the writing. Suppose that you are to write of the attitude of a politician toward party principles. If a heading in your outline reads, "He never _feared_ to _modify_ principles to meet inevitable conditions," the attitude which you take in writing will be radically different from that which you would assume if the heading read, "He never _hesitated_ to _warp_ principles to outwit unfavorable conditions." Both the logic of structure and that of attitude, then, are aided by the use of an outline. And, at any point in the actual completed writing, you can easily determine by referring to the outline, whether you are gaining the effect that you desire and what progress you have made. And in the third place, as regards expression, the outline relieves you of the necessity of doing the constructive thinking of the subject, and enables you to apply all your powers to the actual saying of your message. Shakespeare might have written, instead of "the multitudinous seas incarnadine," "make all the ocean, that's full of fishes,[9] look red"--but he did not. Had he done so, where would now have been the power and the charm? Expression is of utmost value, and you can ill afford to slight it. For this reason, and especially since distinguished expression is so difficult to form, to be released from the attendant worry of constructive thinking is of the greatest help to the writer. Both logic and expression, then, are dependent on the outline: with it they are more sure.

[9] If this be the meaning of "multitudinous."

Instead, then, of feeling that dim dread of failure, which ever dogs the writer's steps, with a well-constructed outline you can feel comparative safety in the possession of a safe guide in case of perplexity. You will be initiated, will know the secrets of your subject, will have a "grip" with your facts and ideas, and can apply your powers to putting the intangible thoughts into tangible words.

As for being of value to the instructor, often he too can estimate more surely and easily the worth of the writing if he has the skeleton to examine. For there the structural defects are more apparent, are not concealed by the pleasant flow of words, just as the structure of a skyscraper is more apparent before the wall-tiles or bricks are laid on to conceal the girders. The instructor can therefore often point out insufficiencies in the thought, or wrong relations, which might otherwise stand as defects in the finished work.

The Form of the Outline

Shall an outline be written in words and phrases or in complete sentences? In the first place, so far as any reader except the author is concerned, complete sentences are necessary for understanding. Often they are necessary for the writer himself. In an outline of a theme explaining gas engines the isolated heading _Speed_ means nothing definite to any one but the author, if indeed to him. A reader cannot tell from such a word whether speed is important or insignificant, or whether the author intends to give to gas engines credit for comparative excellence in this property. If, however, the heading reads, "In the important property of _Speed_ gas engines are the equal of steam engines," the reader knows at once what is meant, whether he may agree with the statement or not. He can definitely tell from an outline of complete sentences what the course of thought is to be and what will be the tone of the theme. The reader, then, needs complete sentences. The writer, on the other hand, might seem to be sufficiently helped by mere words or phrases, since he naturally knows what he means. But does he know? The chances are that when an author puts down such a heading as _Speed_ he has only a large general notion of what he means, without being sure of the immediate connection and application, and with perhaps no idea at all of the tone which he intends to catch. If the author will write the sentence quoted above, he will complete his thought, make it really definite, and be pretty sure to know what he is talking about, what he intends to do. Furthermore, even though he know, when he sets down a phrase, what he means by it, the chance is strong that when he arrives at the expansion of the phrase he will have forgotten some of the implications and may give the heading a cast that he did not intend. Whether he knows definitely what he means or not, the writer is more safe if he uses complete sentences, and for any other reader of the outline complete sentences are quite necessary.

Outlines are of three kinds: those that show the topic relations by division into indented headings; those that show the sequence of paragraphs by statement of the topic sentence; and those that combine these two forms. The primary object of the first form, which is illustrated by the first outline of "An Idyl of the Honey-Bee" which follows, is to aid in the thinking, to plot out the ground and to group the material. In this first outline a glance at the five main headings makes the plan of the essay at once apparent--first a statement of the effect of bees upon us; then an account of a hunt; then some specific examples to drive things home; then some special directions that might be overlooked, and finally a tribute to the joy of the hunting. The benefit of this kind of outline is that the general relationships among topics are made clear, the large divisions of thought appear, and the writer can with comparative ease tell whether he has covered the subject, and whether he has chosen the best order of thought. It avoids the invertebrate flow of thought that is unaware of structure. In other words, it is of value chiefly to the thinking. It does not show which topics shall be grouped into paragraphs together, and it does not, of course, phrase the topic sentences, usually. In such an outline care should be taken to make each heading a complete sentence, and to make headings that are of the same rank fairly parallel in structure of expression unless this interferes with the tone of the heading. For example, A, B, and C under III are made similar in structure since they bear the same general relation to III.

The second type of outline, that in which a list of the topic sentences is given, and which is illustrated by the second outline of "An Idyl of the Honey-Bee" which follows, is of value, especially if used with an outline of the first type, in that it shows just how much of the thought should go into the various paragraphs, and thereby establishes the divisions of expression. Comparison of the two outlines of "An Idyl of the Honey-Bee" will show that paragraph 5 in the second outline includes all the material in the four headings, 2, a, 1´, and b, under II in the first outline. Now for the writer to know beforehand how he intends to divide his material into paragraphs is of great value; otherwise he might be giving to some comparatively minor point--which for the moment assumes interest for him--a separate paragraph, as if, for example, Mr. Burroughs had dwelt at length on the interesting location of trees on ledges. In other words, this second kind of outline is valuable chiefly in its arrangement and placing of material. Its service in making the original choice is not so immediately apparent. It has also the advantage that it indicates pretty well what kind of expression is to be used in the expanded form.

The third type of outline, which many writers prefer to either of the others, indicates both the topics to be treated and the division into paragraphs. It may be constructed in either of two ways: first, the topic sentences may be stated in their regular order, with the subdivisions of the thought as they appear in the indented outline grouped under the topic sentences; or in the indented outline the paragraphs may be indicated by the regular sign for the paragraph at any point where a new division is to be made. That is, in the first of the two outlines that follow, the first paragraph might be indicated in the first outline as including I and I, A; the second as including II and II, A; the third as including II, B, 1, a, b, etc. Or, in the second outline the subheadings of the first might be indicated under the various topic sentences. The value of this type of outline is obviously that it both shows the logic of the thought and the divisional arrangement for presentation in paragraphs. With such an outline the chances that you could go wrong, in even a long theme on a difficult subject, are slight.

Do not fail, therefore, when your theme is to be of any considerable length, or when the subject is at all difficult, to make an outline. There is no greater pleasure in the world than that of creative effort when the creator knows what he is about. But when the ideas are hazy, when the writer does not know exactly what he wishes to do and what impression he wishes to make--then the process of creation is anything but pleasant. And since the outline presents a pattern of your work, since with it you cannot fail to see what your intentions are and what the requirements of your subject, regard it as your best writing friend--and make use of the rights of friendship and require service.

FIRST OUTLINE OF "AN IDYL OF THE HONEY-BEE"

I. A colony of bees increases our interest in a wood.

A. The secret of the hidden golden store of honey is pleasing.

II. The hunt is most interesting, especially in the autumn.

A. Nature, as we tramp with luncheon and with bait, is in her
greatest glory.

B. We are stimulated by the odds against our finding the tree.

1. Determining the direction of the tree is a problem.

a. It is easy to catch the first bee and watch it devour
the bait.

b. But to be sure of its rapid flight home requires
sharp eyes and concentrated watching.

c. Only after three or four trips of the first bee do
others discover the secret of our bait and join in
establishing the necessary "line" to the tree.

2. Determining the distance of the tree requires skill.

a. From another point we make a new "line" that meets
the first at the tree.

1´. This is called "cross-lining."

b. It is easy to pass by the tree even when we know
about where it is.

C. Once found, the tree must be attacked boldly.

1. Bees do not sting a bold person.

2. But when a sting is touched, even on a dead bee, it
hurts.

3. Honey is the best cure for the sting.

D. The actions of the bees are interesting.

1. Those which are away from home do not recognize the ruins
of their own hive, and begin to eat.

a. At last they pathetically understand.

2. Robber bees come for plunder.

a. Bumble-bees arrive in large numbers.

1´. Compared with honey-bees they are clumsy.

III. Two examples from experience show the chances for missing and the
delights of triumph.

A. Both trees were hemlocks.

B. Both were in interesting situations.

C. Both yielded good store of honey.

IV. Special facts, occasioned by the habits of bees, need to be
remembered.

A. In the woods, the hunter must stop, every little while, to
test his "line."

1. Sometimes he is baffled, because the bees do not know the
woods from the ground side.

B. Bees hunt for honey far from home.

1. Usually it is easier to find a tree half a mile away than
from only a few yards.

C. Since bees like water, a careful hunter looks along creeks
and near springs.

V. Wild honey is better than tame because it tastes of the adventure
of finding it.

SECOND OUTLINE OF "AN IDYL OF THE HONEY-BEE"

1. The presence of a colony of bees in a wood gives it interest.

2. The fall is the best time to start with luncheon and bait off
across the fields a-hunting.

3. After two miles we catch several bees and watch them start for
home with our honey.

4. After several trips, other bees that have discovered the secret
arrive.

5. With one line established, we move on, establish another, find
the tree and attack it.

6. Boldness in handling bees is essential.

7. Bees that are away from home when their tree is attacked have
considerable difficulty in recognizing it.

8. Robber bees join the plundered to eat all the remnants of honey.

9. A neighbor honey-bee leads to another store in a hemlock.

10. Another tree in the vicinity, also a hemlock, had a superb
situation.

11. The honey in this tree was most pleasing to see and to carry
home.

12. In lining bees one must stop every little while and test his
line; bees puzzle sometimes by their actions since they know the
woods only from above.

13. Bees discover their home to the hunter better when they are
caught at some distance from the tree.

14. Since bees like water, it is well to hunt along brooks and near
springs.

15. Wild honey is sweeter than tame.

EXERCISES

I. Select the words and phrases in the selection from _Pulvis et
Umbra_ which immediately help to accomplish the controlling
purpose of the essay.

II. From what grade in the intellectual and social world does
Stevenson select his examples in the paragraph beginning: _If the
first view of this creature_, etc.? Why? From what grade would
you select examples for a similar paragraph if you intended the
creation of despair as your controlling purpose? What common
qualities are found in _all_ Stevenson's examples through the
selection? Why does he strive for this quality?

III. Make an outline of "An Idyl of the Honey-Bee," using the material
which now appears, but placing the accent of the essay upon the
difficulty of obtaining the honey, instead of upon the pleasures
of the hunt, as it is now placed--in other words, outline the
essay with change of controlling purpose.

IV. Write the first paragraph of the essay, and the last one, as you
would wish them to appear if your intention were to make
difficulty rather than joy the controlling purpose.

V. 1. Make an outline for "Solemn-Looking Blokes" with the
controlling purpose of bringing out the romantic nature of
the presence of American troops in England.

2. Make an outline such as would suit the expression of an
American who had been living in England since the declaration
of war in 1914 and had been taunted with the apathy of the
United States government, and now was supremely proud to see
United States troops in England.

VI. Write a final paragraph of "Solemn-Looking Blokes" to express any
of the following controlling purposes:

1. Joy at the union of the old and the new worlds in a common
cause.

2. Heartache at the awfulness of soldiers' sailing 3000 miles
to die because an autocratic government precipitated war.

3. The pride of an American resident in London over the physique
of the United States soldiers.

4. The astonishment of a London school-boy who has just read in
his history how the American colonies rebelled.

5. The apprehension of a British Tory lest aristocracy be doomed
when the troops of a great democracy appear so far away from
home to battle against autocracy.

VII. Write outlines and themes on any of the following subjects to
accomplish the different controlling purposes:

1. The Scientific Reduction of Noise.

1. To show the _social duty_ of engineers.

2. To show the wonder of man's analytical powers.

3. To show the seriousness of the difficulties that must be
faced.

2. The Growing Appreciation of Good Architecture in America.

1. To show the good educative work of our architects.

2. To show the influence of European travel.

3. To show the effect of the general rise in standards of
education.

3. The Popular Magazines.

1. To show the general looseness of thinking.

2. To show the senseless duplication of material and ideas.

3. To show the opportunity for a host of authors.

4. The Effects of the Big Mail-Order Houses.

1. To show how they ruin the small country store.

2. To show how they increase the opportunities of the small
buyers.

3. To show how they help give employment in the large
cities.

5. Is Religion Declining?

1. To show the shifting of responsibility from creeds to
deeds.

2. To show the changed status of the church.

3. To show the effect of increased education on religion.

6. "Best Sellers."

1. To show the relation of their immediate popularity to
their final valuation.

2. To indicate the qualities necessary to a "best seller."

3. To show the effect upon the thinking of a nation that has
many "best sellers."

7. Results of the Farm Credit Legislation.

1. To show the relief gained for the farmers.

2. To show the effect on increased production.

3. To show the fairer economic distribution.

8. The Use of Concrete.

1. To show the general economic value.

2. To show the general lightening of toil that it may have
caused.

3. To show the variety of its service.

9. The American Spirit.

1. To show its idealism.

2. To show its indebtedness to England, or France, or
Germany.

3. To show how it may help the world.

10. Beethoven's Piano-forte Sonatas.

1. To show them as the culmination of the sonata
development.

2. To show their romantic nature.

3. To show the development of Beethoven's genius as he
matured.

11. Heredity in Plants.

1. To show the similarity to heredity in man.

2. To show how knowledge of heredity in plants may serve an
economic purpose.

3. To show the wonderful consistency of the laws of heredity
in plants.

12. Glacial Action in the Mississippi Valley.

1. To show the economic result.

2. To indicate the sweep of time consumed in the formation.

3. To show the picturesque qualities in the gradual action.

VIII. What is the controlling purpose in the following selection? Point
out the influence upon the writer of knowing that Bostonians
would read his words. Indicate how the selection would differ if
the controlling object were to be bitter jealousy expressed by a
resident in a newer, larger, envious city.

Boston has a rather old-fashioned habit of speaking
the English language. It came upon us rather suddenly one day
as we journeyed out Huntington Avenue to the smart new gray
and red opera house. The very coloring of the _foyer_ of that
house--soft and simple--bespoke the refinement of the Boston
of to-day.

In the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, in every
other one of the glib opera houses that are springing up
mushroom-fashion across the land, our ears would have been
assailed by "Librettos! Get your Librettos!" Not so in Boston.
At the Boston Opera House the young woman back of the _foyer_
stand calmly announced at clocklike intervals:

"Translations. Translations."

And the head usher, whom the older Bostonians
grasped by the hand and seemed to regard as a long-lost
friend, did not sip out, "Checks, please."

"Locations," he requested, as he condescended to the
hand-grasps of the socially elect.

"The nearer door for those stepping out," announces
the guard upon the elevated train, and as for the surface and
trolley-cars, those wonderful green perambulators laden down
with more signs than nine ordinary trolley-cars would carry at
one time, they do not speak of the newest type in Boston as
"Pay-as-you-enter-cars," after the fashion of less cultured
communities. In the Hub they are known as Prepayment cars--its
precision is unrelenting.[10]

[10] Edward Hungerford: _The Personality of American Cities_. By
courtesy of the publisher, Robert M. McBride & Co., New York
City.

IX. What is the controlling purpose in the following selection from
Mr. John Masefield's volume of _Gallipoli_? Analyze this
controlling purpose as to the subject itself, the author's
personal reaction, and the intended readers--largely perhaps, the
American people.

Let the reader imagine himself to be facing three
miles of any very rough broken sloping ground known to him,
ground for the most part gorse-thyme-and-scrub-covered,
being poor soil, but in some places beautiful with flowers
(especially a "spiked yellow flower with a whitish leaf") and
on others green from cultivation. Let him say to himself that
he and an army of his friends are about to advance up the
slope towards the top, and that as they will be advancing in
a line, along the whole length of the three miles, he will
only see the advance of those comparatively near to him, since
folds or dips in the ground will hide the others. Let him,
before he advances, look earnestly along the line of the hill,
as it shows up clear, in blazing sunlight only a mile from
him, to see his tactical objective, one little clump of pines,
three hundred yards away, across what seem to be fields. Let
him see in the whole length of the hill no single human being,
nothing but scrub, earth, a few scattered buildings, of the
Levantine type (dirty white with roofs of dirty red) and some
patches of dark Scotch pine, growing as the pine loves, on
bleak crests. Let him imagine himself to be more weary than he
has ever been in his life before, and dirtier than he has ever
believed it possible to be, and parched with thirst, nervous,
wild-eyed and rather lousy. Let him think that he has not
slept for more than a few minutes together for eleven days and
nights, and that in all his waking hours he has been fighting
for his life, often hand to hand in the dark with a fierce
enemy, and that after each fight he has had to dig himself a
hole in the ground, often with his hands, and then walk three
or four roadless miles to bring up heavy boxes under fire. Let
him think, too, that in all those eleven days he has never
for an instant been out of the thunder of cannon, that waking
or sleeping their devastating crash has been blasting the air
across within a mile or two, and this from an artillery so
terrible that each discharge beats as it were a wedge of shock
between the skull-bone and the brain. Let him think too that
never, for an instant, in all that time, has he been free or
even partly free from the peril of death in its most sudden
and savage forms, and that hourly in all that time he has seen
his friends blown to pieces at his side, or dismembered, or
drowned, or driven mad, or stabbed, or sniped by some unseen
stalker, or bombed in the dark sap with a handful of dynamite
in a beef-tin, till their blood is caked upon his clothes and
thick upon his face, and that he knows, as he stares at the
hill, that in a few moments, more of that dwindling band,
already too few, God knows how many too few, for the task to
be done, will be gone the same way, and that he himself may
reckon that he has done with life, tasted and spoken and loved
his last, and that in a few minutes more may be blasted dead,
or lying bleeding in the scrub, with perhaps his face gone
and a leg and an arm broken, unable to move but still alive,
unable to drive away the flies or screen the ever-dropping
rain, in a place where none will find him, or be able to help
him, a place where he will die and rot and shrivel, till
nothing is left of him but a few rags and a few remnants and
a little identification-disc flapping on his bones in the
wind. Then let him hear the intermittent crash and rattle of
the fire augment suddenly and awfully in a roaring, blasting
roll, unspeakable and unthinkable, while the air above, that
has long been whining and whistling, becomes filled with the
scream of shells passing like great cats of death in the air;
let him see the slope of the hill vanish in a few moments into
the white, yellow, and black smokes of great explosions shot
with fire, and watch the lines of white puffs marking the hill
in streaks where the shrapnel searches a suspected trench; and
then, in the height of the tumult, when his brain is shaking
in his head, let him pull himself together with his friends,
and clamber up out of the trench, to go forward against an
invisible enemy, safe in some unseen trench expecting him.[11]

[11] John Masefield: _Gallipoli_. By courtesy of the publishers, The
Macmillan Company, New York City.

What light does the following paragraph which appears at the
beginning of the book throw upon the controlling purpose?

Later, when there was leisure, I began to consider
the Dardanelles Campaign, not as a tragedy, nor as a mistake,
but as a great human effort, which came, more than once, very
near to triumph, achieved the impossible many times, and
failed, in the end, as many great deeds of arms have failed,
from something which had nothing to do with arms nor with the
men who bore them. That the effort failed is not against
it; much that is most splendid in military history failed,
many great things and noble men have failed. To myself, this
failure is the second grand event of the war; the first was
Belgium's answer to the German ultimatum.[12]

[12] John Masefield: _Gallipoli_. By courtesy of the publishers, The
Macmillan Company, New York City.

X. Explain what would be your controlling purpose in a theme on any
of the following subjects, and how you would _arrange your
material_ to accomplish this purpose.

1. What is the Primary Function of a Successful Novel?

2. The Philosophy of Woman Suffrage.

3. Lynch Law and Law Reform.

4. The Conservatism of the American College Student.

5. Intellectual Bravery.

6. A Mediæval Free City.

7. Mr. Roosevelt's Career as an Index of the American Character.

8. Practical Efficiency as an Enemy to "Sweetness and Light."

9. The Æsthetics of the Skyscraper.

10. Possibilities for the Small Farmer in America.

11. The Future of Civil Engineering.

12. Housekeeping as an Exact Science.

XI. Indicate what your controlling purpose would be in writing of
the following subjects, if you chose your purpose from the
_subject-matter alone_. Then show how the purpose might be
affected by the different sets of readers as they are indicated
in the subheadings.

1. The Intelligence of the Average Voter.

a. For a woman who eagerly desires woman suffrage.

b. For a refined but narrow aristocrat, descendant of an old
family.

c. For an agitating member of the I.W.W.

2. The Value of Courses in Literature for the Technical Student.

a. For a hard-headed civil engineer.

b. For a white-haired, kindly old professor of Greek, who
resents the intrusion of science and labor.

c. For a mother who wants her son to "get everything good
from his technical course."

3. The Delights of Fishing.

a. For a woman who cannot understand why her husband wants
to be always going on silly fishing trips.

b. For a group of city men who are devotees of the sport.

c. For a small boy who hopes some day to go with "Dad" on
his trips.

4. The Value of the Civic Center.

a. For a man who resents the extra taxation that would be
necessary to make one in his city.

b. For a prominent, public-spirited architect.

c. For a young woman graduate from college who eagerly
desires to "do something" for her city.

5. The Spirit of the "Middle West," the "Old South" or any other
section of the country.

a. For a proud resident.

b. For a sniffy resident of another section.

c. For a person who has never thought of such a thing.