Reverse Outlines Help Identify & Analyze Main Ideas in a Text

Outlines allow you to work with all of the information in the text in “shorthand” form to see patterns of organization, idea relationships, and/or idea development. An outline categorizes groups of ideas and differentiates between main and supporting ideas. An outline differs from a concept map in that it shows the linear order of ideas in the text.

Outlining is an important reading, writing, and analyzing strategy. It helps you identify and recall main ideas and supporting details and also become aware of the way in which groups of ideas relate and lead into one another.

After you read, doing a reverse outline can help you remember idea relationships within the text. It’s easier to recall “two reasons” or “four points of contrast” and then fill in the specifics than it is to recall each item separately, without considering how it fits into an overall plan.

Reverse outlines can also help you analyze a text. For example, if an outline of an article on sloppy vs. neat people looked like the one below, you might realize that the author intended to influence your feelings by providing more negative information about sloppy people.

How to do a Reverse Outline

Main Idea: Readers use reverse outlines to understand and evaluate a text
You can put the main idea of the whole text at the start to keep it prominent, like this.

I. Read the text and jot down the ideas of each paragraph in as few words as possible.

A. If a paragraph does not have a main idea, identify its function.

1. example
2. description
3. definition
4. effect
5. etc….

II. Review your list of main ideas/functions and ask/answer the following questions.

A. Do all ideas in the list relate to the text’s main idea?

B. Are there multiple instances of an idea and, if so, what does that mean? (e.g. really important idea? need to edit repetitiveness?)

C. Do the ideas logically link with each other?

D. Is the reasoning sound? (e.g., no logical errors, no inappropriate language use intended to sway a reader emotionally instead of logically)

E. Do some paragraphs contain too many ideas?

III. Use a reverse outline to identify, understand, and evaluate ideas—to link ideas to your own background and react, apply, analyze, and synthesize them.

IV. Use a reverse outline to evaluate your own writing in order to move it from draft to more final version. Many websites offer fuller discussions of this use of a reverse outline.

A. Reverse Outline – Duke University Writing Studio

B. Reverse Outlines – University of Wisconsin Madison, Writing Center

C. Reverse Outlines – Explorations of Style blog about academic writing

If you’re having trouble distinguishing major supporting ideas from more minor details in a piece of writing, here’s a useful list of words/phrases that often signal major ideas: ^[1]

^{[1] Signal word list adapted from Basic Reading and Writing, Lumen Learning. CC BY: Attribution. https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-basicreadingwriting/chapter/outcome-summary-skills/  This open educational resource attributes the paragraph, which is part of a SlideShare, as follows:
Major and Minor Details. Authored by: Nicole Keith. Provided by: Guilford Technical Community College. Located at: http://www.slideshare.net/NicholeKeith/major-and-minor-details. License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: SlideShare Terms of Use}