Outline

“ An outline, outline, what causes hesitation, does outline not cause hesitation, why is certainty disgusted by a waiter, why is the selection of more than there is not established by selection, why is reasoning clear, and estimation precise, and articulation unnecessary, and disintegration avoided, why is it, and more than that when does the resolution come that shows in a description, when does it come and why does it determine no return, and what particular transaction shows more intelligence than ever. ”

“ But the next step in composing, which has been mentioned throughout the book, is more necessary in argumentation than in any other form of expression. You must not only have an outline in mind for what you are about to say, but that outline should be written, and almost as much time and thought should be given to it as to the composition itself; for clear thought is the great essential in argumentation, and a carefully prepared outline is the greatest help to clear thought.
88. The Introduction.—There are three parts to every outline for a discussion or argument. ”

“ And the outline of the one is complementary to the outline of the other; where the woman’s outline sinks in the man’s sticks out, and vice versa. Mentally and physically it is the same; they are, in fact, the two parts of that great jig-saw puzzle, Humanity. ”

“ When a youth, attending lectures at the Mechanics' Institution, I soon discerned that the more eminent speakers were the clearer. They knew their subjects, were masters of the outlines, which by making bold and plain, we were instructed. Outline is the beginning of art and the charm of knowledge. ”

“ This usefulness, helpfulness, is double in its value—to the writer and to the instructor, when there is one.
As to the value of an outline for the writer—without an outline you face in your writing a complicated problem, more complicated, in fact, than is justifiable. At one and the same [Pg 58] time you must make your thinking logical and your expression adequate—distinguished if possible. Either of these tasks is sufficient to demand all your powers; together, they offer a really overwhelming problem. ”

“ In fact, it is so important that much more care and attention needs to be given to the outline in argument, and the outline itself may be more definitely known to the hearer than in the other forms of discourse. In description and narration especially, it detracts from the value of the impressions if the reader becomes aware of the plan of composition. In exposition a view of the framework may not hinder clear understanding, but in argument it may be of distinct advantage to have the orderly arrangements of our arguments definitely known to him whom we seek to convince. ”

“ In practically combining outline with accomplished light and shade there are cases of this kind in which the outline may with advantage, or even must for truth of effect, be omitted. But the facts of the solid form are of so vital importance, and the perfect command of them so necessary to the dignity and intelligibility of the work, that the greatest artists, even for their finished drawings, like to limit every solid form by a fine line, whether its contour be visible to the eye or not. ”

“ For the plain truth is that such outbreaks of beauty scarcely affect the Outline—as such. They may be very important to the human soul and so forth, and a list of them—an Outline of History can do no more than that—may be very necessary to struggling examinees ”

“ How the Pilgrims came to Plymouth.
This extract is an example of a narration that is more difficult to write than anything you have yet tried. In writing biographies you write about one person only. In history you write about a great number of persons, and you must hold together in one story a great number of different facts. An outline is, therefore, even more necessary here than in biography. In making your outline you will be helped by the same principle of keeping your occurrences in their natural order that governed you in your biography outlines. ”

“ VI. Final departure of the Mayflower alone from England.
Read again the selection with the outline before you and notice how each division is developed. When you [150] have made a good outline, the hardest part of a piece of historical writing is completed.
Exercise 97.—I. Let every one find out all he can about the founding or settling of the town where he lives. Talk over the facts in class, every one contributing what he has been able to learn; then see who can make the best outline and best story or history. (Notice how the two words are really alike.) ”

“ Some of the criticism to which the Outline has been subjected affords an opportunity for profitable comment. To “answer” all its critics would be a preposterously self-important thing to do, but, from the point of view of our general education, some of them do repay examination. And accordingly he is setting down these present notes to the Outline; partly comments upon the educational significance of its general reception and partly a consideration of the mental attitudes, the moral and intellectual pose, into which it has thrown certain of its critics. ”

“ And observe, in this exercise, the object is more to get firmness of hand than accuracy of eye for outline; for there are no outlines in Nature, and the ordinary student is sure to draw them falsely if he draws them at all. ”

“ Our talented friend, who permits you the use of his collection of models and casts, and does you the honour to instruct you by his judgment, assures me that your outlines evince an excellent conception of form. To be able to make a true outline of a natural form, is to achieve the first great step in drawing. ”

“ But assuredly when once a firm basis has been laid down, when an outline has been drawn, the converging efforts of a thousand thousand thinkers will be brought to bear upon it, and it will be elaborated into something approaching a reliable guide. ”

“ Even for [115] the most informal letter it is always best to make an outline, although it may be a very brief one.
Suppose you wish to describe the way in which you spent Christmas away from home. Probably nothing very unusual happened, and you may think an outline unnecessary; but you will find, even in relating the facts of one day, that if you do not have some plan and keep in your mind the main events in their proper order, you will be likely to write a confused and incomplete account of what you did. Some such outline as the following is needed:—
Introduction. ”

“ The presence of a paper with an outline merely of what is being done is found to be a great help, as the eye can rest on that, and after a few moments, will become so accustomed to it that the whole attention will be given to the dictating. ”

“ Just as in the building of a house or of a machine, if anything creditable is to be attained, a carefully made plan is necessary before entering on the construction; so in the writing of an essay or theme, there should be made some plan or outline, which will determine what different things are to be discussed, and what is to be the method of developing the discussion. By the inexperienced writer, at least, a composition should never be begun until an outline has been formed for its development. ”

“ When only an outline is given and we can put into it lines and spots of paint,—tones, measures, and shapes,—ad libitum, we must be sure that in the addition and multiplication of features we do not get less Order than we had in the simple outline with which we started, when it had nothing in it. ”

“ In mental as well as material nature, a general haziness of outline conveys the idea of greatness as strongly, though in another manner, as the sharp and perceptible outline of any thing really great. ”

“ But this was one way of knowing people, she thought: to know the outline, not the detail, to sit in one’s garden and look at the slopes of a hill running purple down into the distant heather. ”

“ For the extreme outline, to be properly executed, requires to be nicely rounded, and so to terminate as to prove the existence of something more behind it, and thereby disclose that which it also serves to hide. ”

“ Most students carry this mistaken feeling about outlines to such an extent that when required to hand in both an outline and a finished composition they will write in haphazard fashion the composition first, and then from it try to prepare the outline, instead of doing as they are told, and making the outline first. It is easier—though not as educating or productive of good results—to string words together than it is to do what outline-making demands—to think. ”

“ But again; even in the simplest drawing we exhibit something which we do not see. However slight is our representation of objects, it contains something which we create for ourselves. For we draw an outline. ”

“ But the outline from such a pen would have been good History had it covered ten lines or ten thousand. It is thoughtless to say that a man has no right to give an outline of any movement, however great, in any space, however small. ”

“ B. will never be so foolish as to do one. Such art of losing the outlines is the art of Venice and Flanders; it loses all character, and leaves what some people call expression: but this is a false notion of expression; expression cannot exist without character as its stamina; and neither character nor expression can exist without firm and determinate outline. ”

“ An outline in itself is meagre, truly, but it does not necessarily suggest a meagre thing. It is the essential meagreness of WHAT IS SUGGESTED by the usual rationalistic philosophies that moves empiricists to their gesture of rejection. ”

“ The distinct outlines which we assign to an object, and which bestow upon it its individuality, are nothing but the graph of a certain kind of influence which we should be able to employ at a certain point in space: it is the plan of our future actions which is submitted to our eyes, as in a mirror, when we perceive the surfaces and edges of things. ”

“ Thus it is that here, for the most part, we have to content ourselves at present with the task of mapping out the field in broad and general outlines, bringing together the facts and considerations which indicate the direction in which more extended and precise results will in the future be probably found. ”

“ I here assume, what is agreed on by most writers, that beauty of form—so far as it is independent of sensuous pleasure on the one hand, and pleasures of association and suggestion on the other, is resolvable into the presence of a certain order among manifold details, which order is commonly spoken of as unity in variety. With respect, first of all, to the way in which the element of variety and contrast presents itself in visible form, a word or two will suffice. ”

“ The groups and single figures on their own bases, abstracted from the general composition, and considered without attention to the plan, frequently exhibit those genuine and unaffected attitudes, those simple graces which Nature and the heart alone can dictate, and only an eye inspired by both, discover. ”

“ Few of us can be original, but we can all be honest and industrious.
VII. Organization
Before you write, make a plan. It is as necessary in composition as in building. If the nature of your subject or the kind and quantity of your material render it desirable to deviate from the model, do not hesitate to do so. As a rule, however, it will be best to follow its plan rather closely. At all events, work from some plan. Don’t get the idea that you can dash off a finished exposition in a few minutes. ”

“ It is nevertheless for this very reason that we here cite it, as a triumphant verification of those immutable laws of the mind to which the principles of Composition are supposed to appeal; where the simple technic exhibition, or illustration of Principles, without story, or thought, or a single definite expression, has still the power to possess and to fill us with a thousand delightful emotions. ”

“ Thus in human life you have the two fields of rightful toil for ever distinguished, yet for ever associated; Truth first—plan or design, founded thereon; so in art, you have the same two fields for ever distinguished, for ever associated; Truth first—plan, or design, founded thereon. ”

“ Perhaps the principles of unity and variety—two essentials of any art work—enter into the matter. The variety in the uniforms of the different sections satisfies the eye, and the unity of the marching pleases the mind. ”

“ Our studies of character, to change the image, are very much like the surveyor's triangulation of a geographical province. We get a base-line in organization, always; then we get an angle by sighting some distant object to which the passions or aspirations of the subject of our observation are tending ”

“ Skill in division is valuable not only as a method of exposition but it is linked closely with an effective method of proving to be explained in the next chapter—the method of residues. Can you recall any extracts given in this book in which some form of division is used? Is this form of material likely to be more important in preparation or in the finished speech? Explain your opinion—in other words, present a specimen of exposition.
Definition. One of the simplest ways of explaining is to define a term. Dictionary definitions are familiar to everyone. ”

“ Having, by these divisions, given an order and arrangement to our objects, we may now apply ourselves to consider, with the more accuracy, their qualities and relations. The first circumstance that strikes my eye, is the great resemblance betwixt our impressions and ideas in every other particular, except their degree of force and vivacity. ”