Organize Your Thoughts
Methodically with a Traditional Outline
In a traditional outline, numerals and letters are used to create a hierarchy
of information. Your primary points are labeled with large roman
numerals. Subpoints under primary point use capital letters. The next level
down uses regular numbers, followed by lowercase letters, and so on. Following
the strict outlining conventions, you need at least two points within
each category, although in business writing, there is far more flexibility.
Sarah, a director in a health care company, decided to send an
E-mail to her team soliciting their ideas for a mandated budget reduction.
“My objective was to receive E-mailed cost-cutting suggestions from
all members of my team by my specified deadline.
“There’s a wide variety of personalities, so I decided to use vocabulary
to speak to all four personality types. I thought it made sense to highlight
the benefit of being a team player to their individual careers. My Formality
Index totaled ten, so I decided to be quite business-like in tone. I decided
my challenge was problem solving according to the Matrix of Persuasion
because no one was going to want to cut costs. I knew that I had to provide
suggestions on how to approach the challenge in order to motivate the
team to act, so I selected the PAR organizational structure.
“I like to outline. I’m very methodical by nature myself, so I work well
with the tradition. Here’s how it read: