Outlining and brainstorming are two very different methodologies, which can be used to achieve the same things - but outlines will work for some types of people and mindmaps or brainstorms will work for others. They are both tools that should help your thought process along and you need to ultimately settle on what works for you.
When I was back at school in various lessons (maybe all of them?) class would brainstorm, the teacher would draw this big mindmap thing on the whiteboard, with different coloured thicknesses and branches coming off random words all over the place to represent ideas - The whole thing was and still to this day is total nonsense to me, and I still couldn't produce one of these myself or follow one to any real sort of conclusion. Yet I see professionals today using them very effectively. I discovered outlining because OnmiOutliner came bundled with my G4 powerbook years ago. I've been a fan ever since. I was on a work sponsored writing course, at a point in the course the subject of mindmaps came up - I asked about this outliner thing that I had come across, and the tutor explained the difference between the two and showed me some tips for using it. Outliner replaced a notebook for me - kind of. I'm the sort of person who writes notes on things all the time, in a notebook, back of an envelope, scraps of paper... Then rarely actually need to refer to much of it again. In Outliner I can note down my thoughts as I have them, then get them in order and discard useless bits afterwards. The phyiscal equivalent would be writing everything on individual post-it notes and then sticking them all together to form a book. I took a decision around the age of 14-15 never to go as far as higher education, and I think in part this whole brainstorming thing was a large put off.. if only I'd known at the time there were alternatives. The thing is as school "not getting" the teachers point of view isn't really an option. (Or if only my brain were wired the same way as everybody elses) On 7 September 2013 00:49, Jason Davies <[email protected]> wrote: > I think you and I were the only people in the world who remembered that. I > am positive it hasn't been updated since about 1991 and it functions so > differently from just about every other one that its almost misleading to > start with it;) > > Sorry you picked a dud Ray but the app called Outliner on iPad is not bad. > My preferred one is Omnioutliner but you said you didn't want anything very > complicated:) > > Sent from my iPad > > On 6 Sep 2013, at 20:28, Ranulph Glanville <[email protected]> wrote: > > First, Word has a built in outliner. > > I'm not recommending it: I write a very great deal and do not use an > outliner, nor do I use mind mapping software for writing, but the word one > is simple and free, if you have word. There are no overall rules, I think. > It depends on who you are, how and what you are writing. Even when I teach > a class on how to write a dissertation/thesis (no pedantry here) I don't > tell people how to do it. I tell them something of the type of thing that's > available, and how I write, and I ask them about how they write. > > When I do need to organise, what do I use? Index cards. Real physical > ones, though I do sometimes use a sw version on my ipad mini. I use the > same technology for lecturing, too. > > To me scrapple looks better than most mind mapping sw, which is why I > recommended it. It's quick to learn, elegant and flexible. I was, however, > really looking at it for a different fort of job. > > Ranulph > > > > > > > > > > > On 6 Sep 2013, at 18:27, Ray Packham wrote: > > HI Jason > > Its me again I forgot to add I purchased Cloud outliner on your > recommendation, so if it turns out to be rubbish I will bill ya LOL ;-) > > No thanks again for advice and best wishes > > Ray > On 6 Sep 2013, at 17:38, Jason Davies <[email protected]> wrote: > > On 6 Sep 2013, at 17:17, Ray Packham wrote: > > yes .. its masters level. > > then I will deploy the pedants' card and say it's a dissertation (thesis > is PhD). > > It's the opposite in the US, helpfully;) > > So possibly if they mention thesis, they are standardising to that. And > spelling sulphur as sulfur… > > The number of students I have taught at M level…here's the speech about > your dissertation. Try to write a one sentence version first *even if you > are unsure of your conclusion*. Then explain a bit more by turning that > into a paragraph. That paragraph should hopefully break down into something > that can become an outline. Then you start adding sections, and because > it's an outline it should become clear what you need as you expand it. Try > to expand it fairly evenly. When the outline becomes unwieldy, you are > ready to start actually filling in the bits to make it prose and because > you already have a plan, it's relatively simple. Turning an outline into > RTF or similar is easy with Multimarkdown Composer though I don't like > actually typing in it. It opens opml (outliner format) files and then lets > you export as rtf, and the outline headers become headings, and the notes > become normal text. > > Get the plan right before you start writing and you will usually go up a > grade. > > And *always* write down references as you go along, you will *not*remember > where you read everything*. Thus Sente's quote function is handy. > > *I rarely remember where *I* wrote something, never mind someone else… > > Practice using Outliner on something you already understand, to see how it > works. You don't want to troubleshoot it while trying to think. Organising > your thoughts becomes so much easier when you work out where to put each > bit. > > Finally: never ever try to write the final prose version and think at the > same time. Write in notes. Very very few people can think and type at the > same time. I touch type 60 wpm (i.e. without thinking) and even I can > definitely *not* think and type at the same time when I'm writing > something serious. > > Good luck;) > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Sussex Mac User Group" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/smug. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > > > This message has been scanned for malware. > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Sussex Mac User Group" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/smug. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Sussex Mac User Group" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/smug. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Sussex Mac User Group" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/smug. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Sussex Mac User Group" group. 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