This document provides guidance on improving the organization of a student paper about the "flight from teaching" through reverse outlining. It identifies several issues with the original paper, such as a lack of clear thesis and transitions. The document walks through reverse outlining the paragraphs to help the student see the organizational flaws. It also offers advice on developing topic sentences, wrapping up paragraph thoughts, and using a variety of paragraph types. Known vs new information and drawing relationships between ideas are introduced as effective strategies for strong organization.

1. Organization
(adapted from Chapter 15 of Writing
Analytically, 5th edition)
1

2. Handout on your desk
• Read the first page:
– the part marked “The Flight From Teaching
[a student paper]” up to the line above
“comments about this paper…”
• NOTE: This is NOT a good paper
• Start thinking of WHY this is not good. What is it
lacking?
2

3. Video: Reverse Outlining
• This is such a good technique for fixing big
issues
• http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/revers
e-outline/
• We’ll use this technique to improve this
essay
– Extra link to check out when you get a chance:
“Why 5 paragraph essays are lame”:
http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/college-writing/
3

4. Let’s Reverse Outline
this essay
I’ll start:
• [1] Intro.
– Thesis = “I will show…?”
• [2 & 3] Smith says….
– Professors see students as the enemy
– “Publish or Perish”
• [4] Sykes says….
– Research causes problems
4

5. Closer look at Paragraph 2:
(green is quoted text)
• Page Smith takes an in-depth look at the “flight from teaching” in
Killing the Spirit. Smith’s views on this subject are interesting, because
he is a professor with tenure at UCLA. Throughout the book, Smith
stresses the sentiment of the student being the enemy, as expressed by
many of his colleagues. Some professors resent the fact that the
students take up their precious time—time that could be better used for
research. Smith goes on about how much some of his colleagues go
out of their way to avoid their students. They go as far as making
strange office hours to avoid contact. Smith disagrees with the hands-
off approach being taken by the professors: “There is no decent,
adequate, respectable education, in the proper sense of that much-
abused word, without personal involvement by a teacher with the
needs and concerns, academic and personal, of his/her students. All the
rest is ‘instruction’ or ‘information transferal, ’ ‘communication
technique, ’ or some other impersonal and antiseptic phrase, but it is
not teaching and the student is not truly learning”(7).
5

6. Things I hope we noticed
• LOTS of the paragraph is quoted
• It’s a LOOONG quote (even if it were
properly formatted – do we need that much
from Smith?
• Paragraph ends with a quote.
– Don’t give up that powerful position!
6

7. Closer Look at Paragraph 3
(green is quoted text; blue is confusing)
Page Smith devotes a chapter to the ideal of “publish or perish,” “since teaching is
shunned in the name of research.” Smith refutes the idea that “research enhances
teaching” and that there is a “direct relationship between research and teaching”
(178). In actuality, research inhibits teaching. The research that is being done, in
most cases, is too specialized for the student. As with teaching and research, Smith
believes there is not necessarily a relationship between research and publication.
Unfortunately, those professors who are devoted to teaching find themselves
without a job and/or tenure unless they conform to the requirements of publishing.
Smith asks, “Is not the atmosphere hopelessly polluted when professors are forced
to do research in order to validate themselves, in order to make a living, in order to
avoid being humiliated (and terminated)?” (197). Not only are the students and the
professors suffering, but also as a whole, “Under the publish-or-perish standard,
the university is perishing” (180)
• Is the sentence in blue what Smith believes, what the student believes, or
something else?
7

8. Time for group work!
• Reverse Outline the rest of the paper
(paragraphs 5-8)
• Remember, paragraphs breaks may not be idea
breaks in this flawed paper!
• Pretend the student-author is your friend – you
WANT to help her with this paper – top 3
pieces of advice?
8

9. Some overall critiques
• I almost feel I can see the assignment sheet:
• “Be sure to use at least 3 sources. Have more than
one viewpoint represented. The paper must be
around 1000 words. Quotes are allowed.”
• NO transitions
• Terms are not clarified, so the opinion feels
flat and undeveloped.
• Unneeded first person (but at least no 2nd
person!)
9

10. Paragraph strategies
• Important guidelines from Imaginative
Argument:
• Topic Sentences are awesome!
• Do NOT have the last sentence of the
paragraph “ooze” into the next one. Wrap
up the thought.
• Use a variety of paragraph/organizational
types to explain your points.
10

11. Known  New
• A great organizational strategy, which
works at the micro and macro level, is to
move from Known Information, to New.
• Then that “New” information has become
known, and can lead to NEW-new
information.
• Subject = “known” (info established
elsewhere); predicate = “new” (the point of
the sentence)
11

12. Demonstration of
Known New in the wild
• Virginia Byrne, the coordinator for leadership development and education in
the Office of Student Life, is challenging students to become better leaders this
week. The 7-Day Leadership Challenge, which began on Sunday, is a free
online program that all students can access through myUMBC. A new
question is posted every day, and the students who post and comment on the
questions the most throughout the week will be invited to the “Challenge
Completers” lunch.
• -- http://retrieverweekly.umbc.edu/?p=4877
• The first few phrases are “new” to establish the person this paragraph is about.
• Note the connections – challenging students  challenge. Something on
myUMBC  Posts (on myUMBC)  Students posting the most. Students
who do the thing above  Invited to a lunch.
12

13. Paragraph Options
(described individually, but combine as needed.)
• Definition
• Cause & effect
• Comparison & contrast
• Specific -> General
• General -> Specific
• Classification
• Description
• Analysis (break apart)
• Synthesis (bring
together)
• Narrations
• Definition (it is so
essential I’m listing it
again)
13

14. Re-Outline the Flight From
Teaching (with your team)
• Use some of the paragraph types listed before:
– Definition
– Description
– Cause and Effect
– Compare & Contrast
– Specific -> General (or reverse)
– Analysis or Synthesis
– Others?
14

15. Video: Drawing Relationships
• (or Flow? Or Decision Making?)
• @ UNC Writing Center Handouts
– (If less than 30ish minutes left (after 3:15, 7:55),
skip videos)
15

16. Phase 2 – Enough with this
“Flight from Teaching” essay,
time for your paper!
• Keep the handout – Many useful strategies
on pages 2 & 3!
16

17. Next PPT = Organization with
cards
17