Descriptive Outline

Some of you asked for an example of a descriptive outline. Here's a beginning paragraph from "Literacy in the New Media Age" by Gunther Kress,

Literacy is by no means all there is to contemporary communication. Other resources, images above all, are used, sometimes more insistently than those of "literacy" or alphabetically written words in meaningful arrangements. Given that in the world of the new media there are numerous modal resources involved in the making of messages--word, spoken or written: image, still and moving; music: object as 2D models; soundtracks: action--it has in any case become essential to ask what we mean by "literacy."

Descriptive Outline
Paragraph 1:

SAYS: Literacy is a multifaceted term and it is essential that we ask ourselves what it means to be literate. There is more to literacy than just the written word.

(the says portion of the D.O. will be very specific to the paper and address the writer's topic and argument)

DOES: Asks the reader to question what it means to be literate.
Establishes credibility and authority through the use of specified terminology (IE literacy, modal)
Introduces the different types of literacy modes. The reader expects that these terms will be further established and questioned later in the paper.

(the does portion of the D.O. will address HOW THE PAPER IS PUT TOGETHER. How are the pieces working? What does this paragraph accomplish. It would be here that you would want to say how this paragraph relates to the larger paper. Does it expand upon an idea? Does it veer from the thesis? Is it the thesis? IN SHORT, WHAT IS IT DOING IN THE PAPER AND WHY?)


Hope that helps. Please do not hesitate to ask question on the blog or via email. These descriptive outlines are very important not only for your peer review partner, but to help you see how the parts of a paper can work together to create a cohesive whole.