Outlining endures as a pre-writing technique because it helps some writers organize their thoughts. Unfortunately, too many college students prove daily that beginning with an outline does not insure unified writing. To help my students write more effectively, I developed a technique for writing from thesis statements that requires that students create a picture of a wheel. The hub of their wheel is a word or phrase that holds the essence of what the student is trying to say; the spokes are the concrete examples which will support the claim made in the thesis statement; and the tire is the thesis statement which allows the wheel to move.
This technique works for the majority of my students by enabling them to visualize what they are trying to say before they put their thoughts on paper and by leading them to the outline as a secondary rather than as a primary step. It is equally effective for paragraphs, for essays, and for term papers. In this article, however, I will show how the wheel can be used in writing paragraphs and how it can be combined with summary writing to produce an integrated term paper.
I introduce my students to the writing wheel technique by engaging them as a group in the pre-writing, writing, and rewriting of a paragraph. The following is a scenario for a typical class session.
First, I ask students to give me a word--any word. Someone might say, "Sports." Then I will ask for a one sentence statement that makes a claim about sports. By asking for a claim, I am guiding my students to look for evidence to support their claim. I have found this works well in helping them to understand the nature of the concrete support required in the body of their paragraph, essay, or term paper.
A student may respond with something like this: "Sports ritualize aggression," I call this sentence a thesis statement and say, "This is what we are going to prove." I then draw a large circle to represent the tire. Around its edge I write the thesis statement:
[Please imagine a circle with the thesis statement written around the outside edge.]
With this claim, we have our tire, but nothing to support it. We could add the spokes, but without a hub, we have no way of holding them together. Before putting the spokes in place, we need to find a hub.
To help my students determine what this hub is that holds the whole wheel together, I ask, "What one word can you not remove from the thesis statement without changing the whole meaning?" A student might say, "Ritualize." So I take it out of the sentence-"Sports blank aggression," -and they see that omission does not completely change their argument. The next word selected might be "sports." We check that-"Blank ritualize aggression,"-and it becomes obvious that none of our evidence now fits because we could be talking about debate rules or checkers or a form of dance. "Sports" is the one word that is absolutely essential to make this argument, for it contains the essence of everything that we are saying. This, then, becomes the hub of the wheel:
[Please imagine the same circle with the addition of a central "hub" circle with the word "Sports" in the center.]
Now we are ready to find the spokes that will help support the tire. I allow the students to argue the case. Because I think this exercise provides them with an opportunity to generate new ideas, I write every argument on the board. After the well has run dry, I go back to the thesis and, comparing it with the evidence given, ask, "How many of these supports would truly convince the jury?" We erase those items that are not effective arguments, and we are left with those that we think are good ones. These become our spokes:
[Please imagine the circle with its thesis ("Sports ritualize aggression") written around the rim; "Sports" written in the center hub; and four spokes radiating from the hub to the rim. Written on the spokes are the following: "History of sports"; "Sports in Other cultures"; "Biology of sports"; "Psychology of sports".]
With the tire, hub, and spokes in place, the wheel is ready to roll; our paragraph is ready to be formed. The next step is to tie the wheel in to the standard outline form.
"The Preacher Model"
To communicate the parts of a paragraph, essay, or term paper, I use the old analogy of the preacher who says: "Here's what I'm going to tell you; and here's the proof of what I'm telling you; and, just so you'll remember what I've told you, I'll tell you once again." I tell my students that the tire is both what "you're going to tell them and what you've told them" and that the spokes are "the proof of what you're telling them."
This image provides the base for allowing them to connect their visual wheel to the traditibnal, abstract outline form which I then introduce.
I. Thesis statement-"This is what I'll tell you."
II. Body-"Here's my proof."
III. Conclusion-"This is what I've told you."
From here, we generate the first draft of the paragraph as quickly as I can write it on the board.
After I get this draft on the board, I can illustrate how essential rewriting is by allowing them to participate in the transformation of the rough cut into a unified whole. This is where the hub word or phrase really comes in handy. With each. sentence, I ask, "What does this sentence have to do with 'sports'?" By using transitions or by rewriting the sentences somewhat, students are able to make the paragraph cohere.
They frequently find this the most exciting part. As one student said during an in-class writing session, "It makes me feel like a magician who can bring order out of chaos with a wave of my wand." I especially like this quotation and this experience of in-class rewriting, and they show that revision can be fun.
With this simple wheel illustration, I am able to lead my students into writing first the paragraph and then the longer essay. I reiterate the model with each assignment until it becomes second nature for them to write from a thesis statement with the hub word or phrase as their focus. The term paper presents an additional challenge, however, because it requires them to integrate the ideas of others.
I begin the process of term paper writing by teaching my students how to summarize scholarly journal articles. By summarizing articles, students become adept at finding the essence of the author's meaning and stating it in their own words without adding personal opinions. To facilitate objective summary writing and reinforce the writing wheel concepts, I created the following guide.
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Writing Summaries
1. As you read the essay, chapter, or article for the first time, do not underline. Save underlining for your second reading when you know the gist of the author's meaning. Underlining with the first reading will cause you to focus on those points you like or with which you agree. Instead, stop after each paragraph and write, in your own words, a one sentence summary of that paragraph you just read. For each paragraph, add another sentence to your list.
2. When you finish the article, read over your list of sentences, underlining those points that seem to be the author's main ideas.
3. Then, answer these questions:
A. Boiling the whole piece down, what one word or short phrase suggests the author's focus in the written work? What one word could the author not leave out without changing the whole meaning of the work?
WORD OR PHRASE_____________________________________________
B. Pretending to be the author of the work you have just read, finish the following:
"In this work, I am saying_________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
C. Can you quote one sentence from the work that sums up this idea? If so, write it here:________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
4. Now, looking back over the list you made in steps 1 and 2, check to see how the sentences (especially those you underlined) relate to, illustrate, or support the thesis you have indicated in steps A, B, and C above.
5. Then, create an outline that follows this form:
I. The author's thesis
II. His or her main points
III. His or her summation
6. Finally, from the above outline, write and revise your summary until you get a good final draft.
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When students become skilled at writing objective summaries, they are ready to start work on their term papers.
For my students, their term paper process starts when they settle on the thesis statement that will form the tire of their writing wheel. Though, in some cases, students may change or modify their thesis statement as they discover more about their subject, beginning with one narrows their search sufficiently so that they avoid the problem so common to a deduced thesis statement: the attempt to stuff too many facts under one flimsy umbrella.
The statement must be a claim, and it must be stated with an active verb in order to lead to livelier writing in the final form. For instance, rather than saying, "James Joyce was a writer" (no claim, thus no argument) or "James Joyce was the most important writer of his time" (a claim, but a colorless statement), say" James Joyce revolutionized fiction" (a strong, actively stated claim). This statement becomes the tire of their term paper wheel, and it helps them pinpoint the hub of their wheel, which is a key to a unified term paper.
The hub is the word or phrase that cannot be removed from the thesis statement without changing the essential meaning. "James Joyce" may be selected as the hub phrase in the above thesis statement because removing it would completely change the context of the claim as an individual student understands it. Once this hub phrase is selected, it is written in the center of the wheel; and it serves as a unifying guide for the researching, prewriting, writing, and rewriting of the term paper. With this lodestar, students can begin researching their term paper.
Since the research process is outside the scope of this article, I will now skip to the research products: summaries and spokes. Before beginning any work on their term paper, students write a specified number of paragraph length summaries of the articles they will use in writing their papers and from which they will determine the spokes of their wheel. On the bottom of each completed summary page, they must include the bibliographical information in the correct form. This expedites the writing of the final bibliography without needlessly duplicating work.
If an article will be quoted or paraphrased, I ask students to photocopy at least the page to be cited and to underline the section to be used in supporting their claim. This streamlines their work by cutting out the traditional step of copying quotations on index cards, and it increases the chance of accurate citations. Also, any section underlined should suggest one or more of the spokes of their wheel. As the evidence grows, cross-numbering the spokes and their corresponding underlined quotations allows students to integrate their evidence visually before they begin writing their paper. When all the spokes are in place and the summaries are done, students write their outline.
In writing the outline for their term paper, they use the "preacher model" mentioned earlier, and their paper will mirror this format. In the introduction of their paper, they know that they must state their thesis. In the body of their paper, they know that they will give their supporting and contradicting evidence, allowing at least one paragraph for each discrete bit of support (which is frequently a synthesis of many of their research sources). In their conclusion, they must summarize what they have said, without adding any new information. With this knowledge and with their summaries, underlining, and wheel, they can produce a good, detailed outline that will serve as a guide for their term paper.
Outlines have long been used by writers to organize their thoughts before writing. Many college students, however, find this process too abstract. For them, the writing wheel supplies the means to unified and integrated writing by making the thinking-through stages concrete.
© 1986, 1990 by Colleen Rae
