Legal Writing

The great twentieth-century philosopher Winnie the Pooh defined organizing as "what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it's not all mixed up."

That's good advice for us writers. But too many of us carry bad memories of teacher-required formal outlining, with its arcane uses of letters and numbers. The solution: write a "non-outline." It's what executive Donald Walton was referring to when he wrote

Even if I'm writing something as brief as a one-page letter, I like to jot down some sort of outline. It may consist of no more than three or four words or phrases: the essence of thought I want to get across and the order in which I intend to build my message.

This week, before you start some piece of writing, try writing a non-outline. Jot down your three or four main points. If you decide they're not in the right order, renumber them.

If you read the Winnie the Pooh's definition again, you'll see why a non-outline will do your readers a great service.