Reverse outlining

Read 5 paragraph and answer 4 questions below:

Q1.

What do you think is the main argument, position, or conclusion of the paper? Is it stated close to the beginning, close to the end, or both?

Q2.

It will be easiest to work on this question offline and then enter your work here.

What headings would you give to each of the sections? Consider both the content of each section, and its purpose in the paper.

Write the section headings that you would choose.

Now look at each paragraph. Write the following two things for each paragraph:

the content of the paragraph (i.e., describe what’s in it); and
the purpose or role of the paragraph in its section (i.e., analyze the function of the paragraph in the section and in the overall construction of the argument).

Type (or copy and paste) your section headings and your notes about the content and function of each paragraph under each section heading – this is your reverse-engineered outline of the paper.

It should look something like this:

Section 1: Introduction (or whatever you chose to call it)

Para. 1: Briefly describes the event at Tuban and introduces the concept of gravity erosion

Para. 2:… etc.

Q3.

On the basis of your outline, do you think the paper is well organized? Have the authors developed the argument logically, with each paragraph performing its function and contributing to the conclusions, overall? Are there any major gaps?

Q4.

I have stripped the title from the paper by Xu et al. (2015). Now that you have read the paper in detail, what do you think the title should be?

Remember that the title of a scholarly paper should be informative; scholarly-sounding; not awkwardly long, nor too short; and should indicate the content and possibly even the main conclusion of the paper. The title is very important because it sets the readers’ expectations.