Planning Your Messages from the Bottom Up

One of the most difficult obstacles in all writing is determining how to structure a document when no clear structure exists.  For example, if you were going to blog about three new features of a new Apple product, the logical way to structure the post would be to discuss Feature 1, Feature 2, and then Feature 3.  In this case, the structure is fairly straightforward.  However, what if you want to write a corporate blog about why you enjoy working for your company?  You can easily see that the structure of that blog is less obvious than the Apple blog. Enter writer’s block!

When you find yourself facing a not-so-obvious message structure, what should you do?  Here’s one incredible outlining technique—bottom-up outlining.  This outlining process follows three simple steps:  (1) brainstorming, (2) categorizing, and (3) sequencing. If the word outlining causes you to want to stop reading this article, I encourage you to keep reading: bottom-up outlining may not be the same outlining you learned about in middle school.

Step 1. Brainstorming
When most people think about outlining, they think top down—first select the major categories they want to include in their messages, and then work downward to fill in the details.  Bottom-up outlining turns that process on its head.  Start with details and then work upward to the broad categories.

To create the details, brainstorm.  If you’re brainstorming on a computer, open Notepad or Word and begin creating a random list of whatever comes into your mind.  Using the example of the benefits of working for your company, for instance, you might come up with the following:

• Annual racquetball tournament
• Excellent healthcare package
• Generous 401(k) matching
• Quarterly team retreats
• Innovative atmosphere
• Managers who listen to their employees
• Holiday parties
• Summer parties
• Yearly profit sharing
• Smart, responsible, and fun co-workers
• Access to online learning portal
• Funding for yearly conference

When you brainstorm, write whatever comes to your mind.  Think of brainstorming as a brain dump, and don’t be hesitant to write down any and all ideas. Later you can throw away anything that doesn’t seem to work. 

Step 2. Categorizing
Once you have captured your random  list, you are ready to move on to the second step—categorizing. To categorize, analyze your list and notice any similarities that exist between individual items on your list. Then move the related items into groups, with an appropriate title for each group. These titles will become the major categories for your final document.  Continuing with the corporate blog example, here is how I grouped my random list: 

• Office Fun
  • Annual racquetball tournament
  • Holiday parties
  • Summer parties
• Benefits
  • Excellent healthcare package
  • Generous 401(k) matching
  • Yearly profit sharing
• Personal Growth      
  • Quarterly team retreats
  • Access to online learning portal
  • Funding for yearly conference
• Culture
  • Innovative atmosphere
  • Managers who listen to their employees
  • Smart, responsible, and fun co-workers

You can see that my random list is now beginning to look like an outline.
 
Step 3. Sequencing
The final step in bottom-up outlining is to arrange the categories in the most appropriate way to meet your message objectives. Depending on your purpose, the audience, the context of your message, and the content itself, you might order those categories in different ways:

• Alphabetic order
• Quantitative order
• Logical order
• Spatial order
• Comparative order
• Problem-solution order
• Cause-effect order
• Chronological order
• Narrative order
• Order of importance

In our corporate blog example, I came up with four categories: office fun, benefits, personal growth, and culture. Now I need to order, or sequence, these categories. Because there seems to be a logical overlap between the last sub-point of the culture category and the office fun category, I decided to sequence those categories back to back. In addition, I feel as if culture matters greatly in a company, so I want to highlight that important benefit up front. Chronologically, summer parties occur before holiday parties, so I switch the order of those two points. Here’s the final sequenced outline:

• Culture
  • Innovative atmosphere
  • Managers who listen to their employees
  • Smart, responsible, and fun co-workers
• Office Fun
  • Annual racquetball tournament
  • Summer parties
  • Holiday parties
• Benefits
  • Excellent healthcare package
  • Generous 401(k) matching
  • Yearly profit sharing
• Personal Growth      
  • Quarterly team retreats
  • Access to online learning portal
  • Funding for yearly conference

Voila! In three simple steps I have created a nicely structured outline to guide my writing. After composing the body of the message based on this outline, I can just create an appropriate introduction and closing, and I’m done!

Conclusion
Why is bottom-up outlining so effective?  First, creating a free list works with information as it currently exists in your brain—it doesn’t force you to first create categories. Second, creating a free list is also great for spawning new ideas that you might not have considered otherwise. Third, bottom-up outlining generates order out of chaos—taking unstructured information and methodically finding an appropriate structure for it, resulting in an organized, understandable final message for readers.

Forget all the negative experiences you had with top-down outlining back in middle school. Bottom-up outlining is brain friendly, easy, and very effective. Try the three easy steps of brainstorming, categorizing, and sequencing on your next blog or email. You’ll see how well it works.

-Matt Baker