Page 117 - TX_Marketing 2_M1_v2

Outlining Your Position

Outlines are a great planning tool for all kinds of correspondence. For example:
If you have an important negotiation session to attend, then outline the points

that you want to address so that you don't forget any of them and so that you

can address the most important points first (in case you run out of time).
If you have a letter, then outline exactly what you want to say before you really

start writing so that the letter stays brief, poignant, and clear. (Remember,

business letters should, in general, only be one page in length.)
If you want to persuade someone of something, then outlining your ideas can

help ensure that your premises support your conclusions.

To examine these ideas more specifically, reconsider our previous example

regarding e-mails.

Example: In our previous example regarding e-mails, we isolated out our "evidence"

(or our premises/inartistic information) and pinpointed our exact "idea" (or our

conclusion/artistic information). It was then easy to properly queue the two types of
information and then compose a topic sentence for the paragraph that tells the

audience what the paragraph is going to be about. Outlining helped us separate out

the important information and helped us stay clear and on topic.

It can be difficult to look at paragraphs or listen to speeches and pick out the
"evidence" even in our own work. This is especially true if the evidence isn't hard data

or facts. Outlining your arguments will make it easier for you to test for logical

connections because the evidence will be right before you.

Before presenting your ideas, it might help to look for logical connections by

separating your ideas into two groupings: artistic and inartistic information.

TX Marketing II: Negotiation Techniques 116