Business English: A Practice Book by Rose Buhlig

=Exercise 156--The Outline= If your theme consists of more than one division, before you begin to speak or write you should prepare a definite working plan or outline. It should include enough to suggest the first sentence of each division and the more important details within each. The outline will help you in speaking or writing to arrange the topics so that they will follow one another clearly. If you have an outline, there will be much less danger of including details which do not belong to the subject and of omitting details which should appear. In the following very simple outlines notice the use of indentation: 1 THE PROBLEM OF KEEPING OUR CITIES CLEAN I. The cleaning of streets. (_a_) In summer. (1) The cost of sprinkling. (_b_) In winter. (1) The cost of removing snow. II. The cleaning of alleys. (_a_) The disposal of garbage. III. The smoke nuisance. (_a_) Smoke consumers. (_b_) Smoke inspection. 2 PUBLIC GYMNASIUMS I. Definition of a public gymnasium. (_a_) Location. (_b_) Equipment. (_c_) Management. II. Benefits to the public. (_a_) Keeps children off the streets. (1) Congested districts. (_b_) Develops them physically. (_c_) Affords them pleasure. (1) Outdoor and indoor games. (2) Bathing at beaches connected with gymnasiums. One more suggestion is in place here. In writing an outline, be careful that you express similar subdivisions of a topic by similar grammatical elements. For example, in the first outline above, (_a_) under I is a phrase; (_b_) under I should be a similar phrase. It would be incorrectly worded _Winter_ or _What the winter problem is_. What is the advantage of such similarity? * * * * * Using the divisions you made for one of the subjects under Exercise 155, develop an outline for a theme. =Exercise 157= Choose one of the following subjects; restrict it or expand it, if necessary; select a proper title; write an outline; and then write or deliver your composition, following your outline closely. Notice that the shorter your title the more it includes, and therefore the longer your composition must be to deal adequately with the subject.