--though not as educating or productive of good
results--to string words together than it is to do what outline-making
demands--to think.

Professional Writers' Use of Outlines. Professional writers realize
the helpfulness of outline-making and the time it saves. Many a
magazine article has been sold before a word of the finished
manuscript was written. The contributor submitted an outline from
which the editor contracted for the finished production. Many a play
has been placed in the same form. Books are built up in the same
manner. The ubiquitous moving-picture scenario is seldom produced in
any other manner.

Macaulay advised a young friend who asked how to keep his brain active
to read a couple of solid books, making careful outlines of their
material at the same time. One of these should be--if possible--a work
in a foreign tongue, so that the strangeness of the language would
necessitate slow, careful reading and close thinking. All good
students know that the best way to prepare for an examination is to
make outlines of all the required reading and study.

It is just because the making of the outline demands such careful
thinking that it is one of the most important steps in the production
of a speech.

The Outline in the Finished Speech. If the outline really shows in the
finished speech, let us see if we can pick the entries out from a
portion of one. Edmund Burke in 1775 tried to prevent Great Britain
from using coercive measures against the restive American colonies.
Many Englishmen were already clamoring for war when Burke spoke in
Parliament upon conciliating the Colonies.

I am sensible, Sir, that all which I have asserted in my
detail, is admitted in the gross; but that quite a different
conclusion is drawn from it. America, gentlemen say, is a
noble object. It is an object well worth fighting for.
Certainly it is, if fighting a people be the best way of
gaining them. Gentlemen in this respect will be led to their
choice of means by their complexions and their habits. Those
who understand the military art, will of course have some
predilection for it. Those who wield the thunder of the
state, may have more confidence in the efficacy of arms. But
I confess, possibly for want of this knowledge, my opinion is
much more in favor of prudent management, than of force;
considering force not as an odious, but a feeble instrument,
for preserving a peo