Standard Outline Format (Content Mostly Fictional) I. Introduction

Opening sentence to introduce the introduction idea. “Everyone has gone through a frustrating experience with a bureaucracy.”

Story or description that gives Audience an imaginative experience. “I went to pick up my class schedule one sunny day at the University of North Carolina. The sun was shining, I had the morning ahead of me to waste on a leisurely breakfast and a newspaper, and all was right with the world. Then I gave the person at the table my name and id number, and she said ‘You’re not a student here.’ I showed her my id, but she assured me that the computer didn’t list me as a student there. I spent the rest of the day going from office to office at the Registrar’s Building, and ended my day by returning to my car after lunch, with no breakfast either in my belly or on the horizon. There I found a lovely red parking ticket from the town of Chapel Hill.”

Quotation or statistic to show the problem is serious. “The size of Penn State makes even small difficulties with academic red tape into serious trouble for students. With over 40,000 students, each registering for fifteen or sixteen credits, small glitches in the system can translate into large headaches. (Penn State Univ.) [Note: page address is located in Source List… have page nos. or addresses in the body or in the Source List.]

Transition to Thesis. [ Move from bad experience with bureaucracy to the specific central idea:] “I’m sure all of you have had similar difficulties with some part of Penn State’s bureaucracy. A little of that frustration comes with the territory. But there are some things that can be made more simple, and today I’d like to discuss one with you.”

II. Central Idea/Thesis:

“The process of registering for classes is more complicated than it should be at Penn State.”

III. Preview/Partition:

[List the main points, or state them in a slightly abbreviated fashion, as in:]

“Online class schedule information is outdated.” “The elion system is often down when registration is heavy.” “The process doesn’t allow for direct student feedback about class availability.”

[Or something parallel in structure, like--]

“The process of registering is too complicated: Through the lack of current information about openings, through an often disfunctional elion system, and through a lack of student feedback about class availability.”

Transition: [Signal the end of the preview, and guide the listener to the first point – a problem.] “Let’s begin with the problem regarding accurate information”

IV. Body (With Main Points)

A. Online class schedule information is outdated.

1. [Quote] Dr. Tony Lentz, who uses the system regularly in registering students for the LEAP Program, explains. “The data in the Registrar’s Schedule of Courses page is updated every night at midnight.” [Note Source by name/number, and page:] (Lentz) 2. [Statistic] The Registrar’s Office reports that during registration as many as 1,000 students may be changing their schedule in a given day. [Source:] (Reasoner Int.) 3. [Example] So when I tried to register for CAS 100 in order to finish my college career this year, I had to spend over 3 hours, off-and-on, trying to “catch” openings that appeared on the Registrar’s Schedule of Course web page, but were gone by the time I got to elion.psu.edu the next day.

Transition: [Signal the end of the first point, and guide the listener to the second – an overloaded computer.] “So students are operating without accurate information as to whether an opening really exists in a class. Furthermore, they may find that the system crashes while they are trying to register.”

B. It is a fact that the elion system is often down when registration is heavy.

Transition: [Signal the end of the second point, and guide the listener to the third point – lack of feedback.] “Let’s move to the final point: lack of student input.” 1. [Example] [Source] 2. [Statistic] [Source:] (source) 3. [Quote] [Note Source by name/number, and page:] (source)

C. “The entire registration process takes place with little opportunity for student feedback on class availability”

1. [Example] [Source] 2. [Statistic] [Source:] (source) 3. [Quote] [Note Source by name/number, and page:] (source)

Transition: [Signal the end of the third point, and guide the listener to the conclusion, often leading to a summary of all the points “one more time.”] “So students are left pounding the walls in their rooms because they can’t get classes. The lack of courses is hidden out of sight, a very efficient system for the administration, but a serious difficulty for the student body.”

V. Conclusion

[Summary of Points, not required but often helpful] “So as we have seen, the Penn State registration is too complicated. It misfunctions through the lack of current information about openings, through an often disfunctional elion system, and through a lack of student feedback about class availability.”

[A concrete example/story that gives the audience one more image of the problem] “So it’s clear that we have some difficulty with an understanding of the human aspect of the registration process at Penn State. A story Dr. Lentz tells of his research on the Farmers Home Administration illustrates the point. The accountants who ran the Finance Office of the agency had privatized the imformation acccess. So at a time when county supervisers across the country were foreclosing on family farms, they had people answering the phones who really didn’t know the agencies procedures. Worse yet, they were paid by the number of phone calls per hour ‘for reasons of efficiency.’ They had never considered the human impact on county supervisors under stress who would have their source of accurate information about accounts hang up on them. ”

[Closing quotation or statistic to drive point home.] “As businessman and sales expert I. M. Plutos said in his biography ‘Making It,’ ‘companies who rely on machines and efficiency experts to talk to their customers will have to rely on funny numbers to make a profit.”

[Concluding line to signal the end of the talk] “Sooner or later students will get tired of having too few courses for them to finish their programs on time. They will remember how they were treated when they are alumni, and the university will learn that the personal touch may determine whether their fundraising campaigns continue to have the Midas touch.”

VI. Source List (or Bibliography)

[List your sources by number or name in a consistent style, including page numbers or page addresses. You should be wo clear in identifying where your material originated that either you or someone else can recheck the quotes, numbers, and examples easily. Protect your credibility.]

Eiffel, Thomas. “Registration Appointments Announced,” Daily Collegian, 3/12/05, p. 2.

Lentz, Tony M. Interview in the LEAP Program Office, 105 Boucke, Pennsylvania State University, 3/15/05.

Pennsylvania State University. “About us,” www.psu.edu/info.html, 10/14/04.

Reasoner, Elizabeth, Assistant to the Registrar. Telephone interview 3/16/05 with her at 814.865.XX41.

[Add more sources to reach required number. More than required shows “excellent” effort in research.]