In response to Jmurph
Ooohh... I dropped out of this discussion early, so I missed the writing-style comments. I shall now add my two cents.

I agree that outlines and rough drafts are good tools, and not to be adhered to dogmatically. I didn't find any kind of outlining useful until college, and then I steadfastly avoided the stupid numbered-outline system I had been taught but instead did something more like my notes: A semi-organized grouping of information.

The problem with teaching outlines in early schooling is that it gives you the idea that you should know exactly what points you want to hit, sometimes before you've even done any research on it; I found it makes more sense to find out what you can say, how well you can support any given point, and go from there. Numbered outlines are the worst, because renumbering as you go along is difficult, but often outlines change as you reconsider how to organize a paper's structure. I found that the numbers in outlines tended to take on a certain brittleness, where it became unthinkable to shake up a paper's organization lest it break. So much for dogma.

Lummox JR
In response to LexyBitch
Well, I think the instructor wants to make sure the student understands the process. However, that assumed a good professor who is genuinely interested in his or her students. Far too often the instructor actually looks down on the students as mere children who lack the ability (not training) that the professor has. I have encountered such arrogance in my own academic career. A history professor questioned my work merely because I used the term 'blustering' as a college sophomore. I would have thought such advanced diction would have been expected, or at least commended, but I suppose that writing standards have fallen so low that instead all it aroused was suspicion. In this case, though, I suspect more since I repeatedly recieved "A"s on my tests and yet a "B" in the class. This after I pointed out inconsistencies in the professor's lecture (a foolish move, I admit, but several of his "facts" were absurd in terms of date) that he could not rebutt (It was a class covering history before 1400 and I had confirmed several grossly erroneous dates with both outside sources and other historical experts at the university). Oh well, it didn't slow me down and I hope it at least encouraged him to be more thorough in his own work, PhD or no.

-James
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