BRAINSTORMING WITH OUTLINING AND DEPICTING IN DESCRIPTIVE WRITING

Abstract

Outlining has been used as a powerful brainstorming strategy to boost writing performance. However, no method is panacea. This comparative study examines (1) the effects of Outlining and the new one called Depicting on descriptive writings in terms of the number of ideas generated, content and the organization of ideas, and (2) students’ viewpoints towards these strategies. A cross-intervention research design was implemented on two experimental groups exposed to either strategy. The data were collected from over 160 descriptive paragraphs, 21 questionnaires and 6 purposefully selected case-study interviews. The findings indicated more positive results for Depicting over Outlining in facilitating the writers to generate ideas. Meanwhile, there was no clear distinction in terms of content and idea organization performed with Outlining versus Depicting. Also, major findings revealed the participants’ controversial viewpoints on strengths and weaknesses of both strategies, and their preference towards the strategies was not always similar.