ClearTips: Riveting reports
6. Make a Strong Point about Each of Your
Paragraph Topics
Write the first topic of your paragraph-by-paragraph plan
at the top of a sheet of paper (or at the top of a fresh page on your
word processor), and make a strong point about it. If you have a general
topic such as this:
Topic Partnerships of governments, businesses,
and citizens
you might move to a strong point such as this:
Point When governments listen to businesses
and citizens and work in partnership with them in deciding and implementing
policy, they create programs that people will support.
Now do the same for all the other topics in your plan.
You'll find for some that it's easy, and for others, impossible—and
that will suggest refinements to your plan.
Here are some examples of moving from topic to point for
the Census Bureau's brief on projections:
Topic California, Texas, and Florida take
different paths
to
Point California, Texas, and Florida will probably see
the most growth but they will grow in very different ways.
Topic California's losses through interstate
migration
to
Point California will see big gains through natural increase
and international migration but big losses through interstate migration.
Topic Texas's gains from all three contributors
to
Point In Texas there will be a balance among all three contributors
to its rising population.
Here's a set of topic-to-point conversions for the overview
of the recent World Development Report:
Topic New ideas about the role of the state
to Point The world is changing and with it our ideas about
the state's role in economic and social development.
Topic Expectations met, but not everywhere
to
Point In a few countries things have indeed worked out more or
less as the technocrats expected, but in many countries outcomes were
very different.
Topic Government getting bigger
to
Point Over the last century the size and scope of government
have expanded enormously, particularly in the industrial countries.
Topic Focus on state inspired by dramatic
events
to
Point As in the 1940s, today's renewed focus on the state's role
has been inspired by dramatic events in the global economy, which have
fundamentally changed the environment in which states operate.
Topic Clamor for more effective governance
to
Point The clamor for greater government effectiveness has reached
crisis proportions in many developing countries where the state has
failed to deliver even such fundamental public goods as roads, property
rights, and basic health and education.
Back to Riveting reports
• Next
|