ABSTRACT
Irvin S. Cobb described his own writing something like dashing his stuff off madly at an inch an hour, using drops of perspiration for punctuation. Poets and novelists may have to wait for an internal voice, but not technical writers. All writing is at least partly an art, requiring a degree of intellectual and emotional involvement. The engineer or programmer can use outlines in different ways, throughout a writing project. In addition to helping him plan his writing—the traditional role of outlines—he can use a Writing Outline to organize source material and guide the actual writing. The introduction to almost any writing merits special consideration, for several reasons. The introduction may also include such elements as background to the problem, reasons for the unsuitability of other approaches.
