Feeling crunched for time to make a course outline. Well, here's a tip to give you a jump-start if you've happened to wait until now to start making your outlines in preparation for final exams.
- Make a copy of the casebook table of contents (TOC) (and super-size it on 11 x 14 paper if you like to make hand-written outlines).
- If you are a hand-writer, then grab a pen and get ready to roll.
- If you are a typist or you like to make flashcards or flowcharts, then grab your preferred tool and list out the chapter subjects and the sections, giving your work lots of "breathing room" to input the cases and materials from the chapters.
- Brainstorm a short "sound-bite" for each case, one by one, and input that "blurb" into your outline. Note: Trust yourself! Your blurb can just be a phrase or one sentence (two at the max). That's because there's a learning concept called "useful forgetfulness." The process of deciding what to put down (i.e., boiling the case or article down to its essence without re-writing verbatim your class notes or case briefs) leads to much deeper memory because, by volitionally choosing NOT to put everything down on paper, you are using your own brainpower to personally analyze what is really important about the case or article to you. In other words, this is where learning happens…because…you've taken the time to distill it in your own words!
- Keep on adding in the short blurbs and, before you know, you've built a TOC outline.
One final note. As I go back to review my class notes and cases to write my case blurbs, I try to skim for just the big concepts, i.e., as though I'm just trying to "catch up with old friends." In other words, I'm just trying to get reacquainted, so to speak.
Not sure what a case blur looks like? Well, here's a sample:
Fisher v. Carousel (lunch buffet plate snatched from NASA mathematician's hand by restaurant work): tortious battery includes contact either through direct physical touching or through touching an object intimately connected to a person because the purpose of battery is to protect human dignity from forceful violations that impact our minds and invade our wills.
In sum, as you can see from the example, I list the case name, I identify a few material facts, and then I re-write the holding of the case in my own words…with a slight twist…because I add the word "because" to explain the court's rationale. And, there you have it: a hand-dandy TOC outline! (Scott Johns).
