Creat a Roadmap (Katetutor only)

Roadmap Student Example

Student Name

Due Date

WR122-Brown

RR8: Synthesizing Ideas & Roadmap

Part I: Guiding Questions

Student answers withheld

Part II: Roadmap

I. Topic: E-Readers in the publishing industry

Thesis: Electronic readers have revolutionized the publishing industry, making way for small, independent publishing houses to

flourish by attracting new authors and new readers.

II. History of Publishing Industry & E-Readers (background of the topic)

III. Supporting Topic #1: Small independent publishing houses

A. Support: Printing was expensive – E-readers create freedom from corporate control, publishers can take risks

B. Counterargument: The “Big 6” publishers are successful for a reason – proven success and talent

C. Rebuttal: Both independent and conglomerate publishers can create success for authors with E-readers, but the chances of

a conglomerate taking the risk is highly unlikely.

IV. Supporting Topic #2: Attracting New Authors

A. Support: Authors can keep control of their own work, publishers can take more risks with authors who are not “mainstream”

B. Counterargument: Unprofessional publishers “print” any author’s work since e-readers are “easy” and inexpensive

C. Rebuttal: Small publishers does not mean a decreased audience since E-readers allow all types of work to be made available,

while traditional publishing requires hardcopies to be purchased and placed on the shelf (eg: high risk)

V. Supporting Argument #3: Attracting New Readers

A. Support: E-Readers are flexible, trendy, and reach a new audience of readers

B. Counterargument: Traditional publishing does not very often break the mold

C. Rebuttal: Small publishing houses can prepare work, especially for E-readers, ad get the right to the right readership. Indie

publishing houses typically have a different type of following and those who use E-Readers are part of that following.

VII. Concluding Thoughts:

What goals do you have for the paper?: I would like to prove that E-readers can make independent publishing houses more

successful and meet the needs of a niche group of readers and writes that large conglomerate publishers cannot. Keeping with the

“old” way of publishing limits readership and authorship.

What would you like to convince your readers to do or believe after reading your paper?: I would like to convince readers to

agree with the idea that E-Readers have revolutionized the publishing industry by making it possible for all types of authors to get

published and to reach their intended readers without having to use traditional publishing, printing, and marketing methods. The

major publishing houses often miss out on many capable authors when not taking risks or relying on what is “popular” at that

particular moment. E-Readers reach the needs of a new era of publishing and reading.

The outline discovery draft utilizes the thesis statement to guide the organization of the paper. The following example uses the following thesis

statement: Electronic readers have revolutionized the publishing industry, making way for small, independent publishing houses to flourish by attracting new authors and new readers. This particular outline example includes the counterarguments and rebuttals in the same section as the support, which makes for a strong

organizational pattern. Notice that the outline follows the organization of the thesis statement and each section has a title that introduces what

topic will be discussed in that section. Each section of support in the thesis statement is color coded, which makes it simple to follow the

structure of the outline.