Outlining

• outlining is a tool we use in the writing process to help organize our ideas, visualize our paper’s potential structure, and further flesh out and develop points
• An outline gives a visual structure (a blueprint or a plan) to your work and is used to show relationships and hierarchies within your content
• To outline, you must create a linear organized plan for your paper that shows the main ideas that you will discuss as well as their relationships within the paper.
• Steps for an Outline

  1. Identify your main topic
  2. List your main points
  3. Structure your argument
  4. Add sub-points
  5. Evaluate and adjust as necessary
• Guidelines ○ Answer the questions that lead to your thesis statement ○ Use the two or three main ideas as your main heading ○ Write subtopics for each main idea ○ Write the supporting details for each of the subtopics
• Alpha-numeric format

  ● Uses both letters and numbers as labels

  ● Prefixes at the beginning of each topic
• Decimal format

  ● Uses only numbers as labels

  ● Clearly shows how each level is related to each other
• Alpha-numeric format: I, - A, - 1, -a
• Decimal Format: 1, -1.1., -1.1.1.
• Topic Outline

  ● Key words/phrases

  ● Divided into 3 levels (Heading, Subheading, Sub-subheadings)
• Sentence Outline

  ● Expanded outline ● Full sentences ● Same format as the topic outline
• Main Components of Outline

  ○ Parallelism - Topics and subtopics are parallel in sentence structure.
• Main Components of Outline

  ○ Division – Outline has structure and parts to follow. In an alpha-numeric outline, roman numerals can be used to represent main ideas while capital letters represent supporting details.
• Main Components of Outline

  ○ Coordination – All the parts are related and significant to all the other parts.
• Main Components of Outline

  ○ Subordination – General information is put in the headings and gets more specific in the subheadings.