OUTLINES

An outline is exactly what the title implies, an outline or overview of your paper or the chapter in your text. You need not include everything in an outline, just the highlights of the subject. Deciding just what those highlights are is an important tool in studying an assignment or planning a paper. Sometimes how extensive an outline should be depends upon your teacher; be sure and ask before outlining.

The two basic types of outlines are sentence and topic. In the sentence outline, every entry must be in the form of a complete sentence, even the entries after the Roman numerals. Be careful not to include sentence fragments. And be careful not to mix sentence and topic outlines.

A sentence outline tends to be longer and more involved than a topic outline because of the nature of writing sentences. A topic outline is shorter but it is very demanding in its form.

Every word in the headings must be parallel to other words in the same headings. For example, I, II, etc. must be parallel and A, B, and C must be parallel under the individual headings. A under I must be parallel to B under I. But A under II does not have to be parallel to A under I.

To be parallel, the syntax of the topics must be identical. Look at the example below at A, B, and C under I. The analysis of the syntax is adjective, noun, subordinate clause. You will see that the syntax is consistent throughout A, B, and C. You may add or omit adjectives. They are simply placeholders and do not actually require a corresponding adjective in another topic.

The following is a sample of a topic outline written for a paper which discusses three main points.

Outline

Thesis Statement: This sentence tells what the thesis of your

paper is.

I.  Introduction (You may use the word "introduction")

    A. First point you intend to talk about

    B. Second point you intend to talk about

    C. Third point you intend to talk about

II. Body

     A. Actual discussion of first point

          1. Points you wish to get across

          2. More points you wish to get across

     B. Actual discussion of second point

           2. More points you wish to get across

     C. Actual discussion of third point

          1. Points you wish to get across

          2. More points you wish to get across

III. Conclusion

       A. Summary of major points in your paper

        B. Establishment of your thesis.

In writing an outline, remember that if you have a "I", you must have a "II', if you have an "A", you must have a "B", and so on.

Below is an extended form of an outline if you should need to to be very detailed as when outlining a chapter in a history textbook.

I.

    A.

         1.

             a.

                 (1)

                     (a)

                    (b)

                 (2)

             b. 

          2.

     B.

II.