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The Outline
There are two types of outlines: formal outlines and informal outlines.
Informal outlines are just for you
to help you write your paper and structure and organize your thoughts and your writing. They may be as simple as
your ideas jotted down in incomplete sentences -- just phrases -- in the order in which you plan to discuss them in
your essay. You can indent supporting points, and "outdent" the main points to easily visualize the structure of your essay.
You can use the informal outline before or after you write your paper. Before you write, it will help you organize
your thoughts. After you write, you will copy down a skeleton of the ideas in your paper, to help you see if they made
sense and to assist you in your proofreading and revision of your writing.
Refer to your Rules of Thumb text, pp. 65-67 for more information on organization and informal outlines.
Formal outlines will be seen by other people. Usually you compose your formal outline
AFTER you've written your paper. This kind of outline, like the informal outline, is the skeleton of your paper -- showing
the reader the main ideas of your paper -- and it should develop the thesis. The first and second levels will be your main ideas
or generalizations, and the third and fourth levels will contain supporting deatils of those major ideas or generalizations.
The formal outline can be either a sentence outline or a topic outline, but
in either case, both kinds of formal outlines should:
develop the thesis. Do not put irrelevant material in your outline (or your paper for that matter).
have subpoints that relate directly to the major points above them.
contain at least TWO (2) items on each level; it must have a I. to match a II., an A. to match a B., and so on.
NOT go beyond six Roman numerals (usually). Two or three Roman numerals are best and create the best paper...more than six is confusing to your reader. Subordinate.
contain the thesis of the paper at the TOP of the outline, separate from the outline format, and identified as the thesis by the words "thesis statement" followed by a colon.
NOT include the introduction and conclusion of your paper. These are not the main ideas of your paper.
if a sentence outline: consist of full-fledged sentences at EVERY level. If a topic outline: consist of phrases (NO sentences except thesis) in parallel grammatical structure.
have only simple, perhaps complex, sentences. Do NOT write a compound sentence (two equal ideas) on any point of an outline -- break that sentence into two outline points.
NOT have transitional words.
have PARAPHRASES of quotations, NOT quotations themselves.
use the literary present tense or historical present tense for papers on those topics.
capitalize the first letter of each item, even if a topic outline.
have a period after each entry item: for example, I. or A. or b. -- and, or course, have a period at the end of each sentence in a sentence outline, but NOT at the end of the entry if a topic outline.
space correctly. The next subpoint letter goes diection beneath the first letter of the sentence/topic above.
THIS IS NOT WHAT MICROSOFT WORD DOES in automatic outline format. It indents too far -- too many spaces. You can turn off "autoformat" in Word on the toolbar.
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