8.2 Outlining
Constructing Topic Outlines
A topic outline is the same as a sentence outline except you use words or phrases instead of complete sentences. Words and phrases keep the outline short and easier to comprehend. All the headings, however, must be written in parallel structure.
Outlining Checklist
Writing an Effective Topic Outline
This checklist can help you write an effective topic outline for your assignment. It will also help you discover where you may need to do additional reading or prewriting.
- Do I have a controlling idea that guides the development of the entire piece of writing?
- Do I have three or more main points that I want to make in this piece of writing? Does each main point connect to my controlling idea?
- Is my outline in the best order—chronological order, spatial order, or order of importance—for me to present my main points? Will this order help me get my main point across?
- Do I have supporting details that will help me inform, explain, or prove my main points?
- Do I need to add more support? If so, where?
- Do I need to make any adjustments in my working thesis statement before I consider it the final version?
Key Takeaways
- Writers must put their ideas in order, so the assignment makes sense. The most common orders are chronological, spatial, and order of importance.
- After gathering and evaluating the information you found for your essay, the next step is to write a working or preliminary thesis statement.
- The working thesis statement expresses the main idea you want to develop in the entire writing. It can be modified as you continue the writing process.
- Effective writers prepare a formal outline to organize their main ideas and supporting details in the order they will be presented.
- A topic outline uses words and phrases to express ideas.
- A sentence outline uses complete sentences to express ideas.
- The writer’s thesis statement begins the outline, and the outline ends with suggestions for the concluding paragraph.
This is from “Outlining,” section 8.2 of the book Successful Writing (v. 1.0). For details on it (including licensing), click here.
“Outline for book three on an envelope taped above my desk (another list of ten…)” by Austin Kleon is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
