Chapter 9: Outlining
Once you begin narrowing down your topic, depending on the type of paper, you may be ready to start drafting. The best point to begin writing your draft also depends on the genre of essay you are writing. If you are writing a research paper, then you will need to follow more steps, which are covered in detail later in this book.
However, if you are preparing for a response paper and your teacher has provided you with all of the texts you need to begin writing, you may be ready to start outlining. The textbook English for Business Success explains that your prewriting activities and readings can help you gather information for your assignment. The more you sort through the pieces of information you found, the more you will begin to see the connections between them. Patterns and gaps may begin to stand out. But only when you start to organize your ideas will you be able to translate your raw insights into a form that will communicate meaning to your audience.
Organizing Ideas
When you write, it is helpful when your ideas are presented in an order that makes sense. The writing you complete in all your courses exposes how analytically and critically your mind works. In some courses, the only direct contact you may have with your instructor is through the assignments you write for the course. You can make a good impression by spending time ordering your ideas.
Order refers to your choice of what to present first, second, third, and so on in your writing. The order you pick closely relates to your purpose for writing that particular assignment. For example, when telling a story, it may be important to first describe the backstory. Or you may need to first describe a 3-D movie projector or a television studio to help readers visualize the setting and scene. You may want to group your support effectively to convince readers that your point of view on an issue is well reasoned and worthy of belief.
In longer pieces of writing, you may organize parts in different ways so that your purpose stands out clearly and all parts of the paper work to consistently develop your main point.
Methods of Organizing Writing
An outline is a written plan that serves as a skeleton for the paragraphs you write. Later, when you draft paragraphs in the next stage of the writing process, you will add support to create “flesh” and “muscle” for your assignment. The outline will utilize the ideas you developed during the prewriting process.
When you write, your goal is not only to complete an assignment but also to write for a specific purpose—perhaps to inform, to explain, to persuade, or to achieve a combination of these purposes. Your purpose for writing should always be in the back of your mind, because it will help you decide which pieces of information belong together and how you will order them.
Three common ways to structure a paper are chronological order, spatial order, and order of importance. Choose the order that will most effectively fit your purpose and support your main point.
Chronological
- To tell a story or relate an experience
- To explain the history of an event or a topic
- To introduce the steps in a process
Spatial
- To help readers visualize something as you want them to see it
- To create a main impression using the senses (sight, touch, taste, smell, and sound)
Order of Importance
- To persuade or convince
- To rank items by their importance, benefit, or significance
Organizing Your Writing
Descriptive writing is most effective when it is organized well. Use the following information to decide what organization best fits your goals.
- Chronological order → best for describing events
- Spatial order → best for describing places
- Order of importance → best for describing objects and people
Types of Outlines
A formal outline is a detailed guide that shows how all your supporting ideas relate to each other. This outline helps you distinguish between ideas that are equally important and ones that are less important. You can build your paper based on the framework you created in the outline.
There are two types of formal outlines: the topic outline and the sentence outline. Format both types of formal outlines similarly.
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Place your introduction and thesis statement at the beginning, under roman numeral I.
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Use roman numerals (II, III, IV, V, etc.) to identify main points that develop the thesis statement.
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Use capital letters (A, B, C, D, etc.) to divide your main points into parts.
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Use arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc.) if you need to subdivide any As, Bs, or Cs into smaller parts.
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End with the final roman numeral expressing your idea for your conclusion. Here is what the skeleton of a traditional formal outline looks like. The indentation helps clarify how the ideas are related.
Adapted from “Chapter Seven” of English for Business Success, 2012, used according to Creative Commons CC BY-NC-SA 3.0
