23 September 2015 English 9 Mr. Pettine The Outline 23 September 2015 English 9 Mr. Pettine

Working Outline A working outline will guide you as you think, plan, and gather any additional information that you need. The first step in organizing your notes should be to group different kinds of notes together For example, if you were writing about the Great Depression – you might subdivide the topic into the history of the depression, how it affected rural whites, and how it affected African-Americans. You would group your notes by the topic.

Working Outline After you group related items together, you must order them. Decide which group should come first, second, and third in the outline. For example, in a biographical report on Abigail Adams, you may begin with the facts about her life. Next, you might deal with her education and, finally, with what her letters show regarding her adult life.

Working Outline When you prepare your working outline, first write your statement of purpose. Then, write down ideas in words or phrases. List each group of ideas under a Roman number (I, II, III, IV, V, VII, VIII, IX, X) and a heading.

Formal Outline A formal outline will guide you in writing your first draft. The formal outline is based on the working outline that you developed. Your ideas must be in a clear and logical order in the formal outline. You must think about the order of the specific details within each group.

Formal Outline Numbering – All major topics should be numbered with a Roman numeral. These are the major headings in your outline. The next category is subtopics. These are indicated with capital letters (A, B, C). Divisions of subtopics are made with Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3).

Formal Outline Capitalization and Punctuation – Each entry should begin with a capital letter. This guideline applies whether or not your entries are sentences. Phrases should also begin with capital letters. Parallelism – The divisions of an outline should be parallel in form. For example, if you use a sentence in main division I, you must also use sentences in the other main subdivisions. If you use a phrase, continue to use phrases.

Thesis Thesis serves for four main purposes. I.) It states the main point of the composition II.) It tells your reader your attitude toward the topic III.) It suggests the path that your composition will take – It defines the argument.