How to Write an Outline

Why write an outline? An outline helps you organize information and/or ideas An outline helps you plan what you are going to do An outline helps you work more efficiently An outline helps you create a higher quality final product

Where should you start? Begin by putting the information you are going to use into broad categories. For example, for this project you may have information about your individual’s: – childhood – career – influence on the Pacific Northwest – Etc.

What next? Once you have determined the categories you wish to include, begin to create your outline. Those categories will be turned into what we might call Main Ideas. Main ideas in an outline are traditionally noted with roman numerals. Roman numerals 1-10 are: I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X.

Your outline will start to look something like this: I.Childhood II.Career III.Influence on The Pacific Northwest

Sub-categories Because you are going to want to include more information for each main idea, you will need to add some Sub-categories to each Main Idea section. Sub-categories are traditionally noted with standard capital letters, like A, B, C, D, and so on. The capital letters go under the categories with roman numerals, and they are tabbed in.

So let’s add some Sub-categories to our Main Ideas …… I.Childhood A. Born in Missouri in 1881 B. Lived on a farm C. Became an orphan D. Was sent to live with relatives II. Career A. Became a lawyer B. Was sent to Northwest to work for Territorial Government

But wait! There’s more! You will still need to include smaller, more specific details to the Sub-categories. These also have a specific kind of notation. They are marked with numbers, but the standard kind: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, ….. And so on. These go under the Sub-category capital letters, and are tabbed once again.

It looks like this …. I.Childhood A. Born in Missouri in small town 2. born into large family B. Lived on a farm 1. raising dairy cows C. Became an orphan 1. father died in accident 2. mother died in childbirth 3. age 10 at the time

You can go into even further detail in your outline. To do so, you switch again to letters, but make them lower case. For even further detail, go back to numbers, but make them smaller. After that, you go to double letters, double numbers, and so on. You probably won’t need that many layers for this assignment, but it’s good to know.

Here’s the basic format …. I.Main idea A. Sub-category 1. detail a. smaller detail i. even smaller detail aa. yes, even smaller detail

Some additional notes: 1. When you want to go from details back to larger sub-categories, just follow the process backward. 2. The parts of your outline can range from brief key words to full sentences. 3. Microsoft word can make outlining really tricky because it tries to take over what you are doing. Taking some time to learn how Word deals with outlines will help you in the end.