Making an Outline

The Role of an Outline

Although there are many ways to communicate your research findings, whether a traditional research paper, a presentation, a lab report, a poster session, or something else entirely, all forms of communication benefit from organization.

Your organizational strategy will depend on your final product. It could be an outline, a storyboard, a mind map, or notes on the back of a napkin. Regardless of the format, these tools help you map out the main claims and supporting evidence for your argument and put them into some order before they are fleshed out in detail.

An outline is an abbreviated list of the parts of your paper. Think of it as a road map or a recipe. Even if your teacher does not require a formal outline, writing one has many benefits:

• Helps you see the big picture, organize your ideas, and stay on track while you are drafting. You will write more efficiently and be more likely to get where you were planning to go.

• Shows whether you have enough information to support your claims or need to go back and do more research.

• Can be shared with your teacher for feedback BEFORE you sit down to write all those pages and pages (and in college you will find some instructors willing to read outlines but not entire drafts)

Getting Started

The easiest way to begin your outline is by taking your notes and grouping them by topic. You are interpreting and synthesizing your findings. If you created a working outline, compare it to your notes. Do you have enough information? Is there information missing? What will be the separate parts of your paper? If you are using index cards, put them into piles. If you are using NoodleTools, drag note cards into groups; you can also color code them (by source, topic, etc) if it helps.

Formatting an Outline

Follow this format for a traditional outline, noting the alternations between Roman numerals and letters:

I. Topic

A. Subtopic

i. Supporting detail

a. More information, clarification, interpretation

b. More information, clarification, interpretation

ii. Supporting detail

iii. Supporting detail

B. Subtopic

C. Subtopic

II. Topic

III. Topic

Most word processing software will automatically format your outline so that you do not need to renumber the sections as you revise.

For each level of your outline, you should logically have at least two headings. Outlines may be written in complete sentences or in phrases. Follow the instructions given by your teacher and do not switch back and forth between the two. Your teacher may ask you to include your research question or thesis statement at the top of your outline along with a working title.