Create Outline

Outlines for papers can be very general or very detailed.

Preliminary Outline (also called General Outline or Minor Outline)

Your preliminary outline includes your thesis and topic sentences for each topic in your paper. For an essay that is longer than 5 paragraphs, note that each topic sentence is about a sub-topic that helps support your thesis. It can refer to one paragraph or a group of separate paragraphs.

Resource: General/Preliminary Outline Organizer

Final Outline (also called Detailed Outline or Major Outline)

A detailed outline will help you:

• Arrange major topics, subtopics, evidence from your research, and analysis.
• Decide which topics to cover, in what order, to support your thesis.
• Organize your paper.
• Keep you on track.
• Make it much easier to write your paper, because a lot of your work will be done!

Resource: Detailed Outline Organizer