create outline

The task of your outline is to find your paper's "best structure." By "best structure," we mean the structure that best supports the argument that you intend to make. When you are outlining a paper, you'll have many options for your organization. Your goal is to come up with an outline in which all your choices support your thesis. In other words, your goal is to find the "best structure" for your argument. Treat the outline as if it were a puzzle that you are trying to put together. In a puzzle, each piece has only one appropriate place. The same should be true of your paper. If it's easy to shift around your ideas - if paragraph five and paragraph nine could be switched around and no one would be the wiser - then you haven't yet found the best structure for your paper. Keep working until your outline fits your idea like a glove. When you think you have an outline that works, challenge it. When you start asking questions of your outline, you will begin to see where the plan holds, and where it falls apart.

Here are some questions that you might ask:

• Does my thesis control the direction of my outline?
• Are all of my main points relevant to my thesis?
• Can any of these points be moved around without changing something important about my thesis?
• Does the outline seem logical?
• Does my argument progress, or does it stall?
• If my argument seems to take a turn, mid-stream, does my thesis anticipate that turn?
• Do I have sufficient support for each of my points?
• Have I made room in my outline for other points of view about my topic?
• Does this outline reflect a thorough, thoughtful argument?