Outlining FAQ

What’s the use of making an outline?

If you look in a writing handbook, like Raimes’ Keys for Writers, or at one of the outlining links listed below, you’ll probably find information on outlining in a section on prewriting, along with brainstorming, freewriting, mapping, and other techniques of invention. It’s also likely to say that making a formal outline is not always very helpful as a prewriting technique, but that it might be useful during the revision stage.

I think that outlining is actually more useful as a strategy in active reading, to help the reader focus on structure. Often, structure is connected to meaning; if you understand the structure, you understand the meaning. An outline is very effective at showing the structure of a piece of writing. It breaks a whole into its parts, and each of those parts into even smaller parts, and shows those divisions at a glance, through its format.

What is the format for a formal outline?

• The first level uses Roman numerals
• The second level uses capital letters
• The third level uses Arabic numerals
• The fourth level uses small letters

If you need more levels than this (which is unlikely), use parentheses. In general, the levels alternate numbers and letters, getting smaller each time. Each level is also indented farther from the left margin than the level above it.

What should an outline look like?

Here is an example:

I. The First Major Division

A. A Subdivision

B. A Subdivision

II. The Second Major Division

A. A Subdivision

1. A Sub-subdivision

2. A Sub-Subdivision

B. A Subdivision

1. A Sub-subdivision

a. A Sub-sub-subdivision

b. A Sub-sub-subdivision

2. A Sub-subdivision

III. The Third Major Division

Can MS Word help me format my outline?

Yes. Choose

Format

Bullets and Numbering

Outline Numbered

Each time you want to add to the outline, click the Numbering icon. To move in a level, either press Tab or click the Increase indent icon.

To save space, I usually reformat the Heading 1 level (the Roman numerals) to a smaller point size.

Why is there a rule that says, “If there’s a one, there must be a two; if there’s an A, there must be a B”?

Because one purpose of an outline is to show how a whole is divided and subdivided into smaller parts. Whenever you move in a level, you are showing a division, and you can’t divide something into fewer than two parts. Check if you’ve assigned items to the correct level by looking to see if everything that’s on the same level (all the capital letters, or all the Arabic numerals, for example) are roughly parallel.

Outlining Links:

• Developing an Outline, from OWL, the Purdue University Online Writing Lab
• Using Outlines, from Indiana University Writing Tutorial Services

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