What are outlines good for?
In its simplest form, an outline is a pared down version of an entire text. A good outline represents the entirety of a text's arguments, evidence, and research. Creating an outline on what you read is a very effective way to condense information into a manageable size. It is also good practice for when you want to create an outline as a pre-writing exercise. Outlining helps you pull out the key points and forces you to isolate the important points from the supporting details.
How do I construct an outline?
The most common outlines use Roman numerals, capital letters, Arabic numerals, lowercase letters, and indentations. This schema demonstrates hierarchical relationships between the elements in the outline. Other outline forms use different types of bullets, or rearrange the numbers and letters.
As you can see from the sample outline on the right-hand side of the page, the numbers, letters, and indentations all help designate how bits of information relate to one another. In general, outlines help us remember and make sense of information. Most general note-taking forms take on some kind of outline structure, whether or not they use the official structure of Roman numeral, letter, Arabic number, and so on. In addition to being a helpful note-taking practice, outlining is also a skill that your teacher may use to help you organize your writing and ideas. |
Example Outline Structure:
I. First important topic
II. Second important topic
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*Information on this page has been adapted from Ron Fry's How to Study: Take Notes. For the full citation, please visit the References page.
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