General Guide to Creating a Basic Outline

Adapted from Spartanburg County School District, South Carolina

The “Owen Meany” Outline

►I’ll be looking for:

A thesis

Alpha-numeric divisions done correctly

Parallelism

Textual support for points parenthetically noted with page number

►NOTE: I don’t expect you to have more than two or three subdivisions.

Starting my working outline…

My paper is about education. My big topics are going to be as follows:

► the history of why and how people educate the public,

► the development of new educational initiatives,

► the changes that these have made in the system (both intentional and unintentional),

► the problems that have arisen through these changes, and

► the potential solutions for some of the problems.

Working Outline

►This could be like an outline rough draft or a topic outline. REMEMBER: The purpose of THIS outline is to help you start organizing your paper. First, look to your notes and decide on your main topics. My main topics are things like “History-Egyptian” and “No Child Left Behind.” I’m going to set up my working outline.

Working Outline as Outline I. History

A. Egyptians

B. Puritans

C. Plantations

1. Boys

2. Girls

II. Curriculum Movements

A. Elitist Pool of Knowledge

B. Basic Skills

C. International Competition

D. NCLB

III. Problems

A. Needs Change

B. Finances

C. Unrealistic Expectations

IV. Solutions

A. Choice

1. School

2. Course of Study

B. Finances

C. Accountability

1. Parent

2. Student

3. Teacher

Which number or letter do I use?

I. History A. Egyptians B. Puritans 1. Purpose in education a. Productivity b. Indoctrination (1) Church (2) Society 2. Institutions of learning II. Developments

Start by using capital Roman numerals, then capital letters, and then numbers. Start over again with lower case letters and then subscript numerals in parenthesis. See me if you want to subdivide further, but if you keep subdividing, it’s probably more detail than is necessary for this assignment!

Parallelism: It’s not just for math anymore!

►If you start your heading using a noun, then start ALL headings and sub headings with a noun.

►If you start your heading using a verb, then start ALL headings and sub headings with a verb.

Parallelism Example 1: I. History A. Egyptians B. Puritans C. Plantations 1. Boys 2. Girls II. Developments III. Changes IV. Problems V. Solutions (Notice: They are all nouns.)

Parallelism Example 2

I. Know the process

A. Read the instructions

B. List needed supplies

C. Schedule the required time

II. Practice the skills

A. Use scrap materials

B. Continue to practice until achieving desired result

III. Buy the supplies

IV. Work consistently

V. Complete the project

(Notice that these start with verbs!)

Subdivisions: They’re not just for dwellings any more!

► Each subheading should be to subdivide the heading.

► Start with the broad idea and divide down to more specific ideas.

►CAUTION: It works like fractions, though. If you subdivide a heading, you must divide it into at least two parts!

My main topics…

► I’ve divided the broad topic of education into five main subtopics:

► (I cannot have just one subtopic because 1 main topic divided into 1 subtopic is still 1.)

► See…it’s just like fractions! Can there be three subtopics? Yes! Any number other than 1 will work!

I. History

II. Developments

III. Changes

IV. Problems

V. Solutions

Subdivisions Example: I. History A. Egyptians B. Puritans 1. Purpose in education a. Productivity b. Indoctrination (1) Church (a) Values (b) Laws (2) Society 2. Institutions of learning a. Home b. Church c. College II. Developments

It shouldn’t be that hard!

►The problem is that there is a specific format. Sometimes, it feels like a difficult task to get your information to fit into that format.

►As you’re outlining, just think of each heading as a pie to be divided into pieces!

►CAUTION: WORD does not correctly outline for you. You need to be able to do this on your own!

Parenthetical Citation Assume one source

I. History A. Egyptians (51-52) B. Puritans 1. Purpose in education (67) 2. Institutions of learning II. Developments (134)

With MLA format on the page number – no abbreviations or anything else – is needed inside the parentheses.

A Twist on the Outline

►On your outlines, I want you to write your thesis statement at the top of the page, which is not always done. It can help you as you set up your paper.

►Make sure that your thesis encompasses your headings.

Thesis Example:

►Even though history has shown curricula to reflect the needs of society, American curricula constantly changes in design with new problems being addressed with each approach and posed solution.

Does this thesis reflect what is to be discussed in the paper?

►First, we should look back to the outline to review the topics.

Outline Revisited:

I. History

A. Egyptians

B. Puritans

C. Plantations

1. Boys

2. Girls

II. Developments

A. Curricula

B. Structure

C. Facilities

III. Changes

A. Programs

B. Laws

1. EIA

2. ADA

3. NCLB

a. Intentions

b. Outcomes

C. Studies

IV. Problems

A. Funding

B. Accountability

C. Problems within the school

V. Solutions

A. Choice

B. Incentives

I. History

II. Developments

III. Changes

IV. Problems

V. Solutions

Even though history has shown curricula to reflect the needs of society, American curricula constantly changes in design with new problems being addressed with each approach and posed solution.

It’s in there!

►Yes, each topic is referenced!

►Do I need to develop a thesis that covers the subtopics?

►No, that would be giving far too much detail!

►Now, one last look…

Thesis: Even though history has shown curricula to reflect the needs of society, American curricula constantly changes in design with new problems being addressed with each approach and posed solution.

I. History

A. Egyptians

B. Puritans

C. Plantations

1. Boys

2. Girls

II. Developments

A. Curricula

B. Structure

C. Facilities

III. Changes

A. Programs

B. Laws

1. EIA

2. ADA

3. NCLB

a. Intentions

b. Outcomes

C. Studies

IV. Problems

A. Funding

B. Accountability

C. Problems within the school

V. Solutions

A. Choice

B. Incentives

Good Luck

A wonderful resource for you is available at

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/

Google OWL with the topic, such as “OWL commas” and it will take you to the desired subsection. Outlining is available at

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/544/01/