Assignment:
Creating an Outline
An outline helps you arrange the order of ideas in a paper. Many students eliminate outlining in the writing process as an unnecessary step. However, writing an essay without an outline cancreate disjointed results. An outline provides a roadmap so that the essay can move smoothlyfrom point A to point B to point C. Without an outline, the essay could easily become disorganized, e.g., A, B, A, C, B. This can confuse readers because the points of the essay are notarranged in correct sequence. Use the following suggestions to create an effective outline.
Creating Correct Formatting
The following information will help you format an outline correctly:
Include at least two elements under each of the sections in the outline. If you have onlyone element, however, you can add additional information to create at least two points.
Create parallel wording at the beginning of each section of the outline. If the first wordbegins with a noun, the first words in all other elements in that section must also beginwith nouns. If the first word is a verb, the other elements must begin with verbs, etc.
Include a period, and space or tab after each letter or number. Be consistent on usingspaces or tabs throughout. (See the sample outline below.)
Use double spacing in the outline for ease in reading or use sin gle spacing throughoutand double space between each of the major elements (I, II, II).
Capitalize the first word after each number o r letter in the outline. Also capitalize propernouns, but do not capitalize the other words.