EVENT 28 - Developing writing skills 2: an outline

EVENT 28 Developing writing skills 2: an outline

Writing an outline:

• helps you organize your notes and ideas;
• check the order in which you will talk about those ideas;
• guides you in selecting details and examples to support the main ideas;
• shows you where to add more details or change the order of the main points. 

The structure of an outline:

Some outlines are very simple. They list only the main ideas and a few supporting ideas. Some are more detailed. They include main ideas, supporting ideas, examples and further explanations: 

1. main idea (topic sentence)

    A.supporting idea 1 (supports the topic sentence)

        1.example (exemplifies the supporting detail)

            a.further explanation

    B.supporting idea 2

        1.example

            a.further explanation

Adapted from English & English, 2004.