Step Four: "The Outline"

Perhaps one of the scariest and most confusing skills for many people is outlining. If you were to draw an outline of a leaf, typically you would draw the outside edges and perhaps some of the structure of the leaf, for example.

This outline shows the borders and the basic structure. There are only major details, there are not any minor details, or other information about what might be within the borders. This is similar to the meaning of 'outline' I am using here.

Essentially, a written outline is a symbolic representation of the structure of what you are writing (or reading). For example, if we you writing about baking a cake, perhaps your outline would look like this:

A lot of thinking goes into outlining. We will learn and practice outlining skills later in this chapter. [Don't worry!]

For now, you need to know that an outline has Major Headings (e.g., 'recipe', 'ingredients'), Sub-Headings (such as 'flour', 'sugar' and 'water') and Minor Headings (for example, 'round baking pans'). These headings need not be full sentences (they can be words, phrases or clauses). These headings should communicate to you what it is that you want to say about them (they should remind you to look at your notes about something, for example). You will create sentences out of these headings and references when you write. Hence, you want to include a sufficient amount of detail in the outline because this will make the actual writing easier.

Step Five: First Draft

This is your first attempt to write your essay (document or research paper; in the case of the latter, you will have performed much research by this point in the process).

You should proceed to write, following your outline. (You might want to review the structure of a paragraph that is in Chapter I.) The simplest way to proceed is for the

major topic headings of your outline to become topic sentences for your paragraphs

sub-headings become your sentences that discuss, explain or present the information

minor headings become your examples.