Kristine Outlining

STEPS IN OUTLINING 1. Choose a topic.
Whether your work will be reflective, persuasive, informative, research-based, or some combination thereof, you must choose a general focus to help keep your thoughts on track. 2. Determine the larger purpose of your work. Choosing an end goal will not only give your topic direction, but also help you structure your paper logically. (If youre writing a formal essay, write a thesis statement that summarizes this purpose.) You might, for example, want to: Compare and contrast two things. Present cause and effect. Define or analyze a particular aspect. Present one side of an argument or both. Provide evidence and draw a conclusion. Present a problem, then provide a solution. .Gather supporting materials. These might be quotes, statistics, theories, images, plot points, or personal reflections depending on the nature of your work. 3. Decide how to generally order your supporting evidence so that it supports your larger purpose. For example: if you are presenting a historical overview, you may want to order things chronologically; if you arguing for a literary interpretation, you may want to order things by theme; if you are weighing two sides of an argument before taking a stance, present the evidence that contradicts your stance first, then dispel it with the counterevidence to end on a persuasive note. 4.Decide whether to write a topic outline or a sentence outline. A topic outline uses short, general phrases and can be useful if your outline is very flexible; a sentence outline uses complete sentences and addresses complexity and detail 5. Consider starting your outline as a topic outline with structural flexibility and then converting it to a sentence outline as you go. 6. Identify your main categories. Based on both the larger purpose of the work and the nature of the supporting material you have found, determine how best to break your larger topic down into logical categories. These will form the first level of your outline, which is traditionally labeled with Roman numerals (I, II, III, IV, etc.). When writing essays, it is very common to devote one category to each paragraph: I. would be the intro paragraph, II. would be the first body paragraph, and so on. Ex. If presenting a historical overview of the car, each category might cover a major era in the cars history. 7. Think of at least two points for each category. Select these subpoints based on both the purpose of your paper and the list of supporting materials you gathered earlier. These will form the second level of your outline, which is traditionally labeled in letters of the English alphabet (A, B, C, D, etc.).
Indent the second level of your outline 0.5 to 1 inch past the first level. Ex. If presenting a historical overview of the car, each point might cover a typical engine model during that era.
8. Expand upon your points with subpoints if necessary. This will maximize the logical grounding of your essay work. Put these in the third level of your outline, which is traditionally labeled in numbers (1, 2, 3, 4, etc.) Should you need to go another layer deeper into your outline, use lowercase Roman numerals (i, ii, iii, iv, etc.), then lowercase letters (a, b, c, d, etc.) and then finally switch to numbers (1, 2, 3, 4, etc.). It is unlikely you will need to have more than 4 layers in your outline. Consider combining points if this is the case. Ex. If presenting a historical overview of the car, each subpoint might address a technological innovation for that engine model. 9. Present your material in outline form. Order your categories, points, and subpoints so as to lay out your larger purpose for the reader, using indented levels of Roman numerals and regular numbers as demonstrated below. Make sure your outline is internally consistent; if youre writing a compare and contrast, for example, make sure that you compare the same aspects of each item for a true side-by-side comparison. Tips on how to outline Indent each level of your outline 0.5 to 1 inch past the previous level. Increase the indent by the same increment for each level; do not indent .5 inches, then 1 inch, then .75 inches, etc. When you start creating an outline in Microsoft Word, it has an automatic indentation feature that it imposes on your outline. If you prefer to work with your own indentation system, read How to Make Outline Text in Word. Be concise and straightforward in your outline. This doesn't have to be perfectly polished writing; it just has to get your point across. Use outlines as a memorization tool. Choose concise words to trigger a concept. Expand upon your assertions with evidence, warrants and examples. Include proof in your outline to strengthen the bones of your paper, and identify potential holes in your research. Use a computer. Many provide outline tools. It's quick to add, delete, or rearrange information. Don't be afraid to eliminate irrelevant information as you conduct more research about your topic and narrow the area you want your writing to focus on.
Steps to Proper Paraphrasing 1. Read the source article or section of the book carefully. 2. Decide what you are going to include, read it carefully and then close the book and/or turn over the article. 3. Write, in your own words, your understanding of that idea, data or theory. 4. Re-read the source and make sure that: you have represented their ideas, data, theories accurately; you have included the whole idea, theory and/or data; and you havent copied their sentence structure and/or word usage. 5. Integrate that paraphrase properly into your paper/presentation. As noted earlier, understanding the material you are reading and using in your paper is key to proper paraphrasing (and a good paper).
You should never include other's ideas, data or theories unless you know why you are including them. Proper referencing is critical! All ideas that you have found in your research and that you have decided to use must be referenced even if you had that thought before you read it in an article. There are five simple steps to summarization. (Write steps on the board while explaining them out loud) Step 1: Pick out the less important or repeated ideas from the story and eliminate. Step 2: Pick out important details that are necessary to the story. Step 3: Highlight the important details using keywords. Step 4: List keywords in the order they appeared in the passage. Step 5: Trim the list of key words down to one topic sentence Steps For Summarizing Support 1. Read article again quickly, looking specifically for the types of details (quotes, statistics, etc.) the author uses to make her point. 2. Immediately after reading, quickly jot down all the examples you recall. 3. Re-read the article to see if these examples are representative of the types of proof used. If not, add to your list as you re-read. 4. Write a summary sentence that introduces all the different categories of proof. 5. Provide one or two representative examples from your list. Choose examples that are either the most common or the most persuasive

Kristine Outlining

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STEPS IN OUTLINING 1. Choose a topic.

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