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Effective Writing Outlines: Organize Your Ideas Like a Pro

Develop logical outlines to structure your writing effectively. Learn the purpose, process, and theory of outlining, including coordination, subordination, and division principles. Use parallelism for clear and coherent outlines.

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Effective Writing Outlines: Organize Your Ideas Like a Pro

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  1. Developing an Outline ENG 102: WP #2 / Checkpoint #4

  2. An outline is … • A logical, general description • A schematic summary • An organizational pattern • A visual and conceptual design of your writing • An outline reflects logical thinking and correct classification.

  3. PURPOSE • Generally aids you in the process of writing • Particularly helps organize your ideas • Presents your material in a logical form • Shows the relationship of ideas in your writing • Constructs an ordered overview of your writing • Defines boundaries and groups

  4. PROCESS: Before you begin • Determine the purpose of your paper. • Determine the thesis of your paper. • Determine the audience you are writing for.

  5. PROCESS: Then • Brainstorm - List all the ideas you want to include in this writing. • Organize - Group ideas together that are related to each other. • Order - Divide this material into groups arranging from the general to the specific, or from abstract to concrete. • Label - Create main and subtopic headings and write coordinate levels in parallel form.

  6. THEORY An outline has a balanced structure which uses the principles of • Coordination • Subordination • Division • Parallelism

  7. PARALLELISM • Coordinate heads should be expressed in parallel form • Nouns should be made parallel with nouns, verb forms with verb forms, adjectives with adjectives, and so on • Logical and clear writing should not be sacrificed simply to maintain parallelism • Reasonableness and flexibility of form is preferred to rigidity

  8. Examples of Parallelism • Nouns - computers, programs, users • Verbs - to compute, to program, to use • Adjectives - home computers, new programs, experienced users

  9. COORDINATION • Items of equal significance have comparable numeral or letter designations • An A is equal a B, a 1 to a 2, an a to a b, etc. • Coordinates should be seen as "having the same value" • Coordination enables the writer to maintain coherent and consistent documents

  10. Coordination Examples Correct coordination • A. Word processing programs • B. Data base programs • C. Spreadsheet programs Incorrect coordination • A. Word processing programs • B. MS Word for Windows • C. ThinkTank

  11. SUBORDINATION • In order to indicate relevance, that is levels of significance, an outline uses major and minor heading • Organize material from general to specific or from abstract to concrete • The more general or abstract the concept, the higher the level or rank in the outline • This principle allows material to be ordered in terms of logic and requires a clear articulation of the relationship between component parts used in the outline. • Subdivisions of a major division should always have the same relationship to the whole.

  12. Subordination Examples • Correct subordination A. Word processing programs 1. Textra 2. Word Perfect B. Thought processors 1. Thinktank 2. THOR • Faulty subordination A. Word processing programs 1. MS Word for Windows 2. Useful 3. Obsolete

  13. DIVISION • To divide, use at least two parts. • There can never be an A without a B, a 1 without a 2, an a without a b, etc. • Usually there is more than one way to divide parts. • When dividing, use only one basis of division at each rank and make the basis of division as sharp as possible.

  14. Division Examples • Example 1: Correct A. Microcomputers hardware 1. Types 2. Cost B. Microcomputers software 1. Pre-installed 2. User installed • Example 2: Incorrect A. Computers 1. Micro a. Floppy Disk b. Hard disk B. Computer Uses 1. Institutional 2. Personal

  15. TYPES OF OUTLINES • An outline can use TOPIC OR SENTENCE structure

  16. TOPIC OUTLINES • Use words or phrases for all entries • Use no punctuation after entries • Advantages - present brief overviews of work • Are generally easier and faster to write than a sentence outlines

  17. SENTENCE OUTLINES • Use complete sentences for all entries • Use correct punctuation • Advantages - present more detailed overviews of work including possible topic sentences • Are easier and faster for writing the final paper

  18. FORM • The most important rule for outlining form is to be consistent.

  19. CREDITS • The information for this PowerPoint presentation comes from Purdue University English Department’s Online Writing Lab (OWL) • There are many useful handouts for academic writers there. • http://owl.english.purdue.edu/

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