Example of an outline
Shown as informal and formal sentence outline

Seeing one example of an outline is less useful than seeing several ways of outlining the same content for the teacher who wants to understand the strengths and limitations of each method of making an outline.

Armed with that understanding, you'll be able to choose wisely methods—note the plural—of outlining best suited to your teaching goals and your students' needs.

The four types of outlines are shown in the chart below.

On another page, I discuss and show examples of topic outlines.

Sentence outlines present ideas

The difference between a topic outline and a sentence outline is that the sentence outline is written in complete sentences. A sentence is an idea.

Anything less than a sentence is not an idea.

Thus, a sentence outline shows the content and sequence of the ideas the writer plans to present in the finished paper. Even an sentence outline, however, may not make clear what thesis statement the writer will attempt to prove using the outlined material.

Example of an informal sentence outline

The example of an outline on this page is drawn from a topic commonly discussed in English language arts classes: Usage.

The sentence outline below uses an informal format. The main ideas and subordinate ideas are shown simply by their alignment.

Notice that in an informal sentence outline each point is

• A full sentence rather than a sentence fragment
• Lacking a number or letter to indicate the importance and placement of the point in the outline sequence
• Syntactically parallel to the points with which is logically parallel

Example of a formal sentence outline

The formal sentence outline adds a standardized numbering scheme to the informal sentence example of an outline shown above. The numbering is just sequins; it does not improve the utility of the outline.

Notice that in a formal sentence outline each point is

• A full sentence rather than a sentence fragment
• Preceded by a number or letter to indicate the importance and placement of the point in the outline sequence
• Syntactically parallel to the points with which is logically parallel

Did you notice that the addition of the formal numbering scheme does not make the outline any clearer or more useful than the informal topic outline? All the outlining conventions do is give students one more set of unnecessary information to remember.

Thesis for the example outlines

Neither example of an outline on this page identifies what writer's point is going to be. Here's the working thesis for which each example of an outline was developed:

People are stereotyped by their oral language.

Do you think your students could write an essay from one of the outlines on this page and prove that thesis if they didn't have the thesis statement in front of them?

Perhaps they could, but why risk it?

Professional writers often print a copy of their thesis statement and post it somewhere above their work area where they can keep it in sight as they write.

Since your students' schedules may keep them from having a designated place to write, train them to put their working thesis at the top of the document in which they put their outline.