4. Outlining
Formal Outlining
In a formal outline, you create a hierarchy of your details and points, organizing
your ideas using Roman numerals, letters, and numbers and varying indentations to indicate the importance of each point; the closer to the left margin, the more important the point.
Formal outlining is a valuable tool because it encourages you to create your thesis statement and many times write complete sentences. A formal outline also uses numbers and letters to indicate the different levels of support.
This approach may also help you generate more ideas and keep you on
track. Furthermore, you can experiment with different organizations for your paper in using formal outlines. Since you probably write using a computer, moving your points around using the “cut” and “paste” functions in your word processing program is quite easy.
Sketch or Scratch Outlining
In contrast to formal outlining, sketch outlining is less rigid. Instead of
using upper and lower case letters, Roman numerals, and numbers, you simply sketch your ideas in an order that makes sense to you. You can come back to it and change your organization if you think of a better way to organize your thoughts. The important aspect of outlining is putting down
descriptive phrases and thoughts that will make you remember what you want to say in the paper.