Why and How to Create a Useful Outline?
Why create an outline? There are many reasons, but in general, it may be helpful to
create an outline when you want to show the hierarchical relationship or logical
ordering of information. For research papers, an outline may help you keep track of
large amounts of information.
Aids in the process of writing
Helps you organize your ideas
Presents your material in a logical form
Shows the relationships among ideas in your writing
Constructs an ordered overview of your writing
Defines boundaries and groups
How do I create an outline?
Determine the purpose of your paper.
Determine the audience you are writing for.
Develop the thesis of your paper.
Then:
Brainstorm: List all the ideas that you want to include in your paper.
Organize: Group related ideas together.
Order: Arrange material in subsections from general to specific or from
abstract to concrete.
Label: Create main and sub headings.
Remember: creating an outline before writing your paper will make organizing your
thoughts a lot easier. Whether you follow the suggested guidelines is up to you, but
making any kind of outline (even just some jotting down some main ideas) will be
beneficial to your writing process.
An outline is a series of headings with perhaps an odd idea of two under each
heading. But basically it is just the headings. The outline headings should do
no more than cover the points you intend to write about. Logical order is the
priority in the outline. This does not mean that there is one and only one order
which you can consider. But it does mean that your final order must justify
itself and be seen to do so by the reader.
It is at the outline stage that you are going to have to be most selective. The
headings you use will determine the material covered, the detail you go into,
the number of theories considered and the number of examples quoted. To a
great extent, the art of effectively presenting an argument lies in the selection
process.
You will be developing an outline as you go along.
Having an outline will help you logically organize your thoughts and research.
What does an EE outline look like?
The Introduction Section: 3-5 bullet points including
Hook or interest builder
Required to have your RQ
Focus or ‘Why this Topic’
The Literature Review Section: 3-5 bullet points including
Treatment of topic
Annotations of the most important pieces of research
Methods section
The Body Section: 6-10 bullet points including
Subject terminology (from the IB Course)
Research findings
Connections between research findings and IB Subject matter
Discussion of applied analysis
Evaluation of findings
Limitations to your findings
The Conclusion Section: 3-5 bullet points including
Further research needed
Recommendations
Outcomes - restatement or reflection on the initial RQ
The Bullet-Point Outline:
It's the most classic example of how to structure an essay.The trick with this one is to
start small and expand outwards afterwards.
Summarise each paragraph into one line that defines the idea or sub-topic
behind it.
Expand each paragraph summary by adding 2 extra bullet points:
1. Evidence, data or a quote
2. How the example relates to the idea you are trying to convey
Expand your paragraph bullet points by adding in other ideas or points that are
directly relevant to the overall idea behind it.
The Post-it Note Outline:
This option is useful if you struggle coming up with an order for your ideas straight
away. Instead it lets you play around with all the different parts of your essay as you
go, until you have put them in the best possible order.
The Spreadsheet Outline:
The strength of it is that it lets you easily compare paragraphs in terms of length and
content by breaking each one down into clear sections. You can choose how exactly
you format it, but it might look like this:
You can also tailor the columns depending on what categories are most relevant to
you. If you want to go a step further you can even colour code your sheet.
The key is to have a view of the bigger picture of your essay. How you go about it is
up to you!
Some useful online resources
Harvard University Writing Center
Owl Purdue Online Writing Lab
University of Washington Psychology Writing Center
Philadelphia University Academic Success Centre
https://lanterna.com/blog/the-extended-essay-step-by-step-guide-structure-and-
planning/
