An outline is a systematic summary. It helps you to organize your ideas and present your material in a logical format. A traditional outline begins by listing all the main ideas of an essay, and then follows by listing all the subtopics of those ideas and facts that support the idea or subtopic.

The two most commonly used outlines are the topic outline and the sentence outline. A topic outline uses words or phrases for all entries. A sentence outline uses complete sentences for all entries.

An outline can use Roman numerals/letters or decimal form. Consult the MLA manual for examples.

Helpful Websites:

http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/pamphlets/outlines.shtml

http://extend.unb.ca/wss/outline.htm

http://alpha.furman.edu/~moakes/Powerwrite/organ.htm

http://www.sau47.k12.nh.us/jrms/jrmslib/outlining.htm