Prewriting: How to Make an Outline

There are a number of things that should be done by anyone wanting to write any kind of informative literature of considerable length. Brainstorming, research, word webs, all these help to organize thoughts and prepare them for clear communication to whatever readers might happen upon your writing.

Another great tool in the arsenal of any writer is an outline. Outlines are particularly useful for people who are writing on purely scholarly or educational topics, but can be used with almost any kind of writing. An outline provides a skeletal framework for expansion that can eventually become a very meaty piece of work.

How to outline:
Research. As simplistic as this sounds, one of the most common errors anyone can make in writing is trying to start without really knowing his topic. College and high school students are some of the most guilty of this, though it is true of all ages.

Before you get started on your outline, try to know as much about your topic as possible. It is also extremely useful to know what you don't know: in other words, form questions that you know need answered and would make your readers, or you, interested. Keep in mind that if this wouldn't matter to you or wouldn't answer your questions, it probably wouldn't be useful to anyone else.

Itemize. Write down all of the information that you have on index cards, or type it into a word processing program in short, one-liner sentences. As you do this, make sure you keep the references where you got your information connected to the information itself, or else you will have a real headache later when you try to put it all down and get your citations in the right place.

As you write these sentences down, keep in mind that these sentences will form the bulk of what is important in your paper. Go ahead and structure them well, and your task will be that much easier when it comes to finalizing your paper.

Group. Take everything that you have written down and organize it into large groups of information. All of the sentences that directly relate to one facet of your topic go together, and others will link as well. Try to keep these groupings very specific, as they will form the basis for your paragraphs.

As you create these groups of related information, you create major topic areas that will link together to develop the direction of your paper. Sometimes, you will find that even whole groups link together, but it is important to keep these groups separated in some way so that you can maintain a good flow when you put all of the pieces together.

Prioritize. Once you have your groupings together, it is time to create an organizational structure for the paper. Determine where each section will go in relation to the others, keeping in mind what it is that you would most want to read about, orwhat would make the most logical sense to read about first, second, etc.

Once you have these priorities straight, write them all down as a skeletal framework. Once you have done this, you have created your outline.

Write. Take each point that you wanted to make, and put them in order on the paper. Much of the time, transitions will be awkward because you wrote the sentences earlier, so smooth out all those rough edges. Fill in the holes in your thinking, and make sure that the whole paper flows in the way that you would want to read it.

Keep in mind, if it doesn't make sense to you, it probably won't make sense to anyone else. Always try to read over your work with fresh eyes, forgetting everything you know about the subject. Print off a copy and write out whatever questions you still have, and then go back and fill those in.

You will find that doing even a few of these steps will work wonders for your writing if you are inexperienced or unconfident. Always remember, writing is just like anything else: the more you do it, the better you become.