Create an organized outline

What is outlining? Why is outlining important?

Outlining is a way to organize your thoughts in a coherent, logical way.That logical sequence is your outline. It helps give your ideas structure and shape. In some cases, outlining is also a required part of your assignment. If you’re a professional writer creating a blog post or website content, your client might ask for an outline before you start writing so they can approve it or make changes.Remember, in any instance, you’re creating an outline for your own benefit. It’s an easy way to organize your writing plan before you actually start and a handy reference for if you get stuck.

What to include in your outline

Your outline should map out each section of your writing and include:

• Your thesis statement 
• The topics you’re covering
• Each piece of supporting evidence for each topic
• Your conclusion

Under each section heading, jot down a few of the key points you plan to discuss there. You might also want to drop in links to the sources you plan on citing. 

Types of outlines

There are a few different ways to label your outline. Two of the most widely used are topic outlines and sentence outlines. 

• In a topic outline, you sketch out your writing using keywords and phrases. 
• A sentence outline lists each section of the piece as a full sentence. These sentences aren’t necessarily your headers or the first sentence of each section.