WKMS Research Process Model
Outlines

Outlines help you organize information. The two types of outlines are topic outlines and sentence outlines. Topic oulines use brief phrases to relay your information. Sentence oulines use complete sentences. Your outline should include the main points of your report that you will be writing about in depth.

You begin making an outline by sorting your notecards into different main ideas. Each card in a stack should relate to the same main idea. The next step is to organize your main ideas into some logical order.

When you begin writing your outline, pay attention to the symbols used when making an outline:

1. Use Roman numerals to mark the main ideas or main topic. Capital letters mark subtopics that relate to the main idea. Numbers are used to mark details that explain each topic. Lower case letters mark the sub details. Each symbol is followed by a period. (Add two spaces after the period if typing.)
2. Indent every new symbol the same amount of space. All main ideas should line up vertically. All subtopics should line up, etc.
3. If you have a I, then you must have at least a II. If you have an A, then at least a B. A 1 should have at least a 2 etc.
4. Each entry should begin with a capital letter, but do not use any end punctuation unless you are writing a sentence outline.

Look at the example below carefully. Notice indents, capitalization, punctuation, and alignment.

Title of Paper

1. First Main Idea

1. First subtopic
2. Second subtopic

1. Detail #1
2. Detail #2

1. Subdetail #1
2. Subdetail #2

1. Detail #3

1. Next Main Idea

1. First subtopic

1. Subtopic #1

1. Subdetail #1
2. Subdetail #2

1. Subtopic #2

1. Second subtopic
2. Third subtopic

III. Third Main Idea