Outlines

Many writers begin writing directly from a working plan similar to the one you create when you classify and arrange your ideas. Some writers use the working plan to develop a more formal plan known as a topic outline. In a topic outline, each item is merely a topic to be discussed in the paper; it is not a sentence. For most of the outlining that you will do, the topic outline will be adequate; it is easy to develop from the working plan and it is clear enough to serve the purpose of an outline. The following outline of the first part of an essay on TV commercial uses topics.
 * Preparing a Topic Outline**

There are some occasions, however, when you may prefer to use a sentence outline, which is always clearer because it gives more detail. A sentence outline is preferable if you are outlining for someone else who may not grasp the full meaning of the short headings in a topic outline. A comparison of the sentence outline below with the topic outline on above will indicate the advantage of the sentence form.
 * Preparing a Sentence Outline**

You should observe the following rules of form when you are making either a topic outline or a sentence outline for your own expository composition.

1. Place the title above the outline. It is not one of the numbered or lettered topics. 2. The terms //Introduction, Body, Conclusion// should not be included in the outline. They are not topics to be discussed in the composition. They are merely organizational units in the author's mind. 3. Use Roman numerals for the main topics. Subtopics are given letters and numbers as follows: capital letters, Arabic numerals, small letters, Arabic numerals in parentheses, small letters in parentheses. 4. Indent subtopics so that all letters or numbers of the same kind will come directly under one another in a vertical line. 5. Begin each topic and subtopic with a capital letter; otherwise, capitalize only proper nouns and proper adjectives. 6. In a topic outline do not follow topics with a period. 7. There must never be, under any topic, a lone subtopic; there must be either two or more subtopics, or none at all. Subtopics are divisions of the topic above them. A topic cannot be divided into fewer than two parts. 8. As a rule, main topics should be parallel in form, and subtopics under the same topic should be parallel in form. If the first topic in a list of topics is a noun, the others should be nouns; if it is an adjective, the others should be adjectives, and so on. Topics in the form of phrases should not be mixed with topics in the form of nouns or a noun and its modifiers. Subtopics need not be parallel with main topics.
 * //Correct Arrangement of Numbers and Letters//**

The second half of the outline for the composition on television commercials is given below to show parallelism of topics. A violation of the parallelism is illustrated by the following part of the outline, incorrectly phrased.

9. Do not mix the topic and sentence forms of the outline.

10. For each number or letter in an outline there must be a topic. Never place an //a,// for instance, next to a //1// like this: //1a.//

The complete outline for the composition on TV commercials is given below. Note that all nine points about correct outlining have been carefully observed.

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