After brainstorming and researching stages, the next stage of the writing process is to organize the idea carefully and put it into an Outline before one begins the first draft.

What is an outline?

An outline is a writing plan before the real action, which contains the main ideas, overall structures. It is often used for essays, in which case it will include elements of the introduction such as the thesis statement, an overview of each paragraph including the topic sentences and supporting ideas, and elements of the conclusion, for instance, the summary. It can also be used for other types of writing such as reports.

Why outline?

Usually, an outline will assist one in the writing for three reasons. First, it will help one to organize the ideas, which is rather important for longer writing, such as researched essays due to large amounts of information to keep track of. Even for shorter essays, it is also important to put the relative information in a logical order, therefore, readers may follow the main arguments. Secondly, an outline will help ensure your writing has unity, which means that all ideas are related to the central theme of the paragraph. Finally, an outline will aid in the process of writing by breaking down the task into more manageable components

Outline structure

There are many different forms of outline. The simplest form is to add numbers and/or letters to ideas generated during brainstorming, hence, one can quickly put them in a logical order and use it to organize the ideas before the actual writing. It is often similar to linear notes for reading or listening.

Features of a good outline

In order to be more effective, an outline must contain the following three features

• Parallel structure
  Headings and subheadings should have the same form.

• Coordination
  Each heading and subheadings should have equal significance.

• Subordination
  Headings should be more general, while subheadings tend to be more specific.

• Division
  Each heading should be divided into at least two parts.