RAWS Lesson 3: Outlines

It is a tool for organizing ideas. It is used not only as a prewriting strategy but also as a post-reading activity.

Outline

This outline only uses numbers as labels.

Decimal Outline

This outline uses both letters and numbers as labels.

Alphanumeric Outline

What are the 4 principles of outlines?

coordination, subordination, division, and parallel construction

Requires ideas of the same relevance to be labeled in the same way.

Coordination

Shows that minor details have to be placed under their respective major details.

Subordination

Requires that no cluster should contain only one item. If you have subheading 1 there should be subheading 2.

Division

Requires all entries in each cluster to use the same structure and format.

Parallel construction

Promotes and improves in the sample topic outline on the next page both use the simple present tense.

Parallel construction

It uses words and phrases for its entries; used if the ideas being discussed can be arranged in a number of ways.

Topic Outline

Identify

numerical outline

Identify

Alphanumerical Outline