Sentence Outline
Outline to organize the body paragraphs of your paper— You will NOT include the introduction
and conclusion in the outlinte
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The thesis statement should be placed at the top of the outline. It is not part of the
outline itself.
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All three topic sentences should be numbered with a Roman numeral: I, II, III
o The next category, subtopics, should be indicated with capital letters, then
Arabic numbers and then lower case letters.
o Example: I.
A.
1.
a.
o The subtopics are the details that support your main ideas

In any one division, you must have either NO subdivisions or two or more
subdivisions. You may not have only one subtopic in any one category.
o In other words, if you have a 1, you have to have a 2 If you have an A, you
have to have a B. You can have a C, or you can have nothing, but you cannot
have only an A.
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All Roman numerals should line up underneath one another at the far left.
o Each division within the main topics should also line up. That is, all capital
letters should line up thoughout the outline, as should all Arabric letters and
small letters.

A sentence outline must have only one complete sentence per point.
o A sentence outline cannot have more than one sentence per point.
Your sentence outline must be typed, double-spaced and approximately 2 pages
long.
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You will include citations in your outline, to help you keep track of where the
information came from.
For each piece of information from research, you must write a parenthetical citation for the
source from which it came, using the following instructions:
EXAMPLE
CITATIONS FOR BIOGRAPHICAL SOURCES
Gerber, Phillip L. “Robert Frost.” Britannica Student. Biography Collection Complete, 2001.
Web. 6 Dec. 2011.
“Robert Frost.” Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography. Ed. John Boman. Biography
Collection Complete, 2001. Web. 6 Dec. 2011.
“Robert Frost.” Colombia Electronic Encyclopedia. Biography Collection Complete, 1 July 2010.
Web. 6 Dec. 2011.
For biographical information:
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
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Use the FIRST element in the citation. If it is author’s name, use only last name.
o Example: (Gerber)
Make sure it is punctuated exactly as it is in your citation (quotation marks, italics)
o Example: (“Robert Frost”)
If it is identical to another first element (ie: same article title), use a key word from
the next element, punctuated exactly as it appears on the source list.
o Example: (“Robert Frost.” Cambridge)
(“Robert Frost.” Colombia)
Put parenthesis around the citation with the period AFTER the parenthesis.
o Example: (Gerber).
CITATIONS FOR POETRY SOURCES

Place the title of the poem and line numbers in parenthesis
o Poem titles must be punctuated with quotation marks
o Write the word line or lines and the number after the title
o NO comma between title and line numbers
 Example: (“Stopping by Woods” lines 6-8)
SAMPLE OUTLINE FOR FIRST BODY PARAGRAPH
Thesis: Robert Frost’s life in New England, his career choice, and his children’s deaths
are all reflected in his poetry.
I. Robert Frost’s life in New England is mirrored in his poetry.
A. When Frost was eleven years old, his family moved to New England (Gerber).
B. In 1900, Frost moved back to New England with his wife and children (“Robert
Frost” Cambridge).
1. He bought a farm and tried his hand at poultry farming (Gerber).
2. Frost enjoyed farming, tending to his orchards, and various other chores
(Gerber).
a. “Out, Out” tells of a boy chopping wood on a farm in New England
(“Robert Frost” Colombia).
i.
Frost writes that “from there those that lifted eyes could count / Five
mountain ranges one behind the other / Under the sunset far into
Vermont” (“Out, Out” lines 4-6).
ii. The Vermont scenery is something Frost would have seen every day
since he
lived there for some time (“Robert Frost” Colombia).
iii. Frost describes the way “the buzz saw snarled and rattled in the yard /
and made dust and dropped stove-length sticks of wood, / Sweetscented stuff when the breeze drew across it” (“Out, Out” lines 1-3)
iv. Having been raised in New England, as well as being a farmer there,
Frost would be familiar with the activity of sawing wood (Gerber).
b. In “Mending Wall,” Frost describes his farm.
i. Frost says that his neighbor is “all pine and I am apple orchard”
(“Mending Wall” line24).
ii. Frost actually did keep apple orchards on his farm England (“Robert
Frost” Colombia).
.
iii. The poem also refers to the importance of fences when it describes
the way “my apple trees will never get across / and eat the cones under
his pines” (“Mending Wall” lines 25-26)
iv. Frost may be describing his own farm with the apple trees and the
neighbor’s woods.
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Each Roman numeral should be one of the three aspects
of your poet’s life that are reflected in his/her poetry.
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Quotes should be short and relevant.
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Incorporate quotes into a sentence.
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When quoting lines from a poem, use slash marks for line
breaks, with a space before and after the slash mark.
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Biography is in past tense, while poetry (literature) is in
present tense.