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The Writing Process
Professional, Technical, and Job Search Writing
General Academic Writing
Research and Citation
Grammar and Mechanics
English as a Second Language (ESL)
Internet Literacy
Writing in the Social Sciences
Writing in Engineering
Literary Analysis and Criticism
Creative Writing
Teaching Writing
Tutoring Writing
About the OWL at Purdue
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The Writing Process
o Creating a Thesis Statement
o Developing an Outline
o Invention Presentation
o Prewriting (Invention)
o Proofreading Your Writing
o Reverse Outlining: An Exercise for Taking Notes and Revising Your
Work
o Starting the Writing Process
o Understanding Writing Assignments
o Writer's Block/ Writer's Anxiety
o Writing Process Presentation
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Professional, Technical, and Job Search Writing
o Academic Cover Letters
o Action Verbs to Describe Skills, Jobs, and Accomplishments in
Employment Documents
o Audience Analysis
o Business Letters: Accentuating the Positives
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Color Theory Presentation
Cover Letter Presentation
Cover Letters 1: Quick Tips
Cover Letters 2: Preparing to Write a Cover Letter
Cover Letters 3: Writing Your Cover Letter
Designing an Effective PowerPoint Presentation
Effective Workplace Writing
Email Etiquette
Email Etiquette for Students
HATS: A Design Procedure for Routine Business Documents
Job Acceptance Letter Presentation
Job Skills Checklist
Letters Concerning Employment
Management Resumes
Memo Writing
Model Letters for Various Purposes
Parallel Structure in Professional Writing
Paramedic Method: A Lesson in Writing Concisely
Prioritizing Your Concerns for Effective Business Writing
Prioritizing Your Concerns for Effective Business Writing
Reference Sheets
Resume Design
Resume Presentation
Resume Workshop
Resumes 1: Introduction to Resumes
Resumes 2: Resume Sections
Resumes 3: When to Use Two Pages or More
Resumes 4: Scannable Resumes
Reverse Paramedic Method
Revision in Business Writing
Sales Letters: Four Point Action Closing
Scannable Resumes Presentation
Tailoring Employment Documents For a Specific Audience
Teaching Detailed Writing and Procedural Transitions
Tips & Terms for the International Student's Job Search
Tone in Business Writing
Using Fonts with Purpose
Visual Rhetoric
Writing a Job Acceptance Letter
Writing a White Paper
Writing for a Chinese Business Audience
Writing for a North American Business Audience
Writing for an Indian Business Audience
Writing Report Abstracts
Writing Scientific Abstracts Presentation
Writing the Basic Business Letter
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Writing the Curriculum Vitae
Writing the Personal Statement
General Academic Writing
o Adding Emphasis in Writing
o Annotated Bibliographies
o Avoiding Plagiarism
o Color Theory Presentation
o Conciseness
o Creating a Thesis Statement
o Designing an Effective PowerPoint Presentation
o Developing an Outline
o Effective Persuasion Presentation
o Email Etiquette for Professors
o Email Etiquette for Students
o Essay Writing
o Establishing Arguments
o Higher Order Concerns (HOCs) and Lower Order Concerns (LOCs)
o Invention Presentation
o Logic in Argumentative Writing
o Organizing Your Argument Presentation
o Paragraphs & Paragraphing
o Paramedic Method: A Lesson in Writing Concisely
o Peer Review Presentation
o Prewriting (Invention)
o Proofreading Your Writing
o Punctuation
o Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing
o Reverse Outlining: An Exercise for Taking Notes and Revising Your
Work
o Reverse Paramedic Method
o Sentence Variety
o Starting the Writing Process
o The Rhetorical Situation
o Transitions and Transitional Devices
o Understanding Writing Assignments
o Using Appropriate Language
o Using Fonts with Purpose
o Visual Rhetoric
o Writer's Block/ Writer's Anxiety
o Writing a Book Report
o Writing a Book Review
o Writing a Literary Analysis Presentation
o Writing Definitions
o Writing in Literature (Detailed Discussion)
o Writing Process Presentation
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Research and Citation
o APA Formatting and Style Guide
o APA Overview and Workshop
o Avoiding Plagiarism
o Chicago Manual of Style
o Conducting an Interview Presentation
o Conducting Primary Research
o Documenting Electronic Sources
o Evaluating Sources of Information
o Formatting in Sociology (ASA Style)
o MLA Formatting and Style Guide
o MLA Overview and Workshop
o Paraphrase: Write it in Your Own Words
o Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing
o Research: Overview
o Resources for Documenting Sources in the Disciplines
o Sample APA Papers: Experimental Report
o Sample APA Papers: Literature Review
o Searching the World Wide Web
o Writing a Research Paper
o Writing Scientific Abstracts Presentation
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Grammar and Mechanics
o Active and Passive Voice
o Adjective or Adverb
o Apostrophe
o Appositives
o Articles: A versus An
o Capital Letters
o Commas
o Conquering the Comma
o Count and Noncount Nouns
o Dangling Modifiers
o Grammar and ESL Exercises
o Higher Order Concerns (HOCs) and Lower Order Concerns (LOCs)
o How to Use Adjectives and Adverbs
o How to Use Articles (a/an/the)
o Hyphens
o Independent and Dependent Clauses
o Irregular Verbs
o Numbers
o Parallel Structure
o Prepositions
o Pronouns
o Punctuation
o Quotation Marks
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Relative Pronouns
Sentence Clarity
Sentence Clarity Presentation
Sentence Fragments
Sentence Punctuation Patterns
Spelling
Subject/Verb Agreement
Transitions and Transitional Devices
Verb Tenses
Verb Tenses
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English as a Second Language (ESL)
o Adjective or Adverb
o Count and Noncount Nouns
o ESL Orientation for Writing Lab Tutorials
o ESL Teacher Resources
o Grammar and ESL Exercises
o How to Use Adjectives and Adverbs
o How to Use Articles (a/an/the)
o Irregular Verbs
o Numbers
o Prepositions
o Relative Pronouns
o Sentence Punctuation Patterns
o Subject/Verb Agreement
o Tips & Terms for the International Student's Job Search
o Two-Part (Phrasal) Verbs (idioms)
o US Higher Education: A Cultural Introduction
o Verb Tenses
o Verbals: Gerunds, Participles, and Infinitives
o Writing for a Chinese Business Audience
o Writing for a North American Business Audience
o Writing for an Indian Business Audience
o Writing in North American Higher Education: A Primer for International
Students
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Internet Literacy
o Documenting Electronic Sources
o Email Etiquette
o Email Etiquette for Professors
o Email Etiquette for Students
o Evaluating Sources of Information
o Searching the World Wide Web
o Teaching OSDDP (Open Source Development and Documentation)
Usability Project: A Guide for Professional Writing Instructors
o Visual Rhetoric
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Writing in the Social Sciences
o Child Development and Family Studies Resource Repository
o Conducting an Interview Presentation
o Conducting Primary Research
o Formatting in Sociology (ASA Style)
o Sample APA Papers: Experimental Report
o Sample APA Papers: Literature Review
o Social Work Literature Review Guidelines
o Writing in Psychology: Experimental Report Writing
o Writing Scientific Abstracts Presentation
o Writing with Statistics
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Writing in Engineering
o Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS)
o Reverse Paramedic Method
o Teaching Detailed Writing and Procedural Transitions
o Writing Engineering Reports
o Writing Scientific Abstracts Presentation
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Literary Analysis and Criticism
o Image in Poetry
o Literary Terms
o Reverse Outlining: An Exercise for Taking Notes and Revising Your
Work
o Writing a Book Review
o Writing a Literary Analysis Presentation
o Writing About Fiction
o Writing About Literature
o Writing About Poetry
o Writing in Literature (Detailed Discussion)
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Creative Writing
o Pattern and Variation in Poetry
o Pattern and Variation: Aural
o Pattern and Variation: Visual
o Tutoring Creative Writing Students
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Teaching Writing
o Conducting an Interview Presentation
o Effective Persuasion Presentation
o Email Etiquette for Professors
o ESL Orientation for Writing Lab Tutorials
o Invention Presentation
o Job Acceptance Letter Presentation
o Peer Review Presentation
o Teaching Detailed Writing and Procedural Transitions
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Teaching OSDDP (Open Source Development and Documentation)
Usability Project: A Guide for Professional Writing Instructors
The Rhetorical Situation
Writing a Literary Analysis Presentation
Writing Across the Curriculum: An Introduction
Writing Process Presentation
Writing Scientific Abstracts Presentation
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Tutoring Writing
o Effective Persuasion Presentation
o ESL Orientation for Writing Lab Tutorials
o Invention Presentation
o Peer Review Presentation
o The Writing Conference: Meeting One-on-One with Students
o Tutoring a Resume
o Tutoring Cover Letters
o Tutoring Creative Writing Students
o Writing a Literary Analysis Presentation
o Writing Process Presentation
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About the OWL at Purdue
o Fair Use Policy
o Fair Use Requests
o General Feedback for the OWL
o Help Using OWL Resources
o Link to Us
o Purdue OWL Fact Sheet
o Report an Error
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Suggested Resources for You
o ESL Instructors and Students
o Grades 7-12 Instructors and Students
o Non-Purdue College Level Instructors and Students
o Parents
o Purdue Instructors and Students
o Workplace Writers
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Developing an Outline
This resource was written by Purdue OWL.
Last full revision by Elyssa Tardiff.
Last edited by Dana Lynn Driscoll on September 18th 2007 at 5:14PM
Summary: This resource describes why outlines are useful, what types of outlines exist,
suggestions for developing effective outlines, and how outlines can be used as an
invention strategy for writing.
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Jump to listing of all of this resource's sections
Four Main Components for Effective Outlines
Ideally, you should follow these 4 suggestions to create an effective outline. The
examples are taken from the Sample Outline handout.
Parallelism - How do I accomplish this?
Each heading and subheading should preserve parallel structure. If the first heading is a
noun, the second heading should be a noun. Example:
1. Choose Desired Colleges
2. Prepare Application
("Choose" and "Prepare" are both verbs.)
Coordination - How do I accomplish this?
All the information contained in Heading 1 should have the same significance as the
information contained in Heading 2. The same goes for the subheadings (which should be
less significant than the headings). Example:
1. Visit and evaluate college campuses
2. Visit and evaluate college websites
1. Note important statistics
2. Look for interesting classes
(Campus and websites visits are equally significant, as are statistics and classes found on
college websites.)
Subordination - How do I accomplish this?
The information in the headings should be more general, while the information in the
subheadings should be more specific. Example:
1. Describe an influential person in your life
1. Favorite high school teacher
2. Grandparent
(A favorite teacher and grandparent are specific examples of influential people.)
Division - How do I accomplish this?
Each heading should be divided into 2 or more parts. Example:
1. Compile resume
1. List relevant coursework
2. List work experience
3. List volunteer experience
(The heading "Compile resume" is divided into 3 parts.)
All Sections in Developing an Outline:
1. Four Main Components for Effective Outlines
2. Why and How to Create a Useful Outline
3. Sample Outline