Outlining is an especially helpful reading strategy for understanding the content and structure of a reading. Outlining, which identifies the text’s main ideas, may be part of the annotating process, or it may be done separately. Writing an outline in the margins of the text as you read and annotate makes it easier to find information later. Writing an outline on a separate piece of paper gives you more space to work with, and therefore such an outline usually includes more detail.
The key to outlining is distinguishing between the main ideas and the supporting material, such as examples, quotations, comparisons, and reasons. The main ideas form the backbone that holds the various parts of the text together. Outlining the main ideas helps you uncover this structure.
For more on the conventions of formal outlines, see Chapter 11, pp. 512–14.
Making an outline, however, is not simple. The reader must exercise judgment in deciding which are the most important ideas. The words used in an outline reflect the reader’s interpretation and emphasis. Readers also must decide when to use the writer’s words, their own words, or a combination of the two.
You may make either a formal, multileveled outline or an informal scratch outline. A formal outline is harder to make and much more time-consuming than a scratch outline. You might choose to make a formal outline of a reading about which you are writing an in-depth analysis or evaluation. For example, here is a formal outline a student wrote for an essay evaluating the logic of the King excerpt.
Formal Outline of “Letter from Birmingham Jail”
A scratch outline will not record as much information as a formal outline, but it is sufficient for most reading purposes. To make a scratch outline, you first need to locate the topic of each paragraph in the reading. The topic is usually stated in a word or phrase, and it may be repeated or referred to throughout the paragraph. For example, the opening paragraph of the King excerpt (p. 523) makes clear that its topic is the white moderate.
After you have found the topic of the paragraph, figure out what is being said about it. To return to our example: King immediately establishes the white moderate as the topic of the opening paragraph and at the beginning of the second sentence announces the conclusion he has come to—namely, that the white moderate is “the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom.” The rest of the paragraph specifies the ways the white moderate blocks progress.
The annotations include a summary of each paragraph’s topic. Here is a scratch outline that lists the topics:
Scratch Outline of “Letter from Birmingham Jail”
¶1. White moderates block progress
¶2. What the moderates don’t understand
¶3. Questions clergymen’s logic
¶4. Time must be used to do right
¶5. Puts self in middle of two extremes: complacency and bitterness
¶6. Offers better choice: nonviolent protest
¶7. Says movement prevents racial violence
¶8. Discontent normal, healthy, and historically inevitable, but it must be channeled
¶9. Redefines “extremism,” embraces “extremist” label
¶10. Praises whites who have supported movement
Outlining