Informal outlines can take many forms: a brief list of words, a series of short phrases, or even a series of sentences. You can use informal outlines to remind yourself of key points to address in your document or of notes you should refer to as you draft. Featured writer Dwight Haynes, who wrote an evaluative essay about anti-drinking campaigns on college campuses, created the following informal outline. Each item in his outline represents a section he planned to include in his essay.

You can also create a “thumbnail outline,” a type of informal outline that helps you group your ideas into major sections. Featured writer Vince Reid wrote the thumbnail outline below as he worked on his argumentative essay about online gaming. Vince identified the major sections he wanted to include in his essay and noted which sources he could use to provide background information and to support his argument.