College Papers and Outlines

College Papers and OutlinesUsing outlines can make a big difference in the time it takes to write the paper. They are the foundation of how you will plan the paper.Outlines, like many of the techniques I use, are something I learned through trial and error. Although I learned an outline first and then developed the ideas with the outlines as a framework, I realized that having an outline is only half the battle.Once I developed the outline and was writing the paper, it all fell into place. Without an outline, I found that my paper was coming out too fast and thought, 'This isn't what I had in mind'. An outline clearly outlines what you want the paper to be about and how you want to describe it.Sometimes you don't want to have an outline, or you want the outline to fit the style of your paper. In these cases, your style may dictate the format you will use. If you want the outline to fit in a standard word processing document, or want to have more freedom with it, try using tables. I w ill get into more detail on this below.A table of contents is a great way to keep your outline organized. Table of contents show you the order in which you will go from beginning to end.Since I work with hundreds of college papers at a time, I often create outlines for each one. I also organize my outline by topic so that I know where to begin writing the paper. The first outline shows the main ideas of the paper, while the second outline is used to organize the material to be included in the paper.You can organize your outline with the various heading levels. The levels tell you what you should start on, how far to stray, and how long you should read to the end. For example, you can use different levels for topics you want to cover, subtopics, and data. I use a hierarchy to keep things organized.When you organize your outline in these ways, you are keeping everything you need to write the paper with a clear focus. All you need to do is go back to it at any time and you can get righ t into the paper.