What is a Sentence Outline?
The sentence outline is done in full sentences. It is normally used when your paper focuses on complex details. The
sentence outline is especially useful for this kind of paper because sentences themselves have many of the details in
them. A sentence outline also allows you to include those details in the sentences instead of having to create an
outline of many short phrases that goes on page after page. Benefits of writing a sentence outline include:
B. Paragraphs should smoothly flow into each other. Reordering paragraphs may require extensive rewriting.\
4. Writing to length. With a sentence outline you can easily judge how long the manuscript will be and modify it to keep the essential material within the prescribed length.
5. Time. All the above -- clarity, argument flow, efficiency, length management -- can be done faster using a sentence outline.
Steps to Writing a Sentence Outline
Before you begin creating your sentence outline, you should be clear about the following:
I. Determine the purpose of your paper.
II. Determine the audience you are writing for.
III. Develop the thesis of your paper.
You should then use note cards to perform the following:
1. Brainstorm: List all the ideas that you want to include in your paper onto note cards (gathered through research, either through reading or direct research).
2. Organize: Group related ideas together. This may be accomplished by using note cards and sorting them into groups.
3. Order: Arrange material in subsections from general to specific or from abstract to concrete (e.g., organize the groups notecards into logical order).
4. Label: Create main and sub headings for each group.
How to Write a Thesis
Your final research paper must have a thesis. It is not simply reporting facts. Rather, it is making a case, proving a point, using the facts you research to back up your case. The thesis is the point your paper is trying to prove. Here are some essential points to keep in mind about the thesis, starting with a definition.
Thesis (plural: theses, pronounced THEES-eez): The point that an essay is trying to prove. Also known as the claim or argument. Everything in a persuasive essay relates to the thesis, either as evidence, explanation, elaboration or rebuttal of alternative claims. Think of the thesis as the spine of your paper. Just as all the parts of your body are connected to the spine, and without the spine your body could not stand, so too in your essay all parts must be connected to the thesis, and without the thesis the essay cannot stand. Parts that are not connected must be revised so that they do connect, or else eliminated. A thesis, in other words, is not the same as the thesis statement, which is a sentence or two in your introduction that tells the reader what the thesis is. The thesis is not limited to one spot in your essay; it runs through the whole thing, from start to finish.
A thesis can be expressed as a statement Because the thesis is what you’re trying to prove, it must be possible to express it in the form of a statement or assertion (e.g., “the sky is blue”). It is not a question (“what color is the sky?”) or a topic (“the color of the sky”). Notice that “The sky is blue” is a complete declarative sentence, while the topic (“the color of the sky”) is not—it does not say anything about the sky’s color.
A thesis is arguable An arguable thesis is one you have to give reasons for, that is worth proving (i.e., not obvious). So my example above is not a valid thesis, because everybody knows what color the sky is. An arguable thesis might be, for example, “The sky only became blue about 1 billion years ago, when the composition of the atmosphere changed to produce the specific refraction of sunlight that makes it look blue.” (I have no idea if this is true or not, by the way—it’s just an example.) This statement is not obvious, and it would require evidence about the nature of the atmosphere a billion years ago, and explanations of why that evidence is reliable, in order to be proved.
Theses can be statements about matters of fact (e.g., the physical structure of the atom), interpretation (e.g., the true meaning of Hamlet), or analysis (e.g., the causes of diabetes).
Your thesis will answer your research question Eventually, you will have refined your research question, putting it into a well-focused form that allows you to identify many sources, all dealing with that question in some way—trying to answer it, providing information needed to answer it, trying to answer related questions that shed light on it somehow. Your paper will then attempt to answer this question, and the answer you provide will be your thesis.
(*Thesis information courtesy of David Oldham, Shoreline Community College, http://ww2.shoreline.edu/doldham/102/HTML/What%20is%20a%20Thesis.html)
Sentence Outline Format Example
AP Outline Document (click on)
The following is a general guide for creating a sentence outline:
I. Introduction (include in all outlines)
A. Attention-Getter: Simply introduce your topic in an interesting way, without using a cliche or pitch
B. Content: Explain the scope of the content included in the paper.
C. Thesis: Use your thesis statement here (includes subject, predicate, and information hunger) in on single sentence.
II. Body (include in all outlines)
A. First main point: Write a complete topic sentence. Main Points are never questions, quotes, or information that requires a source citation.
1. Supporting detail 1: This can be a fact, quote, statement, or something else you found in your research that will help to support your claim in your first main point (topic sentence).
a. Expanded Detail 1: This is where you elaborate, explain, discuss how your support adds to your topic sentence.
b. Expanded Detail 2: This is where you elaborate, explain, discuss how your support adds to your topic sentence.
2. Supporting detail 2: This can be a fact, quote, statement, or something else you found in your research that will help to support your claim in your first main point (topic sentence).
a. Expanded Detail 1: This is where you elaborate, explain, discuss how your support adds to your topic sentence.
b. Expanded Detail 2: This is where you elaborate, explain, discuss how your support adds to your topic sentence.
3. Summary /Transition:This sentence sums up your paragraph and ties it in to the thesis.
B. Second main point: Write a complete topic sentence. Main Points are never questions, quotes, or information that requires a source citation.
1. Supporting detail 1: This can be a fact, quote, statement, or something else you found in your research that will help to support your claim in your first main point (topic sentence).
a. Expanded Detail 1: This is where you elaborate, explain, discuss how your support adds to your topic sentence.
b. Expanded Detail 2: This is where you elaborate, explain, discuss how your support adds to your topic sentence.
2. Supporting detail 2: This can be a fact, quote, statement, or something else you found in your research that will help to support your claim in your first main point (topic sentence).
a. Expanded Detail 1: This is where you elaborate, explain, discuss how your support adds to your topic sentence.
b. Expanded Detail 2: This is where you elaborate, explain, discuss how your support adds to your topic sentence.
3. Summary /Transition:This sentence sums up your paragraph and ties it in to the thesis.
C. Third main point: Write a complete topic sentence. Main Points are never questions, quotes, or information that requires a source citation.
1. Supporting detail 1: This can be a fact, quote, statement, or something else you found in your research that will help to support your claim in your first main point (topic sentence).
a. Expanded Detail 1: This is where you elaborate, explain, discuss how your support adds to your topic sentence.
b. Expanded Detail 2: This is where you elaborate, explain, discuss how your support adds to your topic sentence.
2. Supporting detail 2: This can be a fact, quote, statement, or something else you found in your research that will help to support your claim in your first main point (topic sentence).
a. Expanded Detail 1: This is where you elaborate, explain, discuss how your support adds to your topic sentence.
b. Expanded Detail 2: This is where you elaborate, explain, discuss how your support adds to your topic sentence.
3. Summary /Transition:This sentence sums up your paragraph and ties it in to the thesis.
D. Fourth main point: Write a complete topic sentence. Main Points are never questions, quotes, or information that requires a source citation.
1. Supporting detail 1: This can be a fact, quote, statement, or something else you found in your research that will help to support your claim in your first main point (topic sentence).
a. Expanded Detail 1: This is where you elaborate, explain, discuss how your support adds to your topic sentence.
b. Expanded Detail 2: This is where you elaborate, explain, discuss how your support adds to your topic sentence.
2. Supporting detail 2: This can be a fact, quote, statement, or something else you found in your research that will help to support your claim in your first main point (topic sentence).
a. Expanded Detail 1: This is where you elaborate, explain, discuss how your support adds to your topic sentence.
b. Expanded Detail 2: This is where you elaborate, explain, discuss how your support adds to your topic sentence.
3. Summary /Transition:This sentence sums up your paragraph and ties it in to the thesis.
E. Fifth main point: Write a complete topic sentence. Main Points are never questions, quotes, or information that requires a source citation.
1. Supporting detail 1: This can be a fact, quote, statement, or something else you found in your research that will help to support your claim in your first main point (topic sentence).
a. Expanded Detail 1: This is where you elaborate, explain, discuss how your support adds to your topic sentence.
b. Expanded Detail 2: This is where you elaborate, explain, discuss how your support adds to your topic sentence.
2. Supporting detail 2: This can be a fact, quote, statement, or something else you found in your research that will help to support your claim in your first main point (topic sentence).
a. Expanded Detail 1: This is where you elaborate, explain, discuss how your support adds to your topic sentence.
b. Expanded Detail 2: This is where you elaborate, explain, discuss how your support adds to your topic sentence.
3. Summary /Transition:This sentence sums up your paragraph and ties it in to the thesis.
F. Sixth main point: Write a complete topic sentence. Main Points are never questions, quotes, or information that requires a source citation.
1. Supporting detail 1: This can be a fact, quote, statement, or something else you found in your research that will help to support your claim in your first main point (topic sentence).
a. Expanded Detail 1: This is where you elaborate, explain, discuss how your support adds to your topic sentence.
b. Expanded Detail 2: This is where you elaborate, explain, discuss how your support adds to your topic sentence.
2. Supporting detail 2: This can be a fact, quote, statement, or something else you found in your research that will help to support your claim in your first main point (topic sentence).
a. Expanded Detail 1: This is where you elaborate, explain, discuss how your support adds to your topic sentence.
b. Expanded Detail 2: This is where you elaborate, explain, discuss how your support adds to your topic sentence.
3. Summary /Transition:This sentence sums up your paragraph and ties it in to the thesis.
III. Conclusion (include in all outlines)
A. Restate the thesis statement in different words.
B. Synthesize, don’t summarize: Include a brief summary of the paper’s main points, but don’t simply repeat things that were in your paper. Instead, show your
reader how the points you made and the support and examples you used fit together. Pull it all together.
C. Include a provocative insight or quotation from the research or reading you did for your paper.
D. Propose a course of action, a solution to an issue, or questions for further study. This can redirect your reader’s thought process and help her to apply your info and ideas to her own life or to see the broader implications.
The sentence outline is done in full sentences. It is normally used when your paper focuses on complex details. The
sentence outline is especially useful for this kind of paper because sentences themselves have many of the details in
them. A sentence outline also allows you to include those details in the sentences instead of having to create an
outline of many short phrases that goes on page after page. Benefits of writing a sentence outline include:
- Clarity. If you can't write a clear sentence summarizing the paragraph's point, you certainly can't write a clear paragraph.
- Flow of argument. It is much easier to quickly judge whether the present order of paragraphs (as sentences in the outline) really makes the argument in the most effective way. You may be able to omit one or more paragraphs and still make your arguments.
- Efficiency. Revision of the plan of paper is much easier and quicker if you have only to delete or re-order sentences. Doing this on the completed draft involves much more work.
B. Paragraphs should smoothly flow into each other. Reordering paragraphs may require extensive rewriting.\
4. Writing to length. With a sentence outline you can easily judge how long the manuscript will be and modify it to keep the essential material within the prescribed length.
5. Time. All the above -- clarity, argument flow, efficiency, length management -- can be done faster using a sentence outline.
Steps to Writing a Sentence Outline
Before you begin creating your sentence outline, you should be clear about the following:
I. Determine the purpose of your paper.
II. Determine the audience you are writing for.
III. Develop the thesis of your paper.
You should then use note cards to perform the following:
1. Brainstorm: List all the ideas that you want to include in your paper onto note cards (gathered through research, either through reading or direct research).
2. Organize: Group related ideas together. This may be accomplished by using note cards and sorting them into groups.
3. Order: Arrange material in subsections from general to specific or from abstract to concrete (e.g., organize the groups notecards into logical order).
4. Label: Create main and sub headings for each group.
How to Write a Thesis
Your final research paper must have a thesis. It is not simply reporting facts. Rather, it is making a case, proving a point, using the facts you research to back up your case. The thesis is the point your paper is trying to prove. Here are some essential points to keep in mind about the thesis, starting with a definition.
Thesis (plural: theses, pronounced THEES-eez): The point that an essay is trying to prove. Also known as the claim or argument. Everything in a persuasive essay relates to the thesis, either as evidence, explanation, elaboration or rebuttal of alternative claims. Think of the thesis as the spine of your paper. Just as all the parts of your body are connected to the spine, and without the spine your body could not stand, so too in your essay all parts must be connected to the thesis, and without the thesis the essay cannot stand. Parts that are not connected must be revised so that they do connect, or else eliminated. A thesis, in other words, is not the same as the thesis statement, which is a sentence or two in your introduction that tells the reader what the thesis is. The thesis is not limited to one spot in your essay; it runs through the whole thing, from start to finish.
A thesis can be expressed as a statement Because the thesis is what you’re trying to prove, it must be possible to express it in the form of a statement or assertion (e.g., “the sky is blue”). It is not a question (“what color is the sky?”) or a topic (“the color of the sky”). Notice that “The sky is blue” is a complete declarative sentence, while the topic (“the color of the sky”) is not—it does not say anything about the sky’s color.
A thesis is arguable An arguable thesis is one you have to give reasons for, that is worth proving (i.e., not obvious). So my example above is not a valid thesis, because everybody knows what color the sky is. An arguable thesis might be, for example, “The sky only became blue about 1 billion years ago, when the composition of the atmosphere changed to produce the specific refraction of sunlight that makes it look blue.” (I have no idea if this is true or not, by the way—it’s just an example.) This statement is not obvious, and it would require evidence about the nature of the atmosphere a billion years ago, and explanations of why that evidence is reliable, in order to be proved.
Theses can be statements about matters of fact (e.g., the physical structure of the atom), interpretation (e.g., the true meaning of Hamlet), or analysis (e.g., the causes of diabetes).
Your thesis will answer your research question Eventually, you will have refined your research question, putting it into a well-focused form that allows you to identify many sources, all dealing with that question in some way—trying to answer it, providing information needed to answer it, trying to answer related questions that shed light on it somehow. Your paper will then attempt to answer this question, and the answer you provide will be your thesis.
(*Thesis information courtesy of David Oldham, Shoreline Community College, http://ww2.shoreline.edu/doldham/102/HTML/What%20is%20a%20Thesis.html)
Sentence Outline Format Example
AP Outline Document (click on)
The following is a general guide for creating a sentence outline:
I. Introduction (include in all outlines)
A. Attention-Getter: Simply introduce your topic in an interesting way, without using a cliche or pitch
B. Content: Explain the scope of the content included in the paper.
C. Thesis: Use your thesis statement here (includes subject, predicate, and information hunger) in on single sentence.
II. Body (include in all outlines)
A. First main point: Write a complete topic sentence. Main Points are never questions, quotes, or information that requires a source citation.
1. Supporting detail 1: This can be a fact, quote, statement, or something else you found in your research that will help to support your claim in your first main point (topic sentence).
a. Expanded Detail 1: This is where you elaborate, explain, discuss how your support adds to your topic sentence.
b. Expanded Detail 2: This is where you elaborate, explain, discuss how your support adds to your topic sentence.
2. Supporting detail 2: This can be a fact, quote, statement, or something else you found in your research that will help to support your claim in your first main point (topic sentence).
a. Expanded Detail 1: This is where you elaborate, explain, discuss how your support adds to your topic sentence.
b. Expanded Detail 2: This is where you elaborate, explain, discuss how your support adds to your topic sentence.
3. Summary /Transition:This sentence sums up your paragraph and ties it in to the thesis.
B. Second main point: Write a complete topic sentence. Main Points are never questions, quotes, or information that requires a source citation.
1. Supporting detail 1: This can be a fact, quote, statement, or something else you found in your research that will help to support your claim in your first main point (topic sentence).
a. Expanded Detail 1: This is where you elaborate, explain, discuss how your support adds to your topic sentence.
b. Expanded Detail 2: This is where you elaborate, explain, discuss how your support adds to your topic sentence.
2. Supporting detail 2: This can be a fact, quote, statement, or something else you found in your research that will help to support your claim in your first main point (topic sentence).
a. Expanded Detail 1: This is where you elaborate, explain, discuss how your support adds to your topic sentence.
b. Expanded Detail 2: This is where you elaborate, explain, discuss how your support adds to your topic sentence.
3. Summary /Transition:This sentence sums up your paragraph and ties it in to the thesis.
C. Third main point: Write a complete topic sentence. Main Points are never questions, quotes, or information that requires a source citation.
1. Supporting detail 1: This can be a fact, quote, statement, or something else you found in your research that will help to support your claim in your first main point (topic sentence).
a. Expanded Detail 1: This is where you elaborate, explain, discuss how your support adds to your topic sentence.
b. Expanded Detail 2: This is where you elaborate, explain, discuss how your support adds to your topic sentence.
2. Supporting detail 2: This can be a fact, quote, statement, or something else you found in your research that will help to support your claim in your first main point (topic sentence).
a. Expanded Detail 1: This is where you elaborate, explain, discuss how your support adds to your topic sentence.
b. Expanded Detail 2: This is where you elaborate, explain, discuss how your support adds to your topic sentence.
3. Summary /Transition:This sentence sums up your paragraph and ties it in to the thesis.
D. Fourth main point: Write a complete topic sentence. Main Points are never questions, quotes, or information that requires a source citation.
1. Supporting detail 1: This can be a fact, quote, statement, or something else you found in your research that will help to support your claim in your first main point (topic sentence).
a. Expanded Detail 1: This is where you elaborate, explain, discuss how your support adds to your topic sentence.
b. Expanded Detail 2: This is where you elaborate, explain, discuss how your support adds to your topic sentence.
2. Supporting detail 2: This can be a fact, quote, statement, or something else you found in your research that will help to support your claim in your first main point (topic sentence).
a. Expanded Detail 1: This is where you elaborate, explain, discuss how your support adds to your topic sentence.
b. Expanded Detail 2: This is where you elaborate, explain, discuss how your support adds to your topic sentence.
3. Summary /Transition:This sentence sums up your paragraph and ties it in to the thesis.
E. Fifth main point: Write a complete topic sentence. Main Points are never questions, quotes, or information that requires a source citation.
1. Supporting detail 1: This can be a fact, quote, statement, or something else you found in your research that will help to support your claim in your first main point (topic sentence).
a. Expanded Detail 1: This is where you elaborate, explain, discuss how your support adds to your topic sentence.
b. Expanded Detail 2: This is where you elaborate, explain, discuss how your support adds to your topic sentence.
2. Supporting detail 2: This can be a fact, quote, statement, or something else you found in your research that will help to support your claim in your first main point (topic sentence).
a. Expanded Detail 1: This is where you elaborate, explain, discuss how your support adds to your topic sentence.
b. Expanded Detail 2: This is where you elaborate, explain, discuss how your support adds to your topic sentence.
3. Summary /Transition:This sentence sums up your paragraph and ties it in to the thesis.
F. Sixth main point: Write a complete topic sentence. Main Points are never questions, quotes, or information that requires a source citation.
1. Supporting detail 1: This can be a fact, quote, statement, or something else you found in your research that will help to support your claim in your first main point (topic sentence).
a. Expanded Detail 1: This is where you elaborate, explain, discuss how your support adds to your topic sentence.
b. Expanded Detail 2: This is where you elaborate, explain, discuss how your support adds to your topic sentence.
2. Supporting detail 2: This can be a fact, quote, statement, or something else you found in your research that will help to support your claim in your first main point (topic sentence).
a. Expanded Detail 1: This is where you elaborate, explain, discuss how your support adds to your topic sentence.
b. Expanded Detail 2: This is where you elaborate, explain, discuss how your support adds to your topic sentence.
3. Summary /Transition:This sentence sums up your paragraph and ties it in to the thesis.
III. Conclusion (include in all outlines)
A. Restate the thesis statement in different words.
B. Synthesize, don’t summarize: Include a brief summary of the paper’s main points, but don’t simply repeat things that were in your paper. Instead, show your
reader how the points you made and the support and examples you used fit together. Pull it all together.
C. Include a provocative insight or quotation from the research or reading you did for your paper.
D. Propose a course of action, a solution to an issue, or questions for further study. This can redirect your reader’s thought process and help her to apply your info and ideas to her own life or to see the broader implications.