Once you have generated some ideas and formulated a tentative thesis, you may want to create an outline. An outline summarizes the major ideas of a written work in topics (major headings) and subtopics (subordinate ideas). You can indent the subtopics to different levels to show their relative importance in the outline. This is the most common form of outlining; simply the thesis followed by a list of major supporting ideas.

As you are brainstorming, move topics up or down to change their level. Hide (collapse) subtopics to highlight main ideas or show (expand) subtopics to focus on small ideas.

Most word processing programs now have built-in outlining functions, and some outlining programs with special functions are on the market. In constructing an outline, keep the following guidelines in mind.

1. Put thesis at the top.
2. Make items at the same level of generality, as parallel as possible.
3. Use sentences unless phrases are clear.
4. Use the conventional system of numbers and letters for the levels of generality.

I.
	A.
	B.
		1.
		2.
			a.
			b.
				(1)
				(2)
					(a)
					(b)
II.

5. Always use at least two subdivisions for a category, since nothing can be divided into fewer than two parts.
6. Limit the number of major sections in the outline; if the list of roman numerals begins to look like a laundry list, find some way of clustering the items into a few major categories with more subcategories.
7. Be flexible; in other words, be prepared to change your outline as your drafts evolve.

MS Word and ClarisWorks provide the appropriate environment and tools to create outlines with the format explained above. As you work, you can gradually fill in your outline, using sample sentences and paragraphs that you can later fit into your paper. In other words items of an outline could be considered as "plug-ins" when you are writing a new paper.

You can save the various versions of your expanded outlines, print them out, and compare them to see which seems to suit your purposes best.

Once you have organized your notes in blocks of outline, you will see more clearly that writing about an idea and developing it into broader horizons becomes much easier using the outlines. You will also notice that you can write excellent papers in shorter time.