A topic outline organizes your ideas using brief phrases that describe each of your main points. The University of Washington Psychology Writing Center recommends this strategy for complex topics that provide a variety of directions, such as information from a class lecture or a chapter from a book. The main points begin with a Roman numeral, then use upper-case letters, Arabic numerals and lowercase letters to indicate additional points. For example, if you were outlining your science professor's lecture on DNA, one of your points might be I. DNA Structure followed by A. Genes, B. Double helix and C. Base pairs.
Unlike a topic outline, a sentence outline states each point using complete sentences. The Ohio State University physics department states that sentence outlines are particularly useful when writing essays because they reveal whether the order of your topics flows well. They also let you brainstorm topic sentences that can be easily implemented into your paper draft. For example, if you're writing about the advantages of majoring in English, your first point might read, "Majoring in English lets you get consistent feedback from professors and classmates on your writing."
Outlining isn't just for brainstorming or pre-writing. Reverse outlining is an informal listing of the major points in each paragraph of an essay you've completed. According to the Roane State Online Writing Lab, this strategy is useful for checking the organization of your paragraphs. It also ensures that all of your points tie back into your thesis statement, the main idea of your paper. To make a reverse outline, you can read each paragraph of your essay and write down its main ideas. You can then see if you need to group similar ideas together, cut irrelevant information, or elaborate on significant topics.
Revising your outline the same way you would a draft of an essay can help you get your paper off to a solid start, states the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville Quality Writing Center. Writing an outline lets you begin the process with the ideas of your paper already composed rather than doing multiple drafts to come up with them. However, if the direction of your paper changes or you learn new information, you shouldn't be afraid to restructure your outline or even scrap it and make a new one.