Do some research about tornadoes and take notes about what you learn. This research will help you develop topics, subtopics, key points and details in the outline.
Give your outline a title. This should be centered and in bold type at the top of the page. For an outline on tornadoes, you might consider a title such as "Deadly Winds: Tornadoes in the United States." Make sure your title reflects what you will write in your outline. You may wish to come up with a working title now and come back to the title and make revisions when you have finished your outline.
Write a thesis. The thesis should be in complete sentence format and sum up the contents of your outline. If your outline is going to be a general overview about tornadoes, the thesis will likely make a statement such as, "Tornadoes are among the most powerful winds ever measured and have a deadly history across the world; however, with planning and preparation, you can stay safe when nature's most frightening storms impact your area." On the line beneath the title will be the word "Thesis" in bold type. The word will be followed by a colon and then a space. Your thesis sentence will then follow the colon in plain type.
Develop your main topics. These will be indicated by Roman numerals. For example, type "I. Science," then on the next line type, "II. Strength," and "III. History." These examples are for a topic outline. If you were doing the same with a sentence outline, your first main topic will be written more like, "I. Science has provided information about tornadoes that help forecasters to predict when they are likely to develop and just how powerful they might be."
Write subtopics under your main topics. Subtopics will be indicated by capital letters. For example, under "III. History," you might write subtopics about the most deadly tornadoes in history, such as "A. Tri-State Tornado." The subtopics will be on the line beneath the main topic and should be indented about five spaces more than the main topic.
Break down your subtopics by creating key points. These will be indicated by numerals and beneath these will be lowercase letters for specific details. For example, beneath the Tri-State Tornado subtopic, you might have, "1. Damage" followed by "a. financial costs," "b. cleanup," and "c. recovery." The key points will appear on the lines beneath the subtopics with which they are grouped and will be indented about five spaces more than the subtopics. The details will then be on the lines beneath the key points with which they are grouped and will be indented about five spaces more than the key points.
Proofread and make revisions based on your finished outline.