Outlining: WHY?

• This is a great strategy to help you see how ideas within a chapter are related.

• Instead of being bombarded with a million facts, you are forced to separate the important from the less important.

1. Main idea sentence or section headingA. Supporting detailB. Supporting detailC. Supporting detailD. Supporting detail

HOW TO OUTLINE A TEXT

•To outline a paragraph, write its main idea, or the title of the chapter section.

•An outline can consist of phrases or sentences.

•Then on separate, indented lines below the main idea, write each supporting detail that goes with it, like this:

• Making your outline look perfect is not as important as making sure that the relationships are clear to you.

• Main ideas should stand out and it should be obvious which details go with each main idea.

• Roman numerals (I, II, III, etc.) are often used for main ideas, and uppercase letters (A, B, C, D, etc.) are used for supporting details.

HOW TO MAP

• Mapping is an informal way of organizing main ideas and supporting details by using boxes, circles, lines, arrows, etc.

Main Idea

Supporting Detail

Supporting Detail

Supporting Detail

Supporting Detail

• Since outlines and study maps both show relationships among important ideas in a passage, how can you decide which to use for a particular passage?

• Your decision will depend on how familiar you are with each technique, and on how the passage itself is written.

• Keep in mind that mapping is an informal study technique, whereas outlining can be formal or informal.