A writing outline will help you determine how many points about your theme you will make and the order you will make them in. It is extremely difficult to write a long paper (generally anything more than five pages) without a writing outline to guide you.

To create a writing outline, follow these simple steps:

• Examine the major points in the categories into which you organized your notes. These are the natural divisions of your writing outline. See How to Take Notes from Your Sources, Example of a Note Taken from Your Sources, and Sample Note Card.
• The number of points in a writing outline should reflect the length of the paper.
• Try not to create too many divisions or too few. If you find that you have twenty different points for a ten-page paper, you have too many and should combine any points that overlap or are very close in substance to one another. If you have only three different points for a ten-page paper, you may have too few. In this case, check to see if you have put together points that should be separate. If not, you will need to do more research.
• Remember to leave room in your outline for your introduction and conclusion. See Creating a Writing Outline and How to Begin and End an Essay.