Technical Document Project: Outlining

Use this guide to begin developing an outline for your technical document project.

Not familiar with outlining? Review these resources.

Typically, the introduction part of an outline for a technical document project looks something like this:

I. Introduction
A. Topic
B. Background
C. Purpose
D. Audience
E. Overview

First-Level Outline Items

This series of questions asks you to imagine the main sections of your outline, the ones that traditionally use roman numerals.

  1. After the introduction, your next main section, section II, might discussion relevant background, a problem or question that the rest of the document addresses, and other such. In the box below, sketch out the phrase you might use for main section II. Don't worry—none of this is set in stone, just continued brainstorming.
  2. After main section II of your outline, it's hard to predict what might be the focus of your next main section. In the box below, sketch out the phrase you might use for main section III. Don't worry—none of this is set in stone, just continued brainstorming.
  3. After main section III of your outline, it's once again hard to predict what might be the focus of your next main section. In the box below, sketch out the phrase you might use for main section IV.
  4. After main section IV of your outline, it's once again hard to predict what might be the focus of your next main section. In the box below, sketch out the phrase you might use for main section V.
  5. If you still more ideas for main sections to add to your outline, sketch them out in the box below:

Second-Level Outline Items

This series of questions asks you to imagine the subsections of your outline, the ones that traditionally use capital letters, for each of the main sections of your outline.

  1. In the box below, sketch out the phrases for the subsections of main section II you might use:
  2. In the box below, sketch out the phrases for the subsections of main section III you might use:
  3. In the box below, sketch out the phrases for the subsections of main section IV you might use:
  4. If you had ideas for additional main sections to add to your outline, sketch out the phrases for the subsections in the box below:
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