Oultines provide a means of organizing your information in an hierarchical or logical order.
For research papers, a formal outline can help you keep track of large amounts of information.
To create an outline:
Create an Outline
Thesis: Federal regulations should foster laws to protect wetlands, restore those that have been destroyed, and take measures to improve the damage from over development.
I. Nature's ecosystem
A. Loss of wetlands nationally
B. Loss of wetlands in Illinois
1. More flooding & poor water quality
2. Lose ability to prevent floods and
clean & store water
II. Dramatic floods
A. Cost in lives and dollars
1. 13 deaths from 1988 to 1998
2. Cost $39 million per year
B. Great Midwestern Flood of 1993
1. Lost wetlands in IL
2. Devastation in some states
C. Flood Prevention
1. Plants and Soils
2. Floodplain overflow
III. Wetland laws
A. Inadequately informed legislators
1. Watersheds
2. Natural water systems
interconnections
B. Water purification
IV. Need to save wetlands
A. New federal definition
B. Re-education on interconnectedness
1. Ecology at every grade level
2. Education for politicians and
developers
3. Choices in schools and
people's lives
Example taken from The Bedford Guide for College Writers (9th ed).