Page 8 - Writing Moves Digital Toolbox

Digital
Toolbox
Section 1

Using Outlining Tools

Once you have generated ideas, or placed events on a timeline, you might want to structure them more
formally with an outline that can help you organize how and when to introduce these ideas in your writing.
Outlining is a tried-and-true method for generating ideas and organizing your writing. New digital applications
for outlining are easy and effective tools for organizing your ideas and helping you keep in mind the larger
structure of a text as you draft each individual part.

The

DESIGN OF OUTLINING TOOLS

Outlining tools have the following features.
• Let you create a hierarchical structure
• Guide you to create different levels of headings, subheadings, and sub-subheadings
• Offer alternative ways of numbering these levels: numeric (1, 1.1, 1.1.1), Alphanumeric (i, a, 1, a), and

other combinations

Figure IV.1.9: Using the outline tool in Microsoft Word

➤ Outlining Resources

• MS Word Outline Tool. Figure IV.1.9 shows how

to use the outlining tool in MS Word (2012). Under

the View tab in the top menu bar, users can click

on the Outline function. Figure IV.1.10: Outline tool in Microsoft Word with sample outline

When you select the Outline function, a submenu

for “Outlining” appears (Figure IV.1.10). This submenu gives you the basic tools for creating an outline by

creating a heading (level one), and adding subtopics (levels two, three, four, etc.) under that heading. This

example shows how Ashley (Chapter 2) could have used an outline to organize her literacy narrative.

In this case, she could take her mapping exercise and begin to shape it into a basic outline of how she

could organize her written paper.

Help for MS Word outlines can be found at support.office.com, and here's a brief YouTube tutorial:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sfu1AnJappg.

links • Notetaking App Outliners. Evernote offers a similar outlining function. An guide can be found here:
h t tp : / / www. ma c n n . c o m / a r t i c l e s / 1 5 / 0 3 / 2 7 / th e . n o te .t a k i n g . a p p . c o m e s .wi th . l i t tl e .u s e d . o u tl i n i n g .
features/. The Microsoft app OneNote also offers outlining. A useful guide can be found at
https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/onenotetips/2008/06/11/outlining-in-onenote/.

• Other Outlining Tools. Pages and Google Docs have easy-to-use outlining tools. There are also dedi-
cated outliner tools such as Outliner (for iOS) and Outliner in Google Play for Android devices.

• OWL, the Online Writing Lab at Purdue University, offers a general guide to outlining for writers:
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/544/01/.