The Outline

When you write, you need to organize your ideas in an order that makes sense. Order refers to your choice of what to present first, second, third, and so on in your writing. The order you pick closely relates to your purpose for writing that particular assignment. You may want to group your supporting ideas effectively to convince readers that your point of view on an issue is well reasoned and worthy of belief. In longer reports, you may organize different sections in different ways so that your purpose stands out clearly and all parts of the report work together to consistently develop your main point.

Review the material from Section 3.3 Creating an Outline

You should have a clear and concise purpose statement as every section in your report must be connected to the report’s purpose.  For example, if you report provides a structural steel design for a warehouse, what specific aspects of the design (e.g., structural loads, columns, beams) will your report address?  What in what order should you arrange the sections?  Are there specific subsections that you will develop?  For example,  you might include dead loads, live loads, snow loads, and wind loads in the structural loads section. Remember you do not need a subheading for a single paragraph.  Group the information into larger chunks (depending on the length and complexity of the information).

References