• Introduction
• Structuring by function or procedure
• Stylistic variation within a report
• Structuring by Content or Topic
• Customised structure: combining procedural with topic-based headings
• Sequencing a report: some techniques
• Outlining: Distinguishing between levels of generality
• Outlining contents of textbooks and theses

Introduction

The most efficient way to organise a long text is to make an outline of the main sections. Outlines basically record the structure of the text, providing a guide both for

• the writer in the process of composition and revision, and for
• the reader, who benefits from having perdiodic reminders of the overall structure of the text

Outline structueres comprise headings and sub-headings to guide the reader through a more reader-friendly text.

Making an outline requires a certain skill. Texts are generally organised according to:

• procedures: a focus on the research procedures rather than on the subject itself
• content: the subject being studied

We'll look at these separately

• Structuring by function or procedure
• Structuring by content or Topic

Structuring by function or procedure

At the macro-level it is better to structure your report by the functional stages of the investigation, rather than by describing aspects of the topic itself.

The IMRAD structure provides the most suitable format:

Introduction: introducing your study in the context of other work and why you did it
Methodology: saying what you did in your study
Results: saying what you found in your study
and
Discussion: interpreting what your results might mean in the context of other work

These are the functional stages, and therefore the main sub-headings, of most scientific research reports.

Stylistic variation within a report

We deal with this more fully under Report Writing, but briefly: The Methods section features the descriptive reporting of what the researcher did to conduct the study and the Results section features a description and (ideally) an interpretation of the findings based on the data collected - what you found.  The Introduction and Discussion sections feature much less description, and mainly involve interpretation, speculation and criticism.

Variations to the IMRAD structure could include the addition of:

• Literature review
• Conclusions
• Recommendations
• General Discussion (as opposed to Discussion of Results)
• Further sub-divisions, such as, in the Discussion:
  Implications for Teaching, and so on

Structuring by content or topic

Much more common in the Social Sciences are headings based on an aspect of the content.

An example of a content-based heading is:

"The Role of Repetition in Television Advertising"

Content-based outlines can be topic (noun)-based or propositional (verb-based).

What is a topic-based outline?

We say these are noun-based because the actions normally described by verbs(e.g. recognize, discover) are turned into nouns - a process we call nomilization. E.g.:

"The recognition and discovery of abuse: Key problems. "

With the topic outline, every heading is either:

• a noun phrase ("Prevention of abuse"), or
• the equivalent gerund phrase ("Preventing abuse")

The advantage of topic outlines is that they establish concisely the main areas of investigation by subject matter.  A disadvantage is that shortened headings can hide the idea behind the sequence of topics. This can be overcome by lengthening the headings to make them more descriptive, as in a proposition-based style of heading and sub-heading.

What is a proposition-based outline?

It comprises condensed statements of a subject-verb or verb-object pattern. These statements reflect ideas more clearly and explicitly than topic-based outlines. For example

"Problems centering on the recognition and discovery of abuse"

Some advice for planning your investigation

Begin with a full propositional outline. This can then be reduced to the shortened topic form for the final text.

Good control of grammar and vocabulary is necessary for changing a clause into a noun phrase, and moving easily between different forms of a word.

For example
verb: identify;
adjective/participle:  identified/-ifying,
or noun: identification.

These remain "proposition-based", as they combine topics with processes (marked by verbs)

Example of a Contents page

Here is a student’s Contents page outline of a report on Child Abuse for a Social Work-related project, which focuses on the work of the Hong Kong Association for Child Abuse (ACA):

Notice the use of only one reduced propositional heading:

"Services offered by the ACA"

The rest are topic based headings.

Customised structure:
combining procedural and topic-based headings

These forms are often combined, often with procedural headings providing a framework for a more detailed topic-based set of sub-headings.

For example
You might be doing a survey of the literature, reviewing aspects of either TV advertising or repetition:

Literature Review

a) The Role of Repetition in Television Advertising
or
Introduction: The Role of Repetition in Television Advertising

Sequencing a report: some techniques

Sequencing your ideas is an important part of the planning process.  There should be a logic to your sequence, even of sub-headings.

Here are some common criteria for sequencing:

• chronological (time) sequence: the order in which they have evolved [Example]
• order of importance or significance (from highest to lowest) [Example]
• from local to global: moving from the immediate context to a more general context

Outlining: Distinguishing between levels of generality

When preparing an outline, you need to be able to subordinate or indent  your sub-headings according to the concept’s level of generality or abstraction . The coherence of a text depends on how well you do this.

Levels of indenting are determined by the level of generality of the item in question.  This is best illustrated with the question:

Which of these are of the same level of generality ?:

Clearly, only horse and cow are of the same level of generality:

• animal is superordinate to these - at a higher level of generality
• Jersey cow (a type of cow) is subordinate - of a lower level of generality

So we have the following outline structure:

I. animal
	A. horse
	B.  cow
		i) Jersey cow

These may be new terms, but they are important concepts to be able to discuss and describe. 
Outline indenting signifies progress-

• from major, more general concepts
• to minor, more specific ones.

For a Sociology Example, see the Hong Kong Association for Child Abuse Contents outline

Main headings, such as IMRAD, should feature ideas or concepts that are of the same level of generality or importance.

Outlining contents of textbooks and theses

Contents pages are probably the most familiar outline structures we come accross. Nowadays, Lists of contents for each chapter are becoming more common in textbooks and dissertations. They serve as:

• a guide to the reader
• a very useful checklist for organisation, coherence and accessibility of the text for the writer

Again, for an Example, see the Hong Kong Association for Child Abuse Contents outline

Note:  Your outline does not need to be complete before you begin writing.  You can expect to modify your outline throughout the writing of the rough draft, as you discover new ideas and reorganise your evidence and your argument.