Student Resources

Proofreading Marks

Outline Formats

Citing Sources

How to Create a Document
      Any Word Processor Can Read


PROOFREADERS' MARKS Top

PRELIMINARY OUTLINE Top

About the preliminary (rough) outline:

  • Its purpose is to guide you in your reading; it helps you read and take notes for your report.
  • It should not be too detailed.
  • It will be revised to reflect the research you have done before you write your report .

The outline below shows the form the preliminary outline should take:

The Founding of Brookwood School
  1. Significance and importance of the school
  2. The decision and the preparations
    1. The decision to create an elementary school
    2. Setting up the campus
    3. The search for teachers
    4. The search for more students
  3. The first year
    1. The academic program
    2. The sports program
    3. Special events
    4. Interesting things that happened
  4. The decision to continue the school

WORKING OUTLINE Top

About the working (final) outline:

  • Its purpose is to enable you -- and others -- to see how your report should grow and flow.
  • It should be made by revising your preliminary outline.
  • Usually, it will be a topic outline. A topic outline is one in which the items are topics, not complete sentences.

The outline below shows how the sample preliminary outline was revised to create a working outline. After doing some research, we decided that we have so much material on setting up the campus and finding teachers that we should not try to deal with the decision to establish the school. Also, we have very little information about looking for more students, because there were enough children to start with. The final outline might look like this:

The Founding of Brookwood School
  1. Importance of the school: why people wanted to create a new school
  2. The preparations
    1. Setting up the campus
      1. Raising the money
      2. Buying the land
      3. Fixing up the carriage house
        1. Help from the parents
        2. Help from the students
    2. The search for teachers
      1. Parents with expertise
      2. Finding other local people to help
  3. The first year
    1. The academic program
      1. Language arts
      2. Math
      3. History
      4. Science
      5. French
    2. The sports program: playing outdoors and indoors
    3. Special events
      1. School Meetings
      2. Special visitors
    4. Interesting things that happened
      1. The heron coming
      2. Winter celebration
      3. The school song
  4. The decision to continue the school: why people felt it worked and should go on

FORMAL OUTLINE Top

Observe these rules for form in making an outline.

Refer to the Preliminary Outline and Working Outline pages to make these rules more clear.

  1. Place the title above the outline. It is not one of the numbered or lettered parts of the outline
  2. Use Roman numerals for the main topics. Subtopics are given capital letters, then Arabic numerals, then small letters, then Arabic numerals in parentheses, and then small letters in parentheses.
  3. For each number or letter in an outline, there must be a topic.
  4. There must always be, under any topic, more than one subtopic.

    If you find yourself wanting to use a single subtopic, rewrite the topic above it so the "subidea" is included in the main topic.

    IMPROPER

    A. School meetings

    1. Those held on Thursdays

    CORRECTED

    A. Thursday school meetings
  5. A subtopic must belong under the main topic above it. It must be closely related.

IMPROPER A. Fixing up the carriage house.

1. Removing the carriage equipment

2. Planting trees by the pond (not related to topic)

CORRECTED A. Fixing up the carriage house

1. Removing the carriage equipment

2. Building new inside walls

3. Putting in new windows

6. Indent subtopics. Indentations should be made so that all letters or numbers of the same kind will come directly under one another in a vertical line.

7. Begin each topic with a capital letter.

Since a topic is not a sentence, you do not need to put a period after it.

8. The terms, Introduction, Body and Conclusion should not be included in the outline.

Of course, you should have an introduction, body and conclusion in your report, but the terms are not topics you intend to discuss. Therefore, they should not be listed as topics in the outline.

HOW TO CREATE A DOCUMENT
ANY WORD PROCCESSOR CAN READ
from Mr. Fodeman, Director of Technology
Top

It is not important what word processor or type of computer you are using. All word processors can save a document so that any other word processor can open and translate it....... as long as you follow some simple guidelines:

In your word processor:

  1. When ready, select File on the menu bar and choose Save As....

  2. A window will appear that asks you to name your document. Type in a name that consists of no more than 14 letters and or numbers. Please don't use any odd characters, punctuation or spaces. Some word processors don't like these in file names.

  3. In the same window, there is a pop-up menu telling you the type of document that will be saved. For example, you may see things like:
    1. Save as....Word Document
    2. Save File as type..... Appleworks
    3. Save as....Word Perfect

  4. Click on the pop-up menu and move your mouse up/down until you can select either Rich Text Format or RTF.

  5. If "Rich Text Format or RTF" are not available, look for text, ASCII text, DOS Text.

  6. Once you name your document add the following suffix:
    • If you Save As... Rich Text Format or RTF Use ".rtf" e.g. homework.rtf
    • If you Save As... text, ASCII text, DOS Text Use ".txt" e.g. homework.txt
  7. Click the Save button.

Please remember to do this EACH & EVERY TIME you save your document

SAVE YOUR DOCUMENT OFTEN WHILE YOU WORK ON IT AND BEFORE YOU PRINT IT!!
Treat your flash drives carefully! Here are some tips on using frash drives.
Last revised: Friday, April 14, 2006
, Dodge Writing Center