Activity: Paragraph Outlining

Now that you have an idea of the basic structure, look at another paragraph and fill in the partially completed outline that follows it. After you are done, you can compare your outline to the answer key.

Paragraph Outlining Activity

My 2008 Ford Fiesta is a horrible car for winter. First of all, it slips and slides terribly in the snow. Last month while driving to school in fairly light snow fall, the car started to slide on a gentle turn, and I nearly hit a car passing by. Also, just yesterday, despite going really slowly and gently pumping my brakes, I ran right through a stop sign and was really lucky there weren't any other cars. In addition to the poor control, the car is horribly noisy when it is cold. For the first ten minutes after I turn it on, it makes a squealing noise that wakes up the entire neighborhood.  Then, when I am driving, the heater makes a loud rattle that makes it impossible to even listen to the radio. Lastly, none of the car's parts seem to work right when it gets cold. Usually at least once every other week or so all winter long, the battery won't start and must be taken out of the car and warmed up indoors for an hour. Also, the brakes run slowly and sometimes the automatic door locks freeze. I have to leave the driver's door unlocked to ensure I don't get locked out. With all of these problems, my Ford Fiesta really is a terrible car for the winter.


After reading the above paragraph, make a copy of the outline below in your notebook and fill in the topic sentence and the lettered items breaking down how it is put together. Also, next to the topic sentence and each of the three main ideas (numbered items in the outline), please jot down the question that is raised (and answered by the lettered items).

Topic sentence:
  1. Poor control
    2. Ran through a stop sign yesterday
  2. Loud
    1. Horrible noise when I turn it on
  3. Parts don't work right in the cold
    1. Sometimes the battery won't start
    3. Door locks freeze

Notice that there are no lower case letters. This second paragraph makes statements that don't require as much detail, and that is perfectly fine. Good writing should anticipate potential reader questions and if you find that something you write doesn't raise any questions, you don't necessarily need to add more detail or explanation.

After you have filled in the outline, compare it with the answer key. The wording doesn't have to match exactly, but the main ideas should be similar.

Source: Erin Severs
Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License.