Answer:
Easy outlines are structured by paragraph: You list the topic of each paragraph along with a few bullet points about what goes into that paragraph. This allows you to easily rearrange the order of the paragraphs to find the perfect arrangement before you begin writing.
The standard outline format uses an alphanumeric system, which alternates letters and numerals at the start of each section.
Main topics like sections or chapters are listed as Roman numerals.
Paragraphs are usually listed as capital letters.
Points and subtopics within a paragraph are listed as Arabic numerals.
Specific details are listed as lower-case letters.
The content of the outline is generally written in blurbs—you don’t need to use complete sentences, although if you’re working as a team, using full sentences can help other people understand your ideas better and vice versa.
Standard outline format has a distinct indentation. Roman numeral lines are not indented, capital letter lines are indented once, Arabic numeral lines are indented twice, and lower-case letter lines are indented three times.
So you can see what an outline should look like, here’s an example of a writing outline for this section of this article.
III. Outline structure
A. Overview about outline structure
1. explain basic structure of outline
2. reiterate how outlines help with paragraph order
B. Alphanumeric system
1. introduce the alphanumeric system
a. bullet list of each line in alphanumeric system
C. Content written in blurbs
1. exceptions for sharing with teams
D. Outline indentation
E. Outline example
1. example outline of this section
As you can see, you use only the lines you need—not every paragraph needs markers for subtopics, and not every subtopic needs specific details.
It’s also worth noting that there is no official structure for outlining. For example, if you’re using longer paragraphs, you might want to use Roman numerals as the paragraph marker. The above example is simply the most common and easiest format to follow, but you’re free to structure your outline however seems most reasonable to you.