Having an outline for your work might seem like an unnecessary first step, but there are many real benefits to creating one. For example, starting with an outline can lead to less errors and a greater chance of acceptance for your manuscript. Here, we’ll go over some reasons why you want to use an outline for your work and how to best apply this handy tool.

Why should you prepare an outline?

If you’re going to prepare an outline, you should understand its purpose. An outline is used to create a framework and structure for a paper or essay (though its utility isn’t limited to these examples). You can think of an outline as a sort of roadmap for your project, helping to guide you from start to finish.

Outlines primarily do two crucial things. The first is that they allow you to structure your work effectively. By structuring your work, you can save a great deal of time and avoid common writing problems (like writer’s block). The second is that they help to improve the clarity of your work. By allowing you to see the full scope of your work at a glance, you can quickly spot missing information or gaps early on.

Structuring your work

You can easily set up an outline in a few different ways. The first is to examine what the standard structure of a submitted manuscript looks like. For example, almost all academic manuscripts will start with an “Abstract”. And then the rest of the paper will have an introduction, materials and methods (or just methods), results, etc. The specifics of each paper will vary, but using an outline to organize them will help to keep your manuscript’s flow organized.

You can also organize each individual section. By using bullet points, you can make sure that you remember to include all the specific things you want to go over in that section. This will allow you to easily change the order of the points or to include new ones as you see fit.

By taking a bit of time to prepare an outline before you start writing, you can actually save a great deal of time during the writing process.

Improving clarity

One of the most challenging parts of writing anything is to make sure that your message is clear. Often, when writing, we are prone to repetition or missed details. By creating a list of exactly what points need to be mentioned, you can easily keep your writing focused and clear.

This kind of clarity might seem like a minor thing that can “be fixed later”, but it can actually have a major impact on whether or not a manuscript gets accepted in the first place.

Many manuscripts will be edited after acceptance, this is predicated on getting accepted in the first place. Making sure you prepare an outline to keep your manuscript clear and easy to understand can increase those odds significantly.

What are the benefits of preparing an outline?

While we’ve already mentioned some of the benefits, it’s worth digging into them a bit more.

Here we’ll focus on three specific benefits:

• Organization
• Structure
• Journal acceptance

There are many other benefits, but we’ll focus on these in more detail.

Organizing your manuscript with an outline

Organizing your work means that you’ll have an easier time presenting it. A very common reason for manuscript rejection from many journals is that a manuscript is unclear. By preparing an outline you can make sure that the manuscript is clearly organized, reducing the odds of a rejection.

Aside from the clear benefits related to publishing, it is also a good way to lower the stress of writing a manuscript. By carefully organizing an outline before you start writing, the writing process becomes easier. An easier writing process means less time wasted. If you gain time in the writing process, you’ll give yourself more time to take care of other important tasks in your research or writing process.

Structuring your work

This is similar to, but not the same as, organizing your manuscript. Organizing your manuscript is a broad idea. Which sections go in what order, for example. But structuring your work is about the actual research itself. Making sure that you are clear about how your research is being organized is important. Are all the steps being presented in a clear and concise way? Do you explain any relevant information that needs to be known for one section prior to it?

The actual research of your work needs to be carefully prepared so that it is easy to understand. So, while your manuscript might have a clear progression from an introduction to the methods to the results, the information in those sections needs to also make sense and be clear and easy to understand.

Journal acceptance

It is quite common for a manuscript to be rejected due to having a poor structure. If a manuscript’s order and information is unclear, it will very likely be rejected. This is even true for cases where research is novel and interesting. If it can’t be understood, it doesn’t matter how good the ideas are. Preparing an outline can greatly help to avoid two different types of rejection. The first type is when your work is rejected but can be resubmitted. In these cases, you will need to spend time reorganizing your work. If you had used an outline to start, this time spent could have been saved. Such rejections can delay publications by weeks, if not months.

While it might not seem evident right away, using an outline can ensure that you don’t have to deal with unnecessary problems later on down the line.

How to prepare a clear outline

Outlines do not need to be complicated. In fact, most outlines benefit from being straightforward and simple.

The best way to start is at the macro level; start broad and work your way down.

As noted above, many academic manuscripts will always have the same core sections (e.g., Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, and so on). Start by listing out the sections that you believe your manuscript will need.

Remember that you can always go back and move the sections around if you feel that the make more sense in a different order.

Once you have established the order, tackle the individual sections. Here, it is a good idea to include a general heading. This can help you to establish the “point” of the section. In an abstract, for example, this might be something like “Indicate problem, discuss our research and how it helps”.

Getting more specific as you prepare your outline

Remember that your outline doesn’t need to be overly specific, but it does need to be clear enough that you will understand it. As you get more specific, make sure you include specific things to help you understand what your focus is. This might be a specific data point, or a quote from research that feels relevant.

As you get more and more specific, you’ll find the writing process easier later on.

But don’t get too specific in your outline. You might feel like getting overly specific will help you in your chances of getting accepted by a journal, but that might not always be the case. There may be diminishing returns as too much time on an outline could overcomplicate it and cause it to lose clarity.

Remember, an outline should be used to help your organize your thoughts and to save time. If you are making your outline overly complicated, you might as well just write your manuscript. Also, make sure that the outline has the details you need, but keep it general enough that you’re not taking time away from the writing process.

Editing services can help after you’ve used an outline

Editing services provide essential support to authors, ensuring their manuscripts meet academic standards and are prepared for publication success. From refining language and grammar to offering in-depth subject-specific reviews, these services cater to a wide range of needs and timelines.

Using an outline is a great idea, but there are always ways to improve your chances of acceptance and publication.

By choosing the right service, authors can improve their manuscript’s quality. Not only that, they can also improve the readability and the chance of acceptance. This ultimately can contribute to their academic and professional growth, as well as the growth of their individual fields.

Read more about the benefits of some of our services here.

At MDPI Author Services, we specialize in helping researchers prepare their manuscripts for publication. Our Specialist Editing Service provides an in-depth review. This includes both language polishing and subject-specific editing by an expert in your discipline.

Ready to take the next step? Click the link above for a free quote.