To organize your thinking and writing around one strong thesis.

To visualize the paper as a whole.

To eliminate extraneous information that does not add to or support the thesis.

To see areas that are weak or lack in development.

Remember an outline is not just choosing a new number for each new sentence. In a sentence outline, there may be more than one sentence per section. Each new section needs to be related to the section above and below it with the section number or letter showing that relationship.