The document discusses different types of outlines used to organize information, including topical outlines and descriptive outlines. A topical outline uses headings and subheadings to show the topics, relationships between topics, and order of ideas from the original material. Effective topical outlines follow rules like enumerating headings from general to specific and requiring at least two subtopics under each heading. The document provides an example topical outline on the topic of jazz styles.