纲要 (gāng yào): outline; essential points

The teacher handed each student a course outline, which listed the main topics to be discussed and the reading materials for the semester.

Before starting to write the report, he spent an afternoon putting together a detailed writing outline, marking the key points of each section.

According to the meeting outline, this afternoon we will mainly discuss two topics: budget allocation and project progress.

Although this research outline is only three pages long, it clearly points out the research direction and key issues of the entire project.