How to Write an Essay Outline
Read the assignment guidelines carefully., Develop a topic., Identify your purpose., Identify your audience., Develop your thesis.
Step-by-Step Guide
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Step 1: Read the assignment guidelines carefully.
Highlight or underline important words and phrases in the instructions.
Make sure that you fully understand what the instructor is asking you to do before you begin your outline.
Ask for clarification if anything seems vague or confusing. -
Step 2: Develop a topic.
Although outlining a paper can help you to develop and organize your ideas, you may need to do some other prewriting exercises to get started.There are many useful prewriting strategies that can help you to generate ideas for your paper.
List all the ideas that come to mind (good or bad) and then look over the list you have made and group similar ideas together.
Expand those lists by adding onto the list or by using another prewriting activity.
Freewriting.
Write nonstop for about 5-10 minutes.
Write whatever comes to mind and don’t edit yourself.
When you are done, review what you have written and highlight or underline the most useful information.
Repeat the freewriting exercise using this information as a starting point.
You can repeat this exercise multiple times to continue to refine and develop your ideas.
Clustering.
Write your subject down on the center of a piece of paper and circle it.
Then draw three or more lines extending from the circle.
At the end of each of the lines you have drawn, write down a new idea that corresponds to your main idea.
Then draw three or more lines from each of those new ideas, and write ideas that corresponds to those ideas.
Continue developing your cluster until you feel that you have explored as many connections as you can.
Questioning.
On a piece of paper, write out “Who? What? When? Where? Why? How?” Space the questions about two or three lines apart so that you can write your answers on these lines.
Respond to each questions in as much detail as you can.
This exercise will help develop your ideas and identify areas of your topic that you need to learn more about. , Ask yourself what you want to accomplish with your paper.
Are you writing this paper in order to persuade, entertain, enlighten, or something else? Just make sure that your purpose is in line with what the assignment asks you to do.
Look for key words in the assignment guidelines to help you figure out what your purpose should be. , Think about who will read your paper.
Your instructor? classmates? strangers? Identify the needs and expectations of your audience by considering what they do and do not know about your topic.
Anticipate their reactions as well.
How they might react to the information that you will be sharing with them? Will they be angry, sad, amused, or something else? , Once you have developed your ideas and considered your purpose and audience, you should be ready to write a thesis statement.Effective thesis statements express the main focus of a paper and state an arguable claim.
A thesis should not be more than one sentence in length.
Make sure your thesis is arguable.
Do not state facts or matters of taste.
For example, something like "George Washington was the first president of the United States," would not be a good thesis because it states a fact.
Likewise, "Die Hard is a great movie," would not work because it expresses a matter of taste.Make sure your thesis provides enough detail.
In other words, avoid simply saying that something is "good" or "effective" and say what specifically makes it "good" or "effective." -
Step 3: Identify your purpose.
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Step 4: Identify your audience.
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Step 5: Develop your thesis.
Detailed Guide
Highlight or underline important words and phrases in the instructions.
Make sure that you fully understand what the instructor is asking you to do before you begin your outline.
Ask for clarification if anything seems vague or confusing.
Although outlining a paper can help you to develop and organize your ideas, you may need to do some other prewriting exercises to get started.There are many useful prewriting strategies that can help you to generate ideas for your paper.
List all the ideas that come to mind (good or bad) and then look over the list you have made and group similar ideas together.
Expand those lists by adding onto the list or by using another prewriting activity.
Freewriting.
Write nonstop for about 5-10 minutes.
Write whatever comes to mind and don’t edit yourself.
When you are done, review what you have written and highlight or underline the most useful information.
Repeat the freewriting exercise using this information as a starting point.
You can repeat this exercise multiple times to continue to refine and develop your ideas.
Clustering.
Write your subject down on the center of a piece of paper and circle it.
Then draw three or more lines extending from the circle.
At the end of each of the lines you have drawn, write down a new idea that corresponds to your main idea.
Then draw three or more lines from each of those new ideas, and write ideas that corresponds to those ideas.
Continue developing your cluster until you feel that you have explored as many connections as you can.
Questioning.
On a piece of paper, write out “Who? What? When? Where? Why? How?” Space the questions about two or three lines apart so that you can write your answers on these lines.
Respond to each questions in as much detail as you can.
This exercise will help develop your ideas and identify areas of your topic that you need to learn more about. , Ask yourself what you want to accomplish with your paper.
Are you writing this paper in order to persuade, entertain, enlighten, or something else? Just make sure that your purpose is in line with what the assignment asks you to do.
Look for key words in the assignment guidelines to help you figure out what your purpose should be. , Think about who will read your paper.
Your instructor? classmates? strangers? Identify the needs and expectations of your audience by considering what they do and do not know about your topic.
Anticipate their reactions as well.
How they might react to the information that you will be sharing with them? Will they be angry, sad, amused, or something else? , Once you have developed your ideas and considered your purpose and audience, you should be ready to write a thesis statement.Effective thesis statements express the main focus of a paper and state an arguable claim.
A thesis should not be more than one sentence in length.
Make sure your thesis is arguable.
Do not state facts or matters of taste.
For example, something like "George Washington was the first president of the United States," would not be a good thesis because it states a fact.
Likewise, "Die Hard is a great movie," would not work because it expresses a matter of taste.Make sure your thesis provides enough detail.
In other words, avoid simply saying that something is "good" or "effective" and say what specifically makes it "good" or "effective."
About the Author
John Russell
Brings years of experience writing about creative arts and related subjects.
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