How to Write an Essay Outline for Quality Writing
If you’d like to create a good essay, you need a clear outline. After all, without it, it is easy to forget or miss something important. Therefore, the main point in this paper is to correctly draw up a plan. Our essay outline guide will help you with that.
What Is an Essay Outline
An essay outline is a plan that contains separate meaningful parts of the essay that will mark the main thoughts. It is important that each paragraph contains one thought. Each micro-theme should be given a name, which will be the point of the outline. It is better to use a detailed phrase or sentence. Therefore, it will be more understandable for you what and in what way to write.
What You Should Do Before Making an Outline
Not knowing what to include in an essay is the first problem a student faces when writing texts. Making an outline is a responsible and rather difficult part of working on an essay. Following the steps below will make it easier for you to do this.
1. Consider the topic
Firstly, figure out what you need to write in the essay. Try to orally reflect on the given topic. If it is worded too extensively, flesh it out and formulate thoughts that are relevant to this topic.
2. Explore the context
Often additional information is required to write an essay. For example, if the essay is based on a literary work, make sure that you not only read it but also imagine the personality of the author and the era in which he or she worked. This information will serve as a reason for thought, which can be reflected in the essay.
How to Make an Outline According to the Essay Format
It is necessary to adhere to the common structure of the paper: introduction, main body, and conclusion. In the first paragraph, it is important to outline the main idea and set the tone for the whole essay. The main part should present arguments and evidence. In the final part, sum up the whole story, making final conclusions and assessments. And in each of these parts, there may be several sub-points that will tell you which direction to go in your writing.
The introduction and conclusion should have a logical connection. To do this, you can express the same ideas, but in different words. At the beginning of the essay, do it from the position of an invitation to reasoning (or a rhetorical question) – in the conclusion, do it as a conclusion statement. If at the beginning of the essay they asked the question, “Why are they still reading Shakespeare?” then in the final part we simply answer this question.
When you outline your essay, remember that you are doing it first of all for yourself. Therefore, try to choose a topic that is close to you, and pick up facts and quotes that are important for argumentation. Don’t be afraid to consult your teacher if it’s difficult. He or she focuses on important details that you may have missed.
How to Write an Essay Outline for College
It may be difficult for students to start writing an essay because their heads are full of unrelated ideas at the preparation stage. What makes writing very effective is the fact that you really know how to organize the main ideas in a way that the reader can understand. Aside from structure, which helps highlight the content of the essay, an outline is also the perfect way to reach your reader.
Most students do not know what the correct essay outline and structure look like, so their essays are poor. The main problem they usually face is the presence of poorly structured information in essays. That is why learning how to outline and structure a paper can help students organize their ideas effectively and make their essays easier to understand. Learning to come up with the right outline can also be a solution to your instructor’s complex requirements.
The structure and outline of the essay
The five-paragraph essay is a basic structure, which is commonly used in colleges, where all papers usually contain three sections: introduction, body, and conclusion.
Every student should know that the basic structure of an essay is the same for all types of essays. Therefore, a poorly structured essay is unlikely to impress your teacher, and you may even get a low grade. Good essays should read like great stories and have the right introduction, body, and conclusion.
This is the example of a standard structure of an essay:
- Introduction (one paragraph)
- The main part (three paragraphs or more)
- Conclusion (one paragraph)
For making a good outline, you need to know the right structure of an essay.
- Introduction
The first paragraph allows the reader to learn about your topic as well as your point of view on it. The introduction should contain a thesis, which can consist of two to three sentences and contain a summary of the main points. The way you start your essay will help the reader decide if they want to continue reading the paper or just stop there. You need to come up with a compelling statement that immediately grabs their attention.
- Main paragraphs
If a student chooses to use a five-paragraph structure, they must ensure that their main body has three paragraphs. If this is a college or university student who has been tasked with preparing an essay of five or more pages, then the main body may be correspondingly bigger. It is suggested that you should divide your main body into structural segments so that it does not look confusing to the reader.
To achieve this, there are a few simple rules to keep in mind, such as:
- Each subheading and paragraph should represent a new topic or idea.
- Your argument must be supported by evidence.
- A brief conclusion should be drawn.
- Conclusion
The conclusion offers the reader a summary of the main thoughts presented in your paper. You shouldn’t introduce any new ideas here, but you should reformulate the thesis in a way that avoids repetition. You need to leave the best impression for the reader, so don’t try to rush because you may end up ruining your essay. It is a good idea to prepare a draft of the last paragraph so that you can correct any remaining inconsistencies in the final version of an essay.
Essay Outline Example
Here is a simple essay outline template on the “Human and Nature” topic.
- Introduction. The thesis is “Human is an integral part of nature.”
- First body paragraph. “Humanity has changed the face of nature more than all natural disasters.”
- Second body paragraph. “Attempts of mankind to save the species look tragic, and partly even ridiculous.”
- Third body paragraph. “Humanity and the Earth interact in much the same way as the virus and the human body.”
- Conclusion. “It’s time to change something in ourselves and save our nature.”
Creating the right outline plays an important role during the whole process of essay writing. We hope that this essay outline guide has helped you with that. If you have some problems, you can always get order persuasive essay on EssayBulls. Our writers are able not only to come up with the right outlines but write entire essays perfectly.
