03 May,2024
Table of Contents
Don’t know about essay outlines? If not, you are not doing anything right. An outline is essentially the skeleton of an essay. In other words, it is a text representation of the thesis and critical supporting points of an essay.
Essays are the most common type of academic writing. Outlines serve many purposes, including assisting writers in arranging their thoughts before starting work, allowing readers to read a quick synopsis of the essay, and acting as a guide for the writer as they work on their next supporting paragraph. Writing an essay outline is not a challenging task. In this blog post, we are going to shed light on this topic. Go through it to gather valuable insights and learn about the key points that you must consider to come up with an effective essay outline.
An essay outline is an informal document that lists the essay parts to ensure the writer stays on track and doesn’t miss a single point. As it’s not formal, the outline is mostly written in incomplete sentences, just like notes.
Outlining is a crucial early stage in the writing process. This is the stage where you arrange all of your ideas and understandings into a clear and concise roadmap. Your outline can possibly help you get back on track if you get stuck while composing your essay.
In colleges and universities, students need to submit the outline of an essay before they can start writing. This is because the instructors want to make sure each student is on the right track in terms of picking an appropriate essay topic that comes with ample referencing sources. Most importantly, it helps the instructors ensure that the essay criteria are met and that the students master the task.
Even though every essay is unique, all follow the same fundamental essay structure, which is as follows:
The introduction is the very first section of your essay. As the name suggests, this is the part where you introduce the points you will be explaining in your essay.
Hook or Opening Statement
This comes under the introduction part. A hook or opening statement is a full sentence that you need to incorporate to draw the attention of the readers. It is more of a concise statement that the audience relates to.
Thesis Statement
Talk about your thesis in the introduction part as well. It is the definitive sentence where you make clear arguments. This allows the reader to understand your perspective when going through the paper.
Body Paragraphs Section
Your essay might feature only two paragraphs, or it may even be a five-paragraph essay. Unless your instructor allocated a specific number of paragraphs, it’s completely your call when it comes to creating categories to divide the essay.
If you want to add multiple sources to support your thesis statement, follow the universal rule of one body paragraph per source cited. However, depending on the kind of essay you are writing, you might have to stray from this rule.
Conclusion Section
Once you get to the conclusion paragraph, you are almost done! This is the part of your essay where you summarise and list the main ideas from each of your body paragraphs. This is an opportunity to share any final ideas or viewpoints you would like the reader to see before they end up consuming your essay.
So, you are ready to craft the outline of your essay. That’s great! But how can you get started? Follow four key steps and make the rest of your work simpler and easier. Scroll down and have a look:
You can easily create a detailed outline for your essay if you follow a few key points as mentioned below:
Understand the purpose of your essay – Prior to outlining, figuring out your essay purpose is the key. In other words, you must keep track of:
Pick an order – When you draft an outline, you effectively provide your future essay with structure and purpose. You will need to consider whether to arrange your essay chronologically, spatially, or importance-based.
Creating the structure for a short essay – If you are writing a short essay or a 500-word five-paragraph essay, your structure should be like the following:
Developing an outline – Using templates is the best option for creating sentence outlines. You can select the template essay that best suits your needs and only answer each text box question with a single sentence, which will provide you with a concise, one-sentence summary. After that, you can share or export the outline with classmates or instructors for their input.
Among all, the most common is the alphanumeric outline, and most people can able to recognise it. While all outlines have a similar overall structure, several significant differences must be considered when drafting one for a particular essay format. The different types of essay outlines are as follows:
Take a look at more than one common example outline for varied essay types:
1. Argumentative essays
Title: “Italian Ice is a Superior Dessert to Ice Cream”
Introduction
State the features of Italian Ice
Benefits
Why is it more refreshing?
Conclusion
2. Admissions Essays
Title: “Arigato, Sato Sensei”
Introduction
Discuss how English speakers struggle to learn Japanese language
Talk about the Japanese culture
Your experience
Conclusion
3. Persuasive Essays
Title: “We Need More Security Cameras in the Student Parking Deck”
Introduction
Share updated student car break-in statistics
Talk about the intangible value of high-end security
State the installation cost
Conclusion
4. Personal Essays
Title: “The Two Best Birthdays of my Life”
Introduction
Talk about your 18th birthday
Talk about your last birthday
Conclusion
An outlined essay helps you stay on track and prove your argument in the best possible way. To avoid deviating from the topic, always start writing an essay after creating the outline. The main reason behind this is that essays with an outline are less confusing and easier to follow. Here’s what an essay outline brings to your paper:
As we write an essay outline, we make common mistakes. After all, we are humans and we do get out of focus sometimes. Here are the mistakes students must consider, or they might have a significant impact on the quality of your essay:
Basic spelling
When reviewing your paper, the most common type of mistake you will find is the spelling mistake. Focus more on your spelling and take help from Microsoft Word and other processors to ensure your paper is error-free.
Sentence fragments
You can modify this part by reading it aloud. There are different types of sentences that just couldn’t stand on their own without an intro. If there is any type of sentence like this, simply remove it or merge it with another sentence. Make sure there are all full sentences in your essay, which is a strong criterion for securing excellent grades.
Bad spacing
If necessary, make sure your paper is double-spaced. However, it extends beyond that. The paper must look consistent and well-organised overall. If it is not, there may be an issue with your spacing. Most students lose points because of it, so keep a close eye on this.
Missing transitions
Again, reading your essay aloud will help you identify problems like, “What transitions are you missing? Is the paper clear? Do you have a thesis statement?”. Moreover, you can easily contact our expert essay writers at MyAssignmentHelp and ask them to highlight any flaws that you might have overlooked.
Once your outline is ready, proceed with the next steps in the writing process to finish the paper. If the above information falls short for you, don’t hesitate to seek expert essay help from MyAssignmentHelp. They can assist you in refining your first draft into an error-free and quality piece of writing. They can help you with any necessary edits that maintain a clear, consistent tone that precisely communicates what you are trying to convey.
Hi, I am Mark, a Literature writer by profession. Fueled by a lifelong passion for Literature, story, and creative expression, I went on to get a PhD in creative writing. Over all these years, my passion has helped me manage a publication of my write ups in prominent websites and e-magazines. I have also been working part-time as a writing expert for myassignmenthelp.com for 5+ years now. It’s fun to guide students on academic write ups and bag those top grades like a pro. Apart from my professional life, I am a big-time foodie and travel enthusiast in my personal life. So, when I am not working, I am probably travelling places to try regional delicacies and sharing my experiences with people through my blog.
WhatsApp
