When you write an essay, an outline will be your best ally. It will help you not to lose track of your thoughts. It serves as a framework of your ideas. Honestly, it is not easy to write an essay if you don’t have an outline. It is part of the prewriting process, and it is necessary before you start doing the rough draft. Aside from researching, it also requires brainstorming and planning. But if you don’t know how to start doing one, here are ways on how to write an essay outline.
Writing an Essay Outline
1. Determining the purpose of your essay is the first step in writing the essay outline. Based on the purpose, you can then narrow down the topic which you need to do a research in preparation for your thesis statement.
2. In formulating your thesis statement, it should illustrate the objective of your essay. It’s a way of giving an idea to the readers on what the essay is all about.
3. After narrowing down the topic, doing research, and formulating the thesis statement, you can now start your essay outline. Brainstorm for every idea which you think is important to your essay. And then organize them together.
4. Determine the points which you want to include in each paragraph of your essay. And under each point, create a corresponding subheading. It will prevent you from forgetting anything of significance to your essay.
5. Remember that an essay outline doesn’t have to be as lengthy as possible. A single page is even enough. It is like making a list of the ideas that you have organized, and it must consist of an introduction, body, and conclusion.
6. The introduction must include the thesis statement of the essay. The reason why you have selected that particular topic should also be stated. It should also contain at least three topic sentences that must be included in the body of the essay.
7. If you are going to make a five paragraph essay, then three of these paragraphs are the main body. Your outline must then include the topic sentence for each paragraph which relates to the thesis statement, explanation and evidence in support to the topic sentence, as well as the significance of your example.
8. The summary of the said topic sentences should then be discussed in the conclusion, and how the topic sentences have supported the thesis statement.
9. The last section of your outline should be the citation. It is a list of resources that you have used in your essay.
Students who prefer making an outline before starting to work find the writing easier to do. An essay outline is a way of organizing your ideas for your essay to flow systematically. It gives you an overview of how each paragraph should go. As a result, you will get the essay more structured. But if you find it hard, just follow the given ways on how to write an essay outline.
