How to Write an Essay Outline
Prewriting Strategies That Improve Academic Writing Skills
Feb 27, 2009
An essay outline is an important part of prewriting. Good prewriting skills are critical to achieving a high grade and include brainstorming, research, planning, and organizing – all of the activities that students should do before writing the rough draft. Students often fail to spend enough time in the prewriting stage, particularly when it comes to planning what they will say and organizing the essay structure.
Students can learn how to write an essay outline by following these instructions.
Writing Outlines
Students should write the outline after they’ve narrowed their topic, gathered their research, and have a thesis statement. The outline does not need to be lengthy – one page is usually enough – as it is not a rough draft; it is simply an organized list of ideas for the essay.
Five Paragraph Essay Outline
A five paragraph essay outline has three parts: the introduction, the body, and the conclusion.
Introduction
The introduction contains a clear thesis statement that tells readers what the essay is about. The introduction also includes a summary of the three topic sentences that will be presented in the essay body.
Body
The five paragraph essay contains three paragraphs in the main body that are used to develop the thesis statement. Each paragraph has one topic sentence that is related to the thesis.
The outline of each paragraph should have four parts:
- a topic sentence,
- an explanation of the topic sentence,
- an example, piece of evidence, or quotation that supports the topic sentence, and
- an explanation of the significance of that example/evidence/quotation.
Conclusion
The conclusion gives closure to the essay and signals to the reader that the writer is finished his or her discussion. The conclusion should summarize the three topic sentences and discuss how they support the thesis statement. It is okay if the conclusion looks similar to the introduction, in fact, it probably will.
Style
The fastest way to write an outline is by using jot-notes that the student can build into full sentences later, during the essay writing.
Some students prefer to write complete sentences in their outlines. A full sentence outline takes longer to complete than a jot-note outline, but the advantage is that those sentences can go directly into the essay, making the essay writing quicker and easier.
Students who begin writing outlines typically find that their academic writing skills improve dramatically. The five paragraph essay outline is easy to learn, however students should feel free to adapt it or make up their own outline until they find a style that works well for them and their topic.
More style suggestions and outline samples can be found at The Purdue Online Writing Lab.
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