The What & Why

The Outline is perhaps the most difficult part of the process, as it forces you actually begin nailing down the specifics of your essay, your argument, and your evidence.

• An outline is a work-in-progress! Often you don't know what you want to say until you get to the end of writing an essay, so use the outline as an exercise to hash out, (re)organize, and think through both what you want to argue and how you want to support your argument.
• Your outline also forces you to incorporate quotes, specifics, and evidence from your research as you go along; perhaps you're using a source to present a counter-argument, or to bolster your own claim, or to illustrate a point, or to provide a starting point. There are lots of ways to weave research into your essay.
• Your Outline should be VERY detailed; saying something like "Point #2" doesn't really do anything and can actually hurt you because you think you're going to argue one thing but, because you didn't spell it out and practice putting it into words specifically, you don't actually (in the end) want to argue that. If you leave that kind of work till your rough draft you may create a huge amount of extra work (for which you won't have time) for yourself.

Nailing everything down in the Outline forces you to go ahead and do the heavy work now, while you have time! Don't be afraid to start over if you get halfway through -- this is a LEARNING and CONSTANTLY EVOLVING PROJECT!

See below for tips on constructing a good outline:

• from the OWL at Purdue
• from WriteExpress
• from Austin CC

TIP:

Though it sounds strange, don't begin by writing your Introduction! While you should have a general sense of the direction and key focus of your essay, it's often helpful to write the Intro & Conclusion after you've hashed out the body of your essay, because it's in the writing of the body that you really figure out what you want to say!

See the EE Google classroom or Managebac for sample outlines for a range of Subjects.