Back when I was new to writing, I used to wonder, how could creating an outline for an essay help in writing? I had this belief that doing so would seriously hamper the creativity of the writer. Creativity, in my opinion, is the most important characteristic of an essay writer. What is the use of outlines if they shut down the most significant of the characteristics of a writer. I was naïve and a beginner and my lack of experience and understanding made me ignore the significance of the outlines. However, I learned the importance of outlines the hard way.
I started to write for a living, and soon I realized that I will need to write a lot to be a successful writer. It was at this point when I realized that my old way of thinking related to the outlines was nothing but a lack of writer acumen. I took more time to complete one article or paper. I used to become entrapped in lengthy research methods and took hours to research, which was unnecessary. I also realized that I used to gather a lot of irrelevant material for my paper. But, after gaining a bit of experience, I eventually discovered that outlining your essay is essential for writing a well-organized paper. So, now I always make an outline before writing an essay.
When I started outlining my work, I realized I was saving a lot of time and energy. I started to write more with the help of outlines. Outlines also helped me remain relevant throughout the writing process. That is because you can actually edit, remove, or replace irrelevant points more easily, as compared to editing, removing or replacing the complex parts of the article or the paper. Similarly, outlines from collegeessay.org also helped me achieve coherence in my writing. It is a general problem for most writers, especially the new ones, that they struggle with coherence in their writings. But there is nothing to worry about because they can easily improve as I did, by outlining their work.
The first step in creating outlines for a paper is to get an understanding of the topic. If you already do not have a good understanding of the topic, immediately go to Google and search for the information. Read what other authors have written about the same topic on which you are going to write. This will give you a good understanding of the topic. Look for a unique dimension of the topic that has not been explored yet. If you find difficulty in finding a unique dimension about the topic, you can always consult a professional essay writing service and get help regarding your paper. A unique dimension is always good to write on because it provides innovation and fills the research gap in the selected area of study.
After acquiring enough background knowledge about the topic, now it is time to write down the objective of writing. The writer must brainstorm to identify the objectives and the intended audience of the paper. This is important in many regards as to remain relevant. Similarly, after having done that, the next step is to write down the main ideas that you think will contribute to the paper. You can also take help from a professional paper writing service who can provide the main ideas regarding the topic. The collection of main ideas surrounding the topic is necessary for many reasons but the most important of these reasons is that you can use these main ideas to build an argument around the topic.
The next important step in the process of outlining the paper is to filter all the main ideas that you have gathered. Revise, edit, and filter the ideas. Remove the ideas that you think are irrelevant, edit those ideas that you think need to be adjusted following your main idea, and add more description if needed. When I was a novice, I faced difficulty in this area because I could not decide what to exclude whenever I had to write my essay. I had to ask my peers for help. Okay, moving on. To add coherence, logically organize the filtered ideas. There should be a logical flow of ideas and concepts in the outline.
It is observed that if the writer takes care of the flow of ideas in the outline, this automatically transfers to the main body of the paper as well. What this means is that when your outline is organized, your body paragraphs will be organized as well. A lack of logical flow is one of the main problems that is faced by the students, which also causes them to lose points when the teacher grades the assignment. This problem can be efficiently handled by using the outlines properly.
After logically organizing the outline, now it is the time to finally revise and proofread the outline again. Look for potential errors and fix them. Similarly, make sure to look for potential clashes in your arguments. Sometimes, when writing a long paper, the writer makes the mistake of contradicting their earlier arguments at some later stages. Therefore, essay writing must take a deep look to make sure you don't make this mistake; an outline is the best place where you can make sure you do not make the same mistake.
Outlines might sound like a difficult task in the early stages; however, they prove to be useful once you get the hang of it. It just takes practice; other than that, outlines are not prisons where your thoughts are imprisoned. You can always use outlines in your writings, and be creative at the same time. So, you don’t have to worry about not being creative when writing your essay.
Useful Resources:
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