Use these tips to organize your main points for an effective essay outline
Between work and study, students are busier than ever. So when your English teacher or college professor assigns another essay, you may be wondering how to best approach the assignment.
When it comes to academic writing, an essay outline is essential to the writing process because it helps you organize your thoughts and prioritize the points that you want to make throughout the piece of writing.
Depending on your college course, you may be required to submit an outline before writing the paper. An outline helps you show your professor what you want to cover in the article and allows your professor to give you feedback before spending hours in the writing process.
Let’s look at the ins and outs of writing a college essay outline and some tips for ensuring the outline hits all your key points.
What is an outline for an essay?
An essay outline is essentially a roadmap to your paper. It contains all of your main points organized into a logical pattern so you can focus on writing the paper instead of organizing your thoughts on the fly.
Your outline also allows you to organize the background information, supporting evidence, and citations, so you’ll know where to incorporate them throughout the writing process.
Why you need an outline for your college essay
When you’re writing an essay for college, it’s important to be able to see the big picture of what you want to say before you begin putting words on the page.
There are many reasons why writing an essay outline is a crucial step in the writing process:
- It helps you avoid plagiarism since you can place references throughout the piece of content before writing. This helps you avoid missing citations, etc.
- It gives you a general idea of what you will write in each section so you can flesh out the sections with more direction.
- It allows you to adjust your thoughts without having to write complete sentences.
- An essay outline can save you lots of time in the long run. This is because an outline can help you write an organized first draft faster since you don’t have to juggle your thoughts while writing full paragraphs of text.
Writing an essay outline helps you stick to the required structure of your essay and allows you to maintain a consistent point of view. This can help you write better content to improve the overall quality of your essay, plus it can help save you lots of time editing and adjusting your essay.
Let’s look at the different ways you can build a great essay outline for your next assignment.
Types of essay outline formats
In general, there are three main types of essay outlines. The one you choose will depend on the format you are most comfortable with, but each will help you write better content in less time.
1. Alphanumeric outline
The first outline format for an essay that we will look at is the alphanumeric structure. This type of essay outline is straightforward and easy to remember, and it is excellent for writers who want a general roadmap for their essays.
It involves using letters, numbers, and periods to organize information logically. Main ideas or a topic sentence is listed first with a roman numeral. Then, subtopics and details are listed using uppercase letters, followed by whole numbers, lowercase letters, and numbers and letters in parenthesis.
The more specific you get in your outline, your alphanumeric structure will be more detailed. However, you may not need information past the uppercase letter on your outline.
Example of the Alphanumeric Outline:
- Introduction
- Main topic #1
- Main idea of paragraph
- Details level 1
- Details level 2
- Details level 3
- Details level 2
- Details level 1
- Main idea of paragraph
…
2. Decimal outline
Similar to the alphanumeric structure, this essay outline allows writers to use headings and subheadings to separate and organize information.
However, unlike the alphanumeric essay outline structure, the decimal outline uses decimals to denote each level of detail.
The primary points that you want to cover are given the main heading with a whole number. Then, every detail level gets a decimal added to the whole number to identify which details go with which the main idea.
Example of the Decimal Outline:
1.0 Introduction
2.0 Main topic #1
2.1: Subtopic 1
2.1.1 Detail level 1
2.1.2 Devail level 2
2.2: Subtopic 2
…
3. Full sentence outline
A full sentence outline is very similar to an alphanumeric outline because it uses Roman numbers, whole numbers, and letters to organize information.
However, the difference is that full sentence outlines require a full sentence for each level of the outline. It’s most common for a traditional five-paragraph essay because this essay outline will provide lots of detail on the direction of the essay before you start writing the main body of the text.
While full sentence outlines can be helpful, especially since you can use these sentences as a starting point for your essay, they are also more time-consuming than the other two outline formats.
No matter which outline type you choose to use for your next essay, it’s important that it has these key components.
Keep reading to find out what you need to include in your outline to overcome common obstacles students face throughout their academic careers.
Components of an effective essay outline
No matter what essay format you’ve been assigned, your outline structure will be similar to each other.
It will mirror the basic five-paragraph essay format you used in high school, where you have an introduction, main points, and a conclusion. However, your college essay outline will take it up a notch.
Here are the essential components of an effective college essay outline that you will incorporate into your next writing assignment to ensure you meet the requirements of the assignments and show your writing abilities to your professor.
Introduction
This is the first section of your essay where you set the tone for your entire paper and introduces the essay topic to the reader.
Avoid giving too many details in your introduction; only set the tone of the piece and introduce the topic you will cover. It’s important to avoid giving too much information at this point because if you give too much away, you won’t have content left for later on in your essay.
Thesis statement
A thesis statement is typically the last sentence of your introductory section. It can also be broken up into multiple sentences for higher-level papers.
Your thesis statement helps to make your argument or main point crystal clear and sets the stage for the rest of your essay.
It’s the ultimate transition sentence, as it signals to the reader that you are ready to get into the main section and explanation of your essay, so make sure it connects to your essay topic and gives a definitive answer to the prompt.
You may want to write a draft of your thesis statement to ensure you have a clear vision of how to structure your outline.
Many students have found it best to make this is the only complete sentence in their essay outline, leaving all other aspects of the outline as bullet points, fragments, and notes to organize their thoughts.
Body paragraphs
The body of your essay is where you support your thesis statement and lay out your ideas logically and constructively. You need no set amount of body paragraphs unless your assignment calls for a specific number of body paragraphs to include.
Depending on your format, you can separate your paragraphs in various ways. For instance, an APA paper requires headings at the start of each section. In contrast, an essay in MLA format requires a transition sentence at the beginning and end of each paragraph.
A good rule of thumb is to write one paragraph per point you make to support your thesis statement. You should also stick to one paragraph per cited source.
This is an excellent place to ensure your topics are in a logical order and make adjustments as you see fit. It’s much easier to adjust the flow of your essay in the outline process than after you’ve already written it.
Conclusion
Once you reach your conclusion, the finish line is in sight. The conclusion is where you summarize all the points you made in the body of your essay and tie them together to address the essay’s purpose, as defined in your thesis statement at the beginning of the essay.
5 tips for creating a college essay outline
Now that you know what goes into a proper outline, it’s time to get writing.
If you feel overwhelmed with the assignment, an outline will help you step back, organize your thoughts, and logically attack the prompt you laid out with your essay outline.
Here are five general tips to write better content and how you can craft an outline for any essay assignment.
1. Adjust Your Outline format for different types of essay
While any outline format will work for most essay assignments, you’ll need to make some adjustments depending on the nature of your prompt.
For instance, literary analysis essays will require you to add text evidence to support your claims, so you’ll need to include page numbers on your outline. But a narrative essay would require anecdotes and personal observations.
Here are some standard adjustments you’ll need to make when writing different essay types for your high school or college classes.
- Persuasive essay outline: Each main idea should be a different persuasive point you plan on making. Give plenty of evidence to support your point and help your audience see things from your perspective.
- Argumentative essay outline: When arguing a specific point, dedicate at least one paragraph to each of your arguments. Consider adding a section that addresses the counterargument and uses concrete evidence to dispute their claim.
- Expository essay outline: Expository essays are about explaining a topic in detail. You will need to dedicate a paragraph to each example you use to shed light on your topic of choice.
- Research paper outline: When writing an outline for a research paper, organize your topics by importance. Place the information your reader needs to know first, then build your ideas.
Making minor adjustments to how you write your outline based on your essay type will make it easier to write your paper when the time comes.
2. Identify your objective
You may not have your thesis statement written out at this point, but it’s essential to identify the point you’ll hope to make in your essay.
Having a clear objective helps you work through your brainstorming process and logically add your ideas to your outline. Knowing where you’re going with your essay will also ensure you hit all necessary points to best support your essay topic.
This will help you build a strong outline that keeps you on topic and allows you to identify important information to drive your point forward.
3. Stick to the point
After a brainstorming session, you likely will have notes filled with every possible idea you could flesh out in your essay.
It’s important to edit this brainstorm list and only include details that help you achieve the objective you set for your essay.
Review your notes, identify the points that best support your thesis statement, and use supporting information for additional sections and subsections throughout the essay.
Ask yourself how each item on your brainstorming list will prove your point. If you have a clear answer, add it to your outline. If it doesn’t, strike it off your list.
The more you fine-tune your notes, the easier it will be to write an essay worthy of an A+. So take the time to remove any “fluff” or unnecessary information from your brainstorming before writing your essay outline.
4. Find the critical points for each paragraph
Now that you have an edited brainstorm list, you can start planning the central point for each paragraph.
The key arguments you choose will become the paragraphs of your essay’s body. Once you know your focus, start writing down anecdotes, facts, and statistics that support each point.
Remember to note where each piece of information came from so you can properly cite it later on. Failing to cite your sources is considered plagiarism and could lead to severe consequences.
5. Utilize an essay outline template
With your objective, central point, and supporting details defined, you can now craft a stellar outline.
Use a general template to help format your key points and frame your information in an organized way.
Remember, it’s not required that you write an outline using complete sentences. Just make sure the information you add to your outline is clear enough that you’ll be able to picture your essay by just reading the outline.
Craft the right outline for the college essay writing process
Throughout your academic career, you’ll be required to write countless essays. No matter the topic or organizational approach, their basic structure is similar, with slight variations that help you communicate your ideas better.
Understanding the key differences between types of essays will allow you to write the best outline possible for your essay assignment.
While an outline is just one step in the essay writing process, it’s one that you can’t afford to skip. It sets you up for success and allows you to quickly move through the rest of the writing process with ease.
FAQs
How can I create a productive study space?
Create a productive study space by eliminating distractions, setting up good lighting, and blocking out loud noise with a fan or noise-canceling headphones.
How long is an outline for an essay?
1-3 pages long is the average length of an outline for an essay, depending on your paper’s length.
What is the top-ranked college by students in the U.S?
Florida Gulf Coast University was ranked #1 by students in 2021.
