An essay outline is a way of planning the structure of your essay before you start writing. It involves writing quick summary sentences or phrases for every point you cover in each paragraph, giving you a picture of how your argument will unfold and how your paper will be structured. Thus, outlines are super useful when you write a long essay with several relevant points.
You’ll sometimes be asked to submit an essay outline as a separate assignment before you start writing an essay—but even if you don’t have to hand one in, it’s a good idea to create an outline as part of your writing process.
When you’re writing an essay outline, your ideas are probably still not very clear. You should know your topic and have already done some preliminary research to find relevant sources, but now you need to shape your ideas into a structured argument.
Look over any information, quotes and ideas you’ve noted down from your research and consider the central point you want to make in the essay—this will be the basis of your thesis statement.* Once you have an idea of your overall argument, you can begin to organize your material in a way that serves that argument.
* A thesis statement usually appears at the end of the introductory paragraph of a paper. It offers a concise summary of the main point or claim of the essay, research paper, etc. It is usually expressed in one sentence, and the statement may be reiterated elsewhere.
Try to arrange your material into categories related to different aspects of your argument. If you’re writing about a literary text, you might group your ideas into themes; in a history essay, it might be several key trends or turning points from the period you’re discussing.
Three main themes or subjects is a common structure for essays. Depending on the length of the essay, you could split the themes into three body paragraphs, or three longer sections with several paragraphs covering each theme.
As you create the outline, look critically at your categories and points: Are any of them irrelevant or redundant? Make sure every topic you cover is clearly related to your thesis statement.
When you have your material organized into several categories, consider what order they should appear in.
Your essay will always begin and end with an introduction and conclusion, but the organization of the body is up to you.
We recommend you consider these questions to organize your material:
Within each paragraph, you’ll discuss a single idea related to your overall topic or argument, using several points of evidence or analysis to do so.
In your outline, you present these points as a few short numbered sentences or phrases.They can be split into sub-points when more detail is needed.
The template below shows how you might structure an outline.
You can choose whether to write your outline in full sentences or short phrases. Be consistent in your choice; don’t randomly write some points as full sentences and others as short phrases. Also, some instructors might follow different templates for specific assignments, so make sure to check and follow the guidelines respectively.