Essay Outline Explained: 7 Things You Should Do Before Writing An Essay

Creating an essay outline is by all means the most effective and motivating way of learning the writing assignment, organising your ideas on the essay topic, and positioning your own point of view. The importance of essay outline in writing process is hard to underestimate. It is the solid foundation of a well-structured and considered essay with enchanting essay topic, logically organised paragraphs, strong thesis statements, and unforgettable conclusions. The essay outline helps you put your thoughts together, and have a clear idea of what the essay should be all about. I could go on, but the point is: when you write your essay outline first, the process of essay writing becomes a piece of cake! The first and most important step you should take before writing an essay is to understand what your professor wants to see in your essay wanted from you, thus to decode the writing assignment. The solution to this riddle can be found in your essay question, which asks you either to discuss, compare, contrast, or summarise certain issues. When you know what is expected from you, you know which way of writing an essay to choose.

5. “consider” means to describe a certain subject and say how effective it is. Once you know what you ought to do, you can get down to creating the essay outline. But before you do so, you need to verify the requirements for your essay. In the departments guidelines you shall find the deadlines, the requirements for the essay length and presentation. If some points are not clear to you, do not hesitate to verify them with your teacher. The more you know the better chances your have to write an outstanding essay. You must know that a thesis statement is a single declarative sentence that contains the focus of your essay and tells the readers what it will be all about. But except for helping your readers with understanding your essay, it is of great help to you as well. A thesis statement helps you think through your ideas and their overall presentation to the readers. Moreover, it is the wishful salvation each time you get sidetracked from the main idea of your essay, and want to come back to the initial point.

Your should not skip the process of writing a thesis statement at the top of your paper, right after your essay outline. Thus, be sure you compose a strong thesis statement for your essay outline. Once a thesis statement is ready, you should start brainstorming your ideas that relate to your thesis statement. Write down all ideas that come to your mind and are related to your topic, even if they are seemingly bizarre or outlandish. You should let your ideas flow as rapidly and spontaneously as possible. When you have collected all your ideas, be sure to revisit them and discard the ones that seem useless. It goes without saying that all ideas in your essay must be supported with some evidence that should consist of specific examples or opinions of others. The supporting evidence should prove your thesis statement. Thus, it must be relevant, reliable and presentable. So, you need to sweat a bit and gather relevant information on your essay topic and select the materials that will come in handy. It is advised not to neglect the basic sources you use every day.

Thus, start examining your lecture notes, core texts and handouts. They usually include a sufficient amount of useful information that will supply you with great ideas for the essay outline. If you want to deepen into the essay topic, you can pick some other sources with detailed information on your essay topic. For instance, articles in journals, or texts referred to by your teacher can provide you with extremely valuable information. But be selective, and do not fall on the first source that you come across. Make a thorough and painstaking search. Once you have collected the information, you need to think through the structure of your essay and create the first draft. Your essay must be planned in the way that it has a coherent and logical structure. So far there are no universal standards for organising ideas in essays. However, all your ideas must be arranged in the logical way. For instance, the logical sequence of your facts could be presented in a simple to complex form, be specific or general, etc. Either way, choose which is most appropriate in your case.