
So, you’ve done your research, a few Internet browsing sessions, a chat with your tutor, or maybe even took a trip or two to your school library. You’ve likely got plenty of ideas, scribbled notes, reminders, and loose strands of information, all swirling around in your mind. This is all well and good, but all that info has to be put in order if you want to create an essay that’s coherent and logical. And the best way to organize your thoughts and ideas is to craft an outline. A good outline is a crucial step that you cannot do without, as it will become a visual representation of your mind’s eye.
Why is Outline Important?
How would you define an outline? There are multiple definitions out there, and one is often just as good as the other. But the most accurate way to define an outline is to call it a plan for your paper. And everything works out better with just a bit of planning. And your academic paper is no exception. Using the outline helps you organize your thoughts and ideas and visualize the points you want to make. By crafting an outline, you create a sound plan of action for the ideas you intend to communicate through your words. The outline represents the high-level structure of an essay. In other words, it’s a layout, from beginning to end, which helps make the writing process less burdensome and time-consuming. All in all, knowing how to write an effective outline is a helpful skill even if you prefer to buy essays instead of writing them yourself.
Figure Out the Main Points
Once you research your essay question and come up with a couple of sound ideas, you may proceed to figure out the main points you’ll be further developing in your essay.
⦁ In some cases, you may find it beneficial to write a provisional outline before you get down to researching the essay topic. This may help you decide which direction to go and narrow down the scope of your future research.
At this stage, you also should decide on and verbalize the main argument of your essay, which is a thesis. Then, think of the main points you’ll be addressing in your paper and use them as headings for your outline.
Your introduction will be the first heading. After that add headings for each main idea and finish with a conclusion.
Add Supporting Ideas
The writing process will be much easier and smooth if you mention supporting ideas when crafting an outline. So, make sure each of your main arguments is backed up by substantial evidence. You can jot down one or two sentences for your main idea. You may also want to add explanations, descriptions, examples, or quotes to reinforce your point. Note, the more details you provide, the easier it will be to write the final paper. Make sure that your supporting ideas are pertinent to the headings and do not stall your argument. Also, check for repetitive ideas and eliminate them from the outline.
Turn headings into Complete Sentences
Once you come up with evidence for your arguments, you want to transform your headings and subheadings into full-fledged sentences. Thus, instead of the “Introduction” heading, write the complete sentence that will serve as the opening for your intro. If your main ideas and supporting evidence were schematic rather than fleshed out, it’s about time you turned them in sentence form. Normally, each heading in your outline will then become one paragraph in your essay. Nonetheless, for longer papers, a heading may be a section within a paragraph.
Online writing tools to help you write your essay
We hope that our tips will help you craft a strong outline for your future essay. But we want to help you make the writing process even easier and more enjoyable. To that end, we suggest that you take a look at several handy online tools that are currently helping millions of students put together effective essays.
⦁ BibMe. A free bibliography and citation generator that allows easily documenting your sources. With BibMe you can quickly and effortlessly create bibliographies, citations, and reference lists in such popular formats as APA, MLA, Chicago, and Harvard.
⦁ ReadWriteThink. If you want to hone your writing skills, master the art of eloquence, and learn to organize your arguments in a logical way, take advantage of the resources and learning materials at the ReadWriteThink educational portal.
⦁ Grammarly. Grammar is the glue that keeps language together. Grammarly is arguably the best-known grammar, spelling, punctuation, and lexis checker out there. What’s more, it helps you check the paper for plagiarism. So, if you want to impress your teacher with a unique and immaculately written essay, opt for Grammarly.
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