how to write an outline for an essay

Essay Writing Guide

Essay Outline

Last updated on: Jun 28, 2024

A Complete Essay Outline - Guidelines and Format

By: Nova A.

13 min read

Reviewed By: Melisa C.

Published on: Jan 15, 2019

To write an effective essay, you need to create a clear and well-organized essay outline. An essay outline will shape the essay’s entire content and determine how successful the essay will be.

In this blog post, we'll be going over the basics of essay outlines and provide a template for you to follow. We will also include a few examples so that you can get an idea about how these outlines look when they are put into practice.

Essay writing is not easy, but it becomes much easier with time, practice, and a detailed essay writing guide. Once you have developed your outline, everything else will come together more smoothly.

The key to success in any area is preparation - take the time now to develop a solid outline and then write your essays!

So, let’s get started!

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What is an Essay Outline?

An essay outline is your essay plan and a roadmap to essay writing. It is the structure of an essay you are about to write. It includes all the main points you have to discuss in each section along with the thesis statement.

Like every house has a map before it is constructed, the same is the importance of an essay outline. You can write an essay without crafting an outline, but you may miss essential information, and it is more time-consuming.

Once the outline is created, there is no chance of missing any important information. Also, it will help you to:

Organize your thoughts and ideas.
Understand the information flow.
Never miss any crucial information or reference.
Finish your work faster.

These are the reasons if someone asks you why an essay outline is needed. Now there are some points that must be kept in mind before proceeding to craft an essay outline.

Easily Outline Your Essays In Seconds!

Prewriting Process of Essay Outline

Your teacher may ask you to submit your essay outline before your essay. Therefore, you must know the preliminary guidelines that are necessary before writing an essay outline.

Here are the guidelines:

You must go through your assignments’ guidelines carefully.
Understand the purpose of your assignment.
Know your audience.
Mark the important point while researching your topic data.
Select the structure of your essay outline; whether you are going to use a decimal point bullet or a simple one.

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How to Write an Essay Outline in 4 Steps

Creating an essay outline is a crucial step in crafting a well-structured and organized piece of writing. Follow these four simple steps to create an effective outline:

Step 1: Understand the Topic

To begin, thoroughly grasp the essence of your essay topic.

Break it down into its key components and identify the main ideas you want to convey. This step ensures you have a clear direction and focus for your essay.

Step 2: Brainstorm and Gather Ideas

Let your creativity flow and brainstorm ideas related to your topic.

Jot down key pieces of information, arguments, and supporting evidence that will strengthen your essay's overall message. Consider different perspectives and potential counterarguments to make your essay well-rounded.

Step 3: Organize Your Thoughts

Now it's time to give structure to your ideas.

Arrange your main points in a logical order, starting with an attention-grabbing introduction, followed by body paragraphs that present your arguments.

Finally, tie everything together with a compelling conclusion. Remember to use transitional phrases to create smooth transitions between sections.

Step 4: Add Depth with Subpoints

To add depth and clarity to your essay, incorporate subpoints under each main point.

These subpoints provide more specific details, evidence, or examples that support your main ideas. They help to further strengthen your arguments and make your essay more convincing.

By following these four steps - you'll be well on your way to creating a clear and compelling essay outline.

Essay Outline Format

It is an easy way for you to write your thoughts in an organized manner. It may seem unnecessary and unimportant, but it is not.

It is one of the most crucial steps for essay writing as it shapes your entire essay and aids the writing process.

An essay outline consists of three main parts:

1. Introduction

The introduction body of your essay should be attention-grabbing. It should be written in such a manner that it attracts the reader’s interest. It should also provide background information about the topic for the readers.

You can use a dramatic tone to grab readers’ attention, but it should connect the audience to your thesis statement.

Here are some points without which your introduction paragraph is incomplete.

To attract the reader with the first few opening lines, we use a hook statement. It helps engage the reader and motivates them to read further. There are different types of hook sentences ranging from quotes, rhetorical questions to anecdotes and statistics, and much more.

Are you struggling to come up with an interesting hook? View these hook examples to get inspired!

A thesis statement is stated at the end of your introduction. It is the most important statement of your entire essay. It summarizes the purpose of the essay in one sentence.

The thesis statement tells the readers about the main theme of the essay, and it must be strong and clear. It holds the entire crux of your essay.

Need help creating a strong thesis statement? Check out this guide on thesis statements and learn to write a statement that perfectly captures your main argument!

2. Body Paragraphs

The body paragraphs of an essay are where all the details and evidence come into play. This is where you dive deep into the argument, providing explanations and supporting your ideas with solid evidence.

If you're writing a persuasive essay, these paragraphs will be the powerhouse that convinces your readers. Similarly, in an argumentative essay, your body paragraphs will work their magic to sway your audience to your side.

Each paragraph should have a topic sentence and no more than one idea. A topic sentence is the crux of the contents of your paragraph. It is essential to keep your reader interested in the essay.

The topic sentence is followed by the supporting points and opinions, which are then justified with strong evidence.

3. Conclusion

When it comes to wrapping up your essay, never underestimate the power of a strong conclusion. Just like the introduction and body paragraphs, the conclusion plays a vital role in providing a sense of closure to your topic.

To craft an impactful conclusion, it's crucial to summarize the key points discussed in the introduction and body paragraphs. You want to remind your readers of the important information you shared earlier. But keep it concise and to the point. Short, powerful sentences will leave a lasting impression.

Remember, your conclusion shouldn't drag on. Instead, restate your thesis statement and the supporting points you mentioned earlier. And here's a pro tip: go the extra mile and suggest a course of action. It leaves your readers with something to ponder or reflect on.

5 Paragraph Essay Outline Structure

An outline is an essential part of the writing as it helps the writer stay focused. A typical 5 paragraph essay outline example is shown here. This includes:

State the topic
Thesis statement
Introduction
Explanation
A conclusion that ties to the thesis
Summary of the essay
Restate the thesis statement

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Essay Outline Template

The outline of the essay is the skeleton that you will fill out with the content. Both outline and relevant content are important for a good essay. The content you will add to flesh out the outline should be credible, relevant, and interesting.

The outline structure for the essay is not complex or difficult. No matter which type of essay you write, you either use an alphanumeric structure or a decimal structure for the outline.

Below is an outline sample that you can easily follow for your essay.

Essay Outline Sample

Essay Outline Examples

An essay outline template should follow when you start writing the essay. Every writer should learn how to write an outline for every type of essay and research paper.

Essay outline 4th grade

Essay outline 5th grade

Essay outline high school

Essay outline college

Given below are essay outline examples for different types of essay writing.

Argumentative Essay Outline

An argumentative essay is a type of essay that shows both sides of the topic that you are exploring. The argument that presents the basis of the essay should be created by providing evidence and supporting details.

Persuasive Essay Outline

A persuasive essay is similar to an argumentative essay. Your job is to provide facts and details to create the argument. In a persuasive essay, you convince your readers of your point of view.

Compare and Contrast Essay Outline

A compare and contrast essay explains the similarities and differences between two things. While comparing, you should focus on the differences between two seemingly similar objects. While contrasting, you should focus on the similarities between two different objects.

Narrative Essay Outline

A narrative essay is written to share a story. Normally, a narrative essay is written from a personal point of view in an essay. The basic purpose of the narrative essay is to describe something creatively.

Expository Essay Outline

An expository essay is a type of essay that explains, analyzes, and illustrates something for the readers. An expository essay should be unbiased and entirely based on facts. Be sure to use academic resources for your research and cite your sources.

Analytical Essay Outline

An analytical essay is written to analyze the topic from a critical point of view. An analytical essay breaks down the content into different parts and explains the topic bit by bit.

Rhetorical Analysis Essay Outline

A rhetorical essay is written to examine the writer or artist’s work and develop a great essay. It also includes the discussion.

Cause and Effect Essay Outline

A cause and effect essay describes why something happens and examines the consequences of an occurrence or phenomenon. It is also a type of expository essay.

Informative Essay Outline

An informative essay is written to inform the audience about different objects, concepts, people, issues, etc.

The main purpose is to respond to the question with a detailed explanation and inform the target audience about the topic.

Synthesis Essay Outline

A synthesis essay requires the writer to describe a certain unique viewpoint about the issue or topic. Create a claim about the topic and use different sources and information to prove it.

Literary Analysis Essay Outline

A literary analysis essay is written to analyze and examine a novel, book, play, or any other piece of literature. The writer analyzes the different devices such as the ideas, characters, plot, theme, tone, etc., to deliver his message.

Definition Essay Outline

A definition essay requires students to pick a particular concept, term, or idea and define it in their own words and according to their understanding.

Descriptive Essay Outline

A descriptive essay is a type of essay written to describe a person, place, object, or event. The writer must describe the topic so that the reader can visualize it using their five senses.

Evaluation Essay Outline

Problem Solution Essay Outline

In a problem-solution essay, you are given a problem as a topic and you have to suggest multiple solutions on it.

Scholarship Essay Outline

A scholarship essay is required at the time of admission when you are applying for a scholarship. Scholarship essays must be written in a way that should stand alone to help you get a scholarship.

Reflective Essay Outline

A reflective essay is written to express your own thoughts and point of view regarding a specific topic.

Getting started on your essay? Give this comprehensive essay writing guide a read to make sure you write an effective essay!

With this complete guide, now you understand how to create an outline for your essay successfully. However, if you still can’t write an effective essay, then the best option is to consult a professional academic writing service.

Essay writing is a dull and boring task for some people. So why not get some help instead of wasting your time and effort? 5StarEssays.com is here to help you. All your do my essay for me requests are managed by professional essay writers.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What are the three types of outlines.

Here are the three types of essay outline;

Working outline
Speaking outline
Full-sentence outline

All three types are different from each other and are used for different purposes.

What does a full-sentence outline look like?

A full sentence outline contains full sentences at each level of the essay’s outline. It is similar to an alphanumeric outline and it is a commonly used essay outline.

What is a traditional outline format?

A traditional essay outline begins with writing down all the important points in one place and listing them down and adding sub-topics to them. Besides, it will also include evidence and proof that you will use to back your arguments.

What is the benefit of using a traditional outline format and an informal outline format?

A traditional outline format helps the students in listing down all the important details in one palace while an informal outline will help you coming up with new ideas and highlighting important points

As a Digital Content Strategist, Nova Allison has eight years of experience in writing both technical and scientific content. With a focus on developing online content plans that engage audiences, Nova strives to write pieces that are not only informative but captivating as well.

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Why and How to Create a Useful Outline

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Why create an outline? There are many reasons, but in general, it may be helpful to create an outline when you want to show the hierarchical relationship or logical ordering of information. For research papers, an outline may help you keep track of large amounts of information. For creative writing, an outline may help organize the various plot threads and help keep track of character traits. Many people find that organizing an oral report or presentation in outline form helps them speak more effectively in front of a crowd. Below are the primary reasons for creating an outline.

Aids in the process of writing
Helps you organize your ideas
Presents your material in a logical form
Shows the relationships among ideas in your writing
Constructs an ordered overview of your writing
Defines boundaries and groups

How do I create an outline?

Determine the purpose of your paper.
Determine the audience you are writing for.
Develop the thesis of your paper.
Brainstorm : List all the ideas that you want to include in your paper.
Organize : Group related ideas together.
Order : Arrange material in subsections from general to specific or from abstract to concrete.
Label : Create main and sub headings.

Remember: creating an outline before writing your paper will make organizing your thoughts a lot easier. Whether you follow the suggested guidelines is up to you, but making any kind of outline (even just some jotting down some main ideas) will be beneficial to your writing process.

How to Write an Essay Outline: A Comprehensive Guide

Table of contents, what is an essay outline, what are the basic parts of an essay, steps for writing an essay outline, essay outline example.

Author : Vipul Jain

An essay outline is a document that has a list of all the sequence-wise essay parts written. This sequence and list of parts of the essay are created so the writer stays on track and doesn’t end up missing anything important. The outline for essay is informal just like notes written in incomplete sentences.

Students can invest in a research essay writing service to learn more about its outline. The outlines for essays can make it super easy for the writers to effectively transition from one paragraph to another in an ideal order of presenting the essay.

Essay outlining is an important step and the writers should know how to make an essay outline. Outlining is the stage where all the thoughts are gathered and written down to prepare for essay writing. If the writer gets stuck anywhere, he can check the outline and keep writing in order.

Professors provide the best tips for students to write a great essay . Professors also make sure that the students are aware of how to write an outline for essay and ask them to submit the outline before writing. This is done to see if all the students are on the right track for essay writing.

All the essays are different and unique, however, their structure remains almost the same. The essays usually start with an introduction and are followed by the body section that supports the key essay points presented in the introduction section. Lastly, a conclusion is written by summarizing all the key findings and analyses.

Once you understand what an essay is and how to write it, these steps can followed to outline your essay easily. This will make the essay easy to write. Also, the writers can make plagiarism-proof assignment or essay with writing services in the UK.

How to write an essay outline? Here are the steps to create an essay outline easily:

1. Determine the Essay Objective

Keep in mind the essay argument or statement. At this point, it might not be clear what words to use to write. However, a general idea should be there to prove your point or defend the topic in your essay. A clear aim makes it possible to create an outline and write all the key points for the essay that will be used to support your essay.

2. Filter out the Dust

Writing services for essays are essential for today’s students due to many reasons. While brainstorming in the first step, you explored every possible thought or idea to include in your essay. Now, it is the point where all the important thoughts and ideas are kept and sorted out which will help you achieve the essay objective. Every point that you made should be able to answer the question of how this proves my essay's argument.

3. See the Points You’ll make in Every Essay Paragraph

Use the key points that you have listed and identify the important argument you will make in the essay. This will create the body section. Hire assignment writers and get the advantages of hiring assignment writers in your essay writing. Write down the facts and points that support your arguments.

4. Use a Standard Template and Create the Essay Outline

For the question of how to write essay outline, this is the answer. The key topics and the argument supporting points are clearly defined, now is the time to write your outline. Depending on the essay type, use a template, and write your key points into a clear and organized frame that will bring out your first essay draft.

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Almost every essay follows the same structure in general, there are just a few differences in them. Get the benefits of using an online essay helper to create an essay outline.

For how to write outline for essay, here’s an essay outline example for an argumentative essay outline:

Ice From Italy is Far Superior to Ice Cream in Terms of Dessert.

Introduction

Here the ice from Italy and the ice cream difference should be introduced and write how popular both are.
Thesis : The ice from Italy is more healthy, refreshing, and nature-friendly than a normal ice cream.

Ice from Italy has fewer calories than ice cream

Write the average amount of calories in both the Italian and regular ice cream.
Discuss how Italian ice fits into everyone’s daily consumption by choosing the right proofreading service.

I ce from Italy is vegan

Write the benefits of consuming a vegan ice and an animal-sourced one.
Write about the Italian ice cream being vegan and is easy for both vegan and non-vegan people to eat. Also, discuss how healthy the Italian ice cream is and how nature-conscious it is as well.

On a hot day, the Italian ice is more refreshing than an ice cream

As there is no dairy in Italian ice, it is easy to consume on a hot day for refreshment.
Discuss how dairy products can make you feel hotter and provide no refreshment.

When you write a descriptive essay or an argumentative the conclusion part is important. Again discuss the statement about why is the ice from Italy a better dessert than a regular ice cream and summarize with key supporting points.

This is an outline essay example that can be followed to draft an essay outline.

The main aim of an essay outline is to provide a structure and organize the essay with clarity. It is a roadmap to ensure the writer is on the right track and not messing up anything. While writing the essay, it is important to write with clarity and correct sequence. My essay writing will become 100 times better with an outline. Also, one more thing an essay outline provides is that it saves a lot of time from wasting due to the already present roadmap and structure to write in the essay.

Frequently asked questions

How to create an essay outline.

To create an essay outline follow the steps below: 1. At the beginning, place the thesis statement. 2. In Romans, list down the major supporting points. 3. Get help with assignment in the UK and for each major point, write the supporting arguments and ideas. 4. Continue subdividing each argument, if possible.

How to structure an essay?

An essay is structured in a manner that includes three main points. The essay is divided into three major parts, the first one is the introduction part that presents the topic and essay argument. Second, the body section contains the arguments and in-depth analysis. Lastly, a conclusion will be provided to wrap up your essay.

Can you pay someone to write an essay outline?

Yes, I can pay someone to do my essay outline easily with the help of essay writing services.

How can I write my essay outline?

Start by identifying your essay topic or argument. List the points that you wish to write or present in your essay. Keep your points or list in a sequence or numerical order. Write the transitions between paragraphs.

How to write a good essay?

For written assignments like essays or research papers, students can take the help of assignment writing services like Workingment.

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Hi, I am Vipul Jain ( Founder of Workingment). I have contributed my writing expertise and collaborated with a team of experts to support UK students in achieving higher grades. My mission is to assist students who face various challenges in completing their academic writing projects.

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