What Is A essay Outline?
An outline is a collection of the points you’re going to hit in your discussion of the topic, which are usually organized into categories that will eventually be full paragraphs. In the meantime, outlines are usually just jot-notes and bullet-points. If you were writing about road repair, in your outline you might discuss how roads get worn down or damaged, the weather and materials considerations when planning repair, the hiring and firing of work crews, and the effects of neighbourhood advocacy groups on how the work gets prioritized across the city. Under each of those headings, you break down what you’re going to say about each. Outlines are pretty flexible, and it doesn’t matter if you deviate from it in the final essay. What your teacher is looking for is proof that you’re thinking about the essay and about what direction you might take it in. Basically, just think of five or six things you could say about the topic, then five or six things you could say about each of those. Just
