Prewriting: OUTLINES

Outlining Your Essay

FOCUSING YOUR TOPIC

So youve narrowed your broad SUBJECT

Down to a focused TOPIC

And youve established your MAIN IDEA

And youve drafted a THESIS STATEMENT

GENERATING IDEAS
Now youll need material to support that Thesis.
This will be the raw material for your OUTLINE.
To generate ideas:

BRAINSTORM

FREEWRITE

ELIMINATING & SELECTING

Now that you have ideas on paper, you can

trim the fat or separate the wheat from the chaff or find
the diamonds in the rough.

Your goal in selecting is to choose the best ideas that

support your thesis.
If they dont back up
Then you must leave out

ELIMINATING & SELECTING

Eliminate, cross out, delete

the poor ideas
the irrelevant ideas
those that dont support your Thesis

Keep, circle, select

the quality, excellent ideas
the unique, interesting, fresh ideas
those relevant and supportive of your Thesis

SELECTING & ORDERING

From the remaining list of quality ideas
chose the best 3-5 ideas

Then narrow that list down again to the best 3.

ORDERING

Lastly, arrange these premium ideas in the

EMPHATIC ORDER
putting last the most important or most significant

OUTLINING
Now its time to
draft your OUTLINE.

OUTLINE
THESIS:

I. POINT #1
A. SUPPORT
B. SUPPORT

II. POINT #2
A. SUPPORT
B. SUPPORT

III. POINT #3
A. SUPPORT
B. SUPPORT

OUTLINING

THESIS STATEMENT:
At the top of the Outline page write your Thesis
in a complete sentence

NUMBERED LIST:
Then take the numbered ideas from the previous
Brainstorming Exercise and list them here
in Emphatic Order
use Roman numerals

10

OUTLINING

MAIN IDEAS:
The Roman Numerals indicate your Main Ideas
each main idea = single paragraph

MAIN IDEA =

Reason
Type or Role
Similarity or Difference
Cause or Effect

11

OUTLINING

SUPPORT:
Beneath each Main Point
List your means of Support
use capital letters for each

TYPES of SUPPORT
Examples, instances
Stats, Anecdotes
Quotes from experts

12

OUTLINING

OUTLINE:

An Outline for a
5-paragraph essay
should look something
like this:
Each point =
a Body paragraph

OUTLINE
THESIS:

I. POINT #1
A. SUPPORT
B. SUPPORT

II. POINT #2
A. SUPPORT
B. SUPPORT

III. POINT #3
A. SUPPORT
B. SUPPORT