Traditional outlining is a great way of organizing your thoughts before you start the writing process. I am a big fan of bucketing, which is another way of organizing thoughts, but traditional outlining could be what works best for you. Below you will find a brief written breakdown on how to begin outlining an essay followed by two video tutorials walking you through each step. The third option is to arrange a meeting with me and we can do this step together.
An essay is not ready to be outlined until you are done with steps 1-5 (listed on the right panel of this site). My suggestion is to open a Word or Google Doc and hit the bullet button on top. This will allow you to quickly and effectively add and organize materials. Decide what your support points or reasons for your opinion are going to be and devote a large bullet to each. So, If my thesis is that, "Celery is the least interesting vegetable out there", I would develop my support points or reasons for that opinion/thesis.
- There are limited options for celery
- Anytime it is used, steps are taken to mask the character or taste of celery
- Little nutritional value
- All of the other cool options
Utilizing my list of prior knowledge, outside research, and the info from the Docs, I can then start to plug in information where it is appropriate.
- There are limited options for celery
- Chilli or stew
- ants on a log
- Can be used as a sound effect of a bone breaking in a movie
- Anytime it is used, steps are taken to mask the character or taste of celery
- must cook it so long it is soft
- eating it with ranch or hummus is about consuming ranch or hummus, not celery
- Little nutritional value
- Mostly water
- plenty of other sources for fiber
- All of the other cool options
- 43% or people polled said celery is dumb
When you are done, you may find a bullet is light which means it can either be combined with another bullet, added to with more research, or just dropped. From here the writer can plan on devoting a body paragraph to the three points with the most material. It is important to include facts, statistics, quotes, and examples in your outline and essay. Without these elements or pieces of supporting evidence, your argument/thesis hinges on the old argument of, "Because I said so".
