How to write an outline for an essay. (Part 2)

Part 1 of How to write an outline for an essay.

Outlines are like everything else, the more you do them, the better you will get. For now, don’t worry about much except getting ideas down. You’ll learn more about how to write an outline for an essay as time goes by. Once you have a scaffold, you can begin your research. As you read articles on your subject, you can type (or copy and paste) important information, including the citation, directly into your outline where it belongs.

When you finish the first research article, go back to your outline and expand the notes you have made into full sentences and paragraphs. Once you have done as much of that as you can (it doesn’t have to be all), go to the next research article and do the same.

You may find that additional research disagrees with previous research. You may realize that one is more reliable than another is and exclude the unreliable information, or you may include both and discuss the disagreement. Put a note into your outline that points this out. Your outline will become a friend and a helper rather than a source of misery and frustration.

Your outline is a way to have organization when your thoughts on a topic aren’t organized. As you plug information in, it will already be in the order that you need. You’ll be able to focus on each section and develop it as you go.

Once you have completed your research, go through your outline again. Make sure that each sentence is complete; make sure every idea is fully expressed; make sure that each section flows sensibly into the next.

As you complete paragraphs and sections, delete the remainders of your outline. If you entered the citations as you went along, you will find that tidying them up is a breeze.