How To Write An Essay

Building an outline for your essay

Building an outline is like drawing a map of your essay. The job of an outline is to sum up each paragraph in your essay. Outlining doesn’t involve writing complete paragraphs. But outlining is a good time to write a few sentences. Think of these as your topic sentences.

• Introductory paragraph of your essay
  Reread your main idea. Now, write a complete sentence about your main idea.
  
  
• First part of essay body
  Reread your words or phrases that you agree with. Write a complete sentence using each.
  
  
• Second part of essay body
  Reread your words or phrases that you disagree with. Write a complete sentence using each.
  
  
• Finally, reread your whole outline. Finish organizing your thoughts. Decide if you like the order of your topic sentences, or need to change the order a little.
  

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