If you are a student who is hoping to improve your final grade on an upcoming essay writing assignment you may be wondering how to write an essay outline. If you do not use one already, it is important to know that an essay outline can help make your academic writing more focused. It can help with the pre-writing process by helping you to collect and organize your ideas. When you work from an outline you can basically write your entire paper in order and point form before you begin to write. This will save you the stress of coming up with intriguing ideas on the spot and your finished essay will be much more polished.
There are few different ways to compose an essay outline. Typically, how you create your own outline doesn’t really matter because you will not be graded on it. However, it is a good idea to finish a completed outline before your begin the writing process. Think of it as an opportunity to get all of your ideas, research, and structure down before you actually have done any writing. It is recommended that students fill out their outline in point form or full sentences. The advantage of using full sentences is that you will have less work to do later as all of your ideas will have been thought out. Point form, is also useful for jotting down thoughts and ideas that may or may not work in the final draft. Also use point form as you take down your research notes. This will prevent you from copying word for word and potentially plagiarizing.