How to Write Well

1. Introduction
How to communicate well, both in speaking and in writing, is one of the most prized
skills for most jobs. This is why it is one of the learning objectives of this course. I insist
that students learn to write clearly, concisely, and with purpose. No matter what job you
have, if it involves writing (extension work, education, writing proposals for funding,
etc.), you need to learn how to do it well.

To do this well requires thinking about what you are going to write and careful
planning. The following will help you achieve well-written assignments, and a strong
foundation for future communications, including your Discussion Posts.

Be clear, Think about

concise, and what you are
stand your going to
purpose write

Plan your writting

2. Planning Your Writing

First, you need to recognize that to write well you have to think well-so it's important to
make an outline of the essay. How to create an essay outline.

At the heart of writing is the paragraph. Each paragraph conveys one idea, point,
or topic. This is the first sentence of the paragraph (not the last- a big mistake a lot of
students make).

Ask yourself: "What are the main points I want to make in my essay?" Write them
down. Now it's time to fill in the rest of the paragraph. A simple formula for writing good
paragraphs is the following:

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3. The PEEL paragraph format
P- put the main Point as the first sentence of your paragraph
E- provide a specific Example to illustrate your point
E- provide an Explanation or interpretation of the point and example
L- Link to the next paragraph and/or how it relates to the overall question or thesis
you are addressing.

4. Finalizing your writing

Be precise and concise. Don't pad your essay with "fluff". I can see through that. Use
straightforward and simple language. This is key to communicating, whether you are
writing or speaking. When you finish writing your essay, read it out loud as it is written
(punctuation, etc.). You can even use Word to read back what you wrote. This way you
can hear if the grammar is correct, and if the style is good.
If you have planned your essay outline well, and if you have done the PEEL format
properly, then if you read aloud only the first sentence of each paragraph, the points you
are making should be clear and complete, and you'll see whether you have a clear story
(i.e. organized points and ideas). It’s a great way for you to check your own writing.

5. Practice makes perfect

Aim to have your outline ready a couple of days before the due date. Fill in your ideas.
Read and rewrite if you need to. I don't know anyone who can write really well on the
first draft. Keep this in mind so you aren't panicking trying to pull something together at
the last minute.

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What is an Essay Outline?
As you’ve already guessed it, an essay outline is a short plan of your research paper. Here
you write down the main idea of your essay and structurize all arguments into paragraphs
to make sure you won’t miss anything while writing. Sure enough, you can write an essay
without outlining it. But it will be challenging to do. Outlining is an essential part of the
writing process, and all authors do it for their works to impress readers.

Here’s why you need an essay outline:

• It will help you organize thoughts: when you research the data for your essay, you
get tons of information that’s hard to remember.
• You’ll understand the information flow and will be able to structurize it
accordingly.
• It will help you not to miss anything while writing your essay because you’ll have
a ready manuscript of your paper.

That said, an outline will help you write academic works better and faster. And while our
writers are always here to help to write my essay, it can’t hurt to learn how to write an
outline for an essay by your own, right?

How to Write an Essay Outline

While college essay types are many, the common structure for most of them is five-
paragraph. Each essay needs Introduction, Body (paragraphs with arguments), and
Conclusion; so, a general format of your essay outline will include all these components.
When outlining your essay, keep them in mind so you wouldn’t miss any arguments,
evidence, and examples while writing.

Key Parts of an Essay

Put them all into your essay outline:

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 Introduction. Here you’ll mention the topic
of your essay and its thesis. As you know,
essays can’t live without a thesis; so, a thesis
statement in your outline will help you support
it in each paragraph of your essay body.

Body paragraphs. There will be a minimum

three paragraphs in your essay’s body, so
make sure to include each one in the outline.
For each paragraph, write down a topic
sentence with an argument relating to your
thesis and mention all the support: data, facts,
examples, and other evidence you’ll use to
prove the topic sentence of this paragraph.

Conclusion. Wrap up your essay here.

Restate your thesis and summarize the goal of
your paper.

In general, your essay outline will look like this:

Essay Outline: General

I. Introduction

a) Introduce a topic
b) State a thesis

II. Body. Paragraph-1

a) Write a topic sentence (the argument for your thesis)

b) Support this argument: data, facts, examples
c) Explain how they relate to your thesis

III. Body. Paragraph-2

a) Write a topic sentence (another argument for your thesis)

b) Support this argument: data, facts, examples
c) Explain how they relate to your thesis

IV. Body. Paragraph-3

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 a) Write a topic sentence (another argument for your thesis, or a counterargument)
b) Support this argument, or explain why the counterargument doesn’t work: data,
facts, examples
c) Explain how they relate to your thesis

V. Conclusion

a) Summarize all main points

b) Restate your thesis
c) Add a call to action: what you want readers to do after reading your essay

Outline Format
As a rule, students use the linear style when formatting their essay outlines. It means they
rank arguments in order of their importance – from major to minor ones.

Remember: your research essay outline doesn’t have to include the complete sentences.
It’s only an outline, so feel free to format arguments and evidence the way it seems most
comfortable and understandable for you. Just make sure it’s visually clear and allows you
to see if some sections are repetitive or redundant. It will help to avoid duplications in
your essay maker.

Another point to consider:

While you are familiar with a given essay topic, it doesn’t mean your readers are. So,
format your outline accordingly: assume that some people know nothing about it when
preparing arguments and arranging them in a logical order.

Essay Outline Template

Templates can help you get a better idea of essay outlining. It’s a great way to organize
thoughts and determine the order in which you’ll represent them to readers. So, make a
list of the sections in your paper and fill in the corresponding example, depending on your
essay type.

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 Types of essay

Persuasive Narrative Expository Research

Persuasive Essay Outline Example

A persuasive essay is a type of academic writing where you use logic and arguments to
convince readers of your point of view, using solid evidence such as research, stating
facts, examples, and quotes from experts.
To create an outline for such an essay, consider the following example:

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Narrative Essay Outline Example

A narrative essay is one in which you tell a story from your point of view or personal
experience, providing specific and sensory details to get readers involved and understand
your point.

For narrative essays, outlines like this one will work well:

Taken from: TeacherVision.com

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Expository Essay Outline Example

An expository essay is a type of academic writing where you investigate the topic by
evaluating the evidence and expounding the idea to describe, explain, and provide the
information to a reader.
What about this example for your essay outline?

Taken from: TeacherVision.com

Research Essay Outline Example

A research essay is a type of academic paper where you need to analyze the works of
others on a given topic and synthesize them with your own ideas on it. In other words,
you analyze what others have to say on the topic, argue their points, and present own
ideas backed up with that information.

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For a research essay outline, consider this example:

Taken from: Austincc.edu

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How to Make an Outline: the Process
As a rule, the only detail bothering those asking how to make an outline for an essay is
the process itself. Students understand that an essay outline needs to specify all the main
points and arguments of their future paper, but they still find it challenging to create.
More than that, professors may ask you to submit an essay outline for their review.
That’s why the skills of planning your papers will come in handy anyway. To learn the
secrets of effective outline writing, you’ll need to know what to do before outlining, what
essay outline structure to choose for your work, and how to organize your outline so it
would be as informative as possible.
Here’s how to outline an essay:

What to Do Before Outlining

First and foremost, read your writing assignment carefully. Make sure you understand
what essay type you need to write, how many arguments to use (except as noted), and
how long your essay needs to be.

Answer the question, “What’s the purpose of your essay?” Do you want to inform
readers, persuade, or just entertain them? Depending on the goal, you’ll know what thesis
to consider, what writing techniques to use, and how to visualize research in your paper.

Identify the audience. Yes, it’s a teacher who reads and evaluates your work; but whom
do you want to read your essay? Do you write for classmates? Strangers? What do they
know about your topic? Would they agree with your thesis? How might they react to your
information?

Depending on that, you’ll understand what arguments might work for your essay. It will
also help you decide on resources to use for research and evidence to choose for your
arguments. Consider credible sources such as Google Scholar or Oxford Academic to
find references for your essay; take notes of them to use in your outline.

State your thesis so you could see what topic sentences to outline for your essay. A thesis
needs to be arguable and provide enough details to hook readers so they would get them
emotionally involved in your writing.

Once a thesis is ready, start structuring your essay outline.

Choose an Essay Outline Structure

From the above templates and examples, you’ve got a general idea of the basic structure
for your essay outline. We used a standard alphanumeric structure there, but you can also
use a decimal one for your outline to show how your ideas are related. Just compare:

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Alphanumeric format:

Decimal format:

An alphanumeric outline is the most common one, but you are welcome to use a decimal
outline structure if it seems clearer and more comfortable for you. Also, feel free to use
complete sentences or just brief phrases for each section of your essay outline.

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However, if you need to submit it to a professor for a review, use sentences. It will help
him understand the arguments and evidence you are going to use in your essay.

Organize Your Outline

Now it’s time to fill in each section of your essay outline. For those lazy to read, here
goes a short video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6GQPz1_ziU

For all others, start with outlining your introduction. Write a sentence about your topic
and introduce your thesis. You can also mention an essay hook here – a sentence you’ll
use to make the audience interested in reading your work.

Outline your essay body: write down a topic sentence for each paragraph, provide
supporting evidence you’ll use when writing, and mention how they’ll relate to the topic
and your thesis. The more details you outline, the easier it will be to organize all the
thoughts while writing.

Also, you can write a transition sentence for each paragraph so it would be faster to
structure and band all arguments.

Finally, outline your essay conclusion. Restate your thesis and write a concluding
statement, aka a sentence addressing the importance of your thesis and proposing
solutions to the problem you addressed in the essay.

It’s a Wrap!
Essays are many, and you need to write all of them in school and college. Persuasive,
expository, narrative – their basic structure is the same but with tiny differences
identifying their specifications and your knowledge of academic writing. Understanding
those differences and outlining your writings accordingly is your chance to craft perfect
works that get high grades.

An essay outline is what you need to organize the information and not miss anything
while writing. When you know how to write an essay outline, you create papers better
and faster. You keep in mind all essay components. You develop critical thinking. And
you become a better writer.

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