An essay outline is like a blueprint for your essay. It lays out your main idea and the key points you’ll discuss.

An essay outline helps you get your thoughts organised before you start writing. It gives readers a quick overview of what your essay is about and helps you stay on track as you write your supporting paragraphs. Writing an essay outline is easy, and we’ll guide you through the process in this blog post.

What is an essay outline?

A writing plan helps keep your essay organised and ensures you don’t miss any important points. It’s like a roadmap that guides you through your writing journey, helping you transition smoothly between paragraphs and present your ideas effectively.

Creating an outline is the first important step in writing. It helps you gather and arrange your thoughts into a clear plan, making the writing process easier. If you ever feel stuck while writing, referring back to your outline can help you get back on track.

Many teachers ask students to submit outlines before they start writing their essays. This ensures students have chosen a suitable topic with enough research material, and that they understand what’s expected for the assignment.

Basic parts of an essay

Though each essay has its unique qualities, they all follow a basic structure. Every essay starts with an introduction, followed by one or more body paragraphs supporting the ideas introduced, and ends with a conclusion summarising the main points.

Introduction

The first part of your essay is called the Introduction. Here, you introduce the topics you’ll cover and state your thesis, which is the main argument you’ll make.

Keep your essay’s beginning short and interesting for the reader.

Body sections

Your essay might need just two or three supporting paragraphs, or it could go up to four or five. Unless your professor specifically tells you how many body paragraphs to include, you’re free to write however many you think fit.

If you’re using a bunch of sources to support your main idea, a common rule is to have one body paragraph for each source you mention. But depending on the type of essay you’re working on, you might need to do things differently. For instance, in a compare-and-contrast essay, you’ll dedicate a section (usually at least one paragraph) to each point of comparison. In an analytical essay, you’ll have one body section for each point you use to support your main argument.

Conclusion

When you finish up, you’re almost there! This is the part of your essay where you wrap things up and recap the points you made earlier. If there’s anything else you want to share with your reader before they finish your essay, this is your chance.

4 steps for writing an essay outline

Alright, you’re at your desk, ready to make your outline. Awesome!

…How do you begin?

Here are four simple steps to make an outline that’ll make the rest of your writing easier.

1. Determine your objective

First, think about your main point. You might not have the exact words yet, but you should have a basic idea of what you want to say and argue in your essay. Having a clear goal helps you go through your brainstorming notes and make an outline that covers all the important points to support that goal.

2. Filter out the fluff

When you brainstormed, you thought about all the different ways you could write and all the different things you could include.

Now it’s time to look at your brainstorming notes and pick out the ideas that will help you achieve your essay’s goal the best. For each thing you wrote down, ask yourself, “How does this support what I’m trying to say?” If you can answer that question well, include it on your list of things to talk about in your essay.

3. Identify the points you’ll make in each paragraph

Using your list of points, figure out the main ideas you’ll talk about in your essay. These will be the different sections of your essay. For instance, if you’re writing an essay arguing why your school should add more water fountains, you might include points like:

• Water fountains help students save money.
• Fountains reduce the amount of plastic waste.
• Accessible water helps prevent heat exhaustion.

Write down the facts, stories, and numbers that support each of these points. For example, in the part where you talk about how water fountains reduce plastic waste, you could mention how many disposable water bottles were found on campus last year. These supporting details will help you plan out your essay.

4. Write your outline using a standard template

Now that you’ve chosen your main topics and supporting details, it’s time to make your outline. Use a template for the type of essay you’re writing (more on that later), organise your main ideas into a clear, organised plan that you’ll fill in with information when you write your first draft.

Essay outline examples

While every outline follows a similar basic structure, there are some important differences to think about when writing different types of essays. Look at these example outlines for different essay types to see what’s similar and what’s different:

Argumentative essays

Here’s a simple plan for an essay where we argue:

Title: Why Italian Ice Beats Ice Cream

• Introduction

• Let’s talk about how Italian ice and ice cream are different and how popular they are.
• Thesis: Italian ice is better for you, more refreshing, and kinder to the environment compared to ice cream.
• Italian ice has fewer calories than ice cream

• Italian Ice is vegan

• We’ll mention the calories in Italian ice versus ice cream and how Italian ice fits into most people’s daily calorie limits.

• We’ll talk about why eating vegan is good and how Italian ice being vegan means it’s for everyone, whether they’re vegan or not.
• Plus, it’s better for the planet.

• Italian ice is more refreshing than ice cream on a hot day

• Since Italian ice doesn’t have dairy, it’s more refreshing than ice cream, especially when it’s hot out.
• We’ll share stories about how dairy can make people feel hotter and less refreshed.

Conclusion

We’ll sum up why Italian ice is the better choice over ice cream and remind everyone of the reasons we’ve talked about.

Admissions essays

Check out this plan for my admissions essay:

Title: A Greeting to Sato Sensei.

• Intro
• In high school, my Japanese teacher became the most important mentor to me. She didn’t just teach me a language; she showed me how language shapes our views.
• Main Idea: Opting for Japanese classes in high school changed how I saw myself, my community, and my place in the world.

• English speakers find it challenging to learn Japanese

• Let’s talk about my struggles in Japanese class and how I almost gave up.
• I’ll also share how my teacher, Sato Sensei, encouraged me to keep going instead of switching to another language.

• Culture is built into language
• Learning Japanese isn’t just about memorising words and writing hiragana and katakana. It’s also about understanding Japanese culture compared to Western culture. 

• How I thrived during my summer in Japan

• I’ll share how I thrived during my summer in Japan and how my Japanese language skills helped me succeed.
• Plus, I’ll explain how understanding the language helped me grasp cultural differences.

• Conclusion

• In conclusion, as an American student who learned Japanese, I have a unique perspective that will benefit me as an international business major.

Persuasive essays

Here’s an example of a plan to convince others:

Title: Why We Should Have More Security Cameras in the Student Parking Deck

• Introduction

• Car break-ins happen too often on campus.
• Thesis: The current parking deck security isn’t enough.

• Students’ vehicles are broken into every day

• Every day, students’ cars get broken into. We should know the average cost of fixing these break-ins and the value of stolen items.

• Better security makes everyone safer

• Talk about how better security helps everyone, with real stories and quotes.

• The benefits outweigh the costs.

• Show how other schools reduced break-ins by adding more security cameras.
• Explain the real cost of getting better security.

• Wrap-Up

• Let’s recap what we’ve discussed and emphasise the importance of prioritising community safety for school administrators. Additionally, let’s highlight once more how installing more security cameras in the parking deck can enhance safety.

Personal essays

Here’s a plan for a personal essay:

Title: My Best Birthday Memories

• Introduction

• Starting with how I feel about birthdays and what I enjoy doing to celebrate.
• Thesis: The two greatest birthdays I’ve had were when I turned 17 and 22.

• My 17th birthday

• I got my driver’s licence and went to my first concert with my closest friends.
• I still keep the ticket stub and wristband from that night.

• My 22nd birthday

• Initially, I thought everyone had forgotten my birthday. I felt really upset!
• But then, my siblings surprised me by driving six hours to pick me up and taking me to the art show I’d been wanting to see.

• Conclusion

• My 17th and 22nd birthdays were really memorable because of the things I mentioned earlier.
• Maybe end with a final thought, excited for more awesome birthday celebrations.

Outlining is just one step to great writing

After outlining, continue with the rest of the writing steps to complete your essay.

For writing-editing your assignments, Essay Embassy can help you in refining your writing into a polished assignments. Essay Embassy spots spelling and grammar mistakes and gives suggestions on your writing style, helping you make any needed adjustments to achieve a clear, consistent tone that accurately conveys your message.