Making an outline for an essay can be overwhelming. You start asking yourself, “What is my essay about? How am I going to back up my claims? What if I’m still unsure about how to plan an essay? How will I keep track of it all?”
If you have a general idea of what you want to do in your essay and you know which quotations or research information that you want to use, you’re actually in a better situation than you think. You’re ready to create a rough outline!
So, before you start structuring your ideas into a formal (also known as “traditional”) outline, use this worksheet to create a Preliminary Outline. For more help with developing a thesis statement, use the Thesis Statement Guide in the Writing Center.
Introduction – Thesis Statement: ______________________________________________________________
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Body Paragraph #1
Topic sentence: ___________________________________________________________________________
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Supporting evidence:
Body Paragraph #2
Topic sentence: ___________________________________________________________________________
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Supporting evidence
Body Paragraph #3
Topic sentence: ___________________________________________________________________________
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Supporting evidence
Conclusion – Thesis Statement: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
