Essay Outline Formatting
Essay outline help in formatting and structuring the essay. An essay outline template or a research outline is a plan of the academic paper where one structure it and organize the main points into paragraphs so that it would be easier for the writer to write an essay and also helps the readers in understanding it easily. Therefore, the essay outline help in organizing and structuring the paper.
One cannot write an essay without referring to an essay outline template or research paper outline. Therefore, one should have a proper knowledge research paper outline and essay outline template to present and deliver an exemplary essay. A well-formatted research paper outline and essay outline template helps not only the writer to write the essay but also helps the readers to get an insight into the related topic. Therefore, before one starts to write an essay, it becomes necessary to know the answer to the following questions:
- Understanding the outline template and research paper outline.
- How to write an essay outline based on essay outline template and research paper outline.
- To look for essay outline templates and research paper outline templates when crafting the essay.
What is Essay Outline Template
- Essay Outline template or research paper outline is a kind of short plan for the research paper. A research paper outline or an essay outline template helps in structuring all the arguments and presenting the main idea of the essay into paragraphs to ensure that nothing important is missed while writing the paper.
- Without an essay outline template for the research paper outline, one cannot write a structured essay. Therefore, one should follow the essay outline template and research paper outline. It is an indispensable part of the writing process, and every other follow such an essay outline template and research paper outline to impress the readers.
- Essay outline template and research paper outline help in organizing the thoughts as to when one researching the data for the essay tends to come across much information that is hard to remember.
- Essay outline template aids in understanding the information flow and also helps in structuring it accordingly.
- The essay outline template or the research paper outline helps one not to miss anything while writing the essay as it helps in providing a ready manuscript of the paper.
Therefore, an essay outline template for the research paper outline helps to write academic work better and faster.
How to Write an Essay Outline or Research Paper Outline
There are a number of essay types but follow a common structure with having five paragraphs. Every essay has an introductory paragraph, body paragraph with arguments, and a concluding paragraph. This is the general format of the essay outline template research paper outline, which includes all these components.
Key Parts of an Essay
These are key parts of an essay outline template or research paper outline:
Introduction: It consists of the topic of the essay and a thesis statement. A thesis statement is the lifeblood of an essay that tells the reader about the purpose of the essay.
Body paragraph: An ideal essay outline template or research paper outline has three body paragraphs in an essay. In each paragraph, there is a topic sentence with an argument relating to the thesis statement along with supporting evidence, data, facts, and examples that help to prove the topic sentence of the paragraph.
Conclusion: The concluding paragraph is to wrap up the essay. The concluding paragraph consists of a reiteration of the thesis statement. Also, it summarizes the goal of the paper that helps a great deal in eliciting emotion and grabbing readers’ attention.
Essay Outline: General
- Introduction
- a) Introduce a topic
- b) Stating a thesis statement
- Body. Paragraph-1
- a) A topic sentence (the argument supporting the thesis statement)
- b) Support this argument with relevant data, facts, examples, and information
- c) Explain how they relate to the thesis statement mentioned
III. Body. Paragraph-2
- a) Write a topic sentence (another argument for the thesis)
- b) Support this argument with relevant data, facts, examples, and information
- c) Explain how they relate to the thesis statement mentioned
- Body. Paragraph-3
- a) Write a topic sentence (another argument for the thesis, or a counterargument, if any)
- b) Support this argument, or explain why the counterargument doe s not work along with relevant data, facts, examples, and information
- c) Explain how they relate to the thesis statement mentioned
- Conclusion
- a) Summarize all main and the necessary points
- b) Re iterating your thesis statement
- c) Add a call to action: What the writer wants the readers to do after reading your essay.
Outline Format
One should use the linear style when formatting the essay outlines. It means that it follows an inverted funnel approach, ranking the arguments from the most important one to the least important arguments. One should also ensure to make the paper visually clear and relevant and eliminating the sections that seem to be repetitive or redundant. It helps in avoiding duplication in the essay. Also, it should be kept in mind to format the outline accordingly, assuming that the readers are not aware of the topic, and therefore, the arguments should be arranged in a logical sequence.
What to Do before Essay Outlining
In the context of the research paper outline or essay outline template, the following points are to be taken care of before making an outline:
Answering the question: Determining the purpose of the essay. Does the writer want to inform the reader, persuade, or just entertain them? Depending on the purpose, one can formulate the thesis that can determine what writing technique to be used and how to visualize research in the paper.
Identify the audience: Identifying the audience helps one to determine what they need to know about the topic, and they would agree with the thesis and how they would react to the information. By identifying the writer can understand what arguments might work for the essay. The writer should seek credible sources like Google scholar or Oxford academic to find references for the essay.
State the thesis: It helps the writer to determine the topic sentences to outline the essay. A thesis statement needs to be arguable and should provide the detail to hook the reader and get them emotionally involved in the writing.
APA Outline Template
Before understanding the APA outline template, one should know what APA outline template and format is. It is the official style of the American psychological association that is used to style papers written for university courses as well as for professional publications. Gaining insight into the APA outline template format is very necessary to present effective paper and reports.
AP Outline Template
The steps followed in context to APA outline template are as follows:
- Choosing the topic and the thesis: The topic should be such that it helps one to present a quality paper. One should start developing a robust thesis for the paper that is based on the topic that one has chosen. Some significant points to be kept in mind are
- Choose the main argument.
- Keep the research organized.
- Create a working outline to organize the paper.
- Seek for facts that support the thesis.
- Writing the essay: Beginning with an introduction that summarizes the topic and provides some background information along with the main thesis statement is included in the APA outline template. The elements that are included while writing APA outline format in this section is
- Forming a strong introduction paragraph, along with a thesis statement.
- Organizing the body paragraphs in the outline, with an inverted funnel approach. The most important argument that supports the thesis should be the first paragraph. The next ones are to be organized and structured by priority and importance of the argument. Use at least three arguments that support the thesis statement should be there in accordance with the APA outline template. Revise the outline that is based on the APA outline template.
- Finishing the essay with a concluding paragraph: A concluding paragraph restates the thesis statement along with summarizing the most important and influential examples. Using simple and well-written sentences are among the most important thing that one should consider while writing APA outline template.
- Proofreading and editing: Proofread and edit the essays if required. Also, one should ensure that they are grammatically correct and well written.
There is another form for the APA outline template; it is called the decimal one. It is used very rarely. In such an APA outline template, one uses Arabic numbers only. Here is an illustration of such APA outline template
1.0. Choosing the right thesis statement for the essay
1.1. Reflect on your thesis
1.2. Start researching the thesis
1.2.1. Look for facts and examples which prove the thesis in the best possible way
1.2.2. Outline and draft the thesis statement and results before starting to write
Therefore, it is very important for an APA outline template to be well structured and written because it helps in developing an overall impression of the essay and aids in impressing and eliciting a positive response in the readers.
