teaching essay outline

Simple Steps for Teaching the Essay Outline. In my classroom, I use this essay outline with my students. Not only does this essay outline break down the essay into manageable pieces, but it also provides students with detailed descriptions of what they need to do for each part of the essay.

An essay outline is a way of planning the structure of your essay before you start writing. It involves writing quick summary sentences or phrases for every point you will cover in each paragraph , giving you a picture of how your argument will unfold.

The full sentence outline format is essentially the same as the Alphanumeric outline. The main difference (as the title suggests) is that full sentences are required at each level of the outline. This outline is most often used when preparing a traditional essay.

An outline is a direct and clear map of your essay. It shows what each paragraph will contain, in what order paragraphs will appear, and how all the points fit together as a whole.

These clear, simple, and useful essay outline examples provide easy-to-follow instructions on how to outline your ideas before writing an essay. Each sample outline includes explanations of paragraph and sentence elements such as thesis statements, topic and detail sentences, and a conclusion.

When I teach essay writing in my high school English students, I break it down paragraph-by-paragraph to encourage them to be the best writer they can be. All of the lessons that I will refer to throughout this blog post are included in this print and digital essay writing teaching unit.