The outline is the third and final sentence of your introduction. This is the sentence where you tell the reader exactly what is going to be in the rest of your essay. I’ve stressed ‘exactly’ because the most important lesson here is you need to be very precise with these.

What you don't want to do

I read essays all the time that have an introduction that has a kind of combined thesis statement and outline that looks like this:

1. In this essay, I will look at both sides and give my point of view.
2. In this essay, I will give some problems and solutions.

The problem here is that these are very unspecific. These types of answers could go in anyone's essay. For example, if your question says 'compare both sides and give your point of view' and you write 'In this essay, I will look at both sides and give my point of view', you aren't really saying anything about your essay. Everyone should be giving both sides and their point of view.

How to write outlines

There are two structures you can use for the outline. The one you pick depends on if you are arguing or exploring something. In other words, you need to know if you are giving reasons for something or facts about something.

If you are arguing something:

First because _______. Second because _______.

If you are just saying something:

First, that _______. Second, that _______.

If you are comfortable with the grammar, you can also make these into one sentence.

Examples

Some people believe that school children should not be given homework. What is your opinion?

There is considerable disagreement in society over whether homework is the best use of students’ after-school time. In this essay, I will argue that it is better that students have no homework. First, because it makes students stressed. Second, because there are more worthwhile uses of students’ extracurricular time.

In this example, we are looking at a question where which asks you to give your opinion, so I have used 'because'. By reading the two sentences here, you have a very clear idea about what the rest of my essay is going to do. You know that I will have a body paragraph about students being stressed and a body paragraph about other uses of students' free time.

The government should pay money to the parents of very young children so that one of them can stay at home and look after their children. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?

In the modern age, mothers and fathers are often so busy that they do not get to see their children and governments are considering subsidising them to stay at home. In this essay, I will argue that this would be a positive development. First, because having a parent at home is good for children’s development. Second, because this type of policy can save the government money in the long term.

In this example, we are once again looking at a question where you are asked to give reasons for something. As a result, I've used 'because' in my answer. You can also see here that my outline is very clear about what the rest of my essay will do.

An increasing number of professionals like teachers and doctors are leaving poorer countries where they grew up to work in richer countries. What are some problems this causes and what are some solutions?

In recent years, developed countries have seen an influx of educators and healthcare practitioners from the developing world. In this essay, I will explore two issues this causes and present some solutions. First, that these countries do not recoup their investments in these people’s education, and second, that this leads to an unfair distribution of important workers.

This outline gives an example of combining two outline sentences into one. It also gives an example of when you would use 'that' rather than 'because'. The reason for this is that we are giving facts about something rather than reasons for something.

Exercise

Today, we are going to continue the practice essay you have been working on by writing the outline. Just to remind you, the essay question was:

Celebrities can often be found sharing their views on political issues that have nothing to do with their profession.
Is this a positive or a negative development?

To write the outline, you need to give two reasons to support the point of view you gave in the thesis statement. Remember to make them nice and specific. Don't forget to post your outline below as a comment.