How To Develop A Good Outline For A High School Essay

Creating a good outline is an essential component to writing a great high school essay. Unfortunately, a lot of student at this level aren’t really experienced with this step and therefore struggle to organize and structure a great argument in their written assignments. Here is a simple and no-fuss way on how to develop a good outline for any type of essay:

Planning Your High School Essay Outline

1. Come up with a solid paper topic

The first step in creating a great outline is to simply come up with a good assignment topic and using it to develop a draft thesis statement to guide your research and the composition of the first draft.

2. Think about the assignments main goal

There are several different types of writing assignments you will see in high school and each one will have a very specific goal. Review your assignment prompt and highlight or underlines all of your requirements, keeping these parts in mind as you research your topic.

3. Research supporting resource information

When you start researching your topic be sure you look at academic or government sources. Take down all citation information even if this content doesn’t make its way into your paper. This will save you the time from having to find this information a second time later in the process.

Creating Your High School Essay Outline

1. Order the main discussion points logically

Place your thesis draft in the introduction line of your outline. Next select and order the main discussion points in a logical manner that makes the most sense to you and your reader. You may want to rearrange things a bit before moving on the next step.

2. List at least two sub-points for each main point

Take your research notes and select at least two sub-points to place under each main discussion point as listed in the prior step. This should be supporting evidence or examples taken from your cited material.

3. Expand sub-points further if necessary

You shouldn’t merely list evidence or examples without saying anything about how the work to support your thesis statement. So, if you have some idea of what it is you’re going to say list a phrase or tow under your sub-points to help guide your first draft.

4. Think about your conclusion

Lastly, think about your conclusion paragraph: it should restate your thesis statement and provide a two or three sentence restatement of the main discussion topics of the paper. You will also have to write a closing sentence so you should reserve some thought for it before getting started.