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Essay Outline

An essay outline refers to a general plan of presenting the ideas and arguments of an essay. It will show the reader the order in which various points are addressed, how each one is relatively important, and how each one relates to the various parts of the essay.

The order of an outline can be in several ways such as:

  • Chronological. Presents ideas based on their occurrence in the past, present or future.
  • Spatial. Connects ideas based on how they are related to each other in space.
  • Problem and solution. Presents the problem or issue first followed by the process on how to solve it.
  • Induction. The discussion starts with specific examples or points before creating a general conclusion.
  • Cause and effect. The discussion is started by one topic and goes on to talk about how it gives rise to the other topic. Inter-connections between topics can also be found and expanded on.
  • Hierarchical. The ideas and arguments are arranged according to how important they are to the discussion. It can either start from the most important or strongest point and progressing to less important points or vice versa.
  • Random. There is no specific pattern to how ideas and points are revealed. This only becomes an option if all the ideas and arguments within the essay share equal importance.

In addition, there are two main types of outlines: the topic outline, whose headings are presented in the form of single words or short phrases and the sentence outline, whose headings are given in complete sentences.

There are also general conventions in outlining:

  1. Use a system of numbers and letters, followed by a full stop to subdivide topics.
  2. Every heading and its corresponding subheadings must contain at least two parts.
  3. Be consistent in your chose of outline type you will use.

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