Essay Outline Template

If you want to get a good grade for your essay, it needs a good essay outline. Winging it will not get you anywhere. One needs to plan well to produce a good essay outline. But why is planning important?

You see, planning grants control over the future. You set up a schedule to list down the activities that you will get to through the day. The same applies to any event. You need to write down what needs to happen and when. In academic writing, planning plays a crucial role. A solidly-standing building needs a solid foundation. An excellent essay needs proper planning. Without an outline, you will likely fall face first halfway through your writing.

An essay outline helps structure your paper. Of course, it should be flexible so that you could make changes along the way. An outline helps organize the flow of the information that you present in your paper. That way, you will not stray from what you want to say or end up stuck, and the paper will not confuse the reader.

With a good idea of how the paper will go and how to transition between your paragraphs or ideas, you will not stray from the main path and run into a corner. By running into a corner we mean running out of ideas and having no idea what to say next. Avoid that at all costs. How? Plan ahead!

How to Start Writing an Essay Outline Template

To start off, you might need some time management skills. You need to know how much time you have, and how much you could write in the allocated time. Of course, you should also think of how much to spend on writing the outline.

You may have written an outline before but gotten out of practice. That is okay. Although some forms of outlines are better for a particular situation than others, nobody has to write them from scratch every time. We will provide some templates to help you write. You just fill in the blanks – and there it is! Also, we will provide tips on how these outline templates for essay work. That way, you can be more flexible coming up with your own outline. Using the same template for 100 essays would be repetitive anyway, not to mention that it will kill your creativity in the long run.

Essay Outline Template for an Analytical Essay

This outline template for essay helps one pick a topic and support it and have an excellent paper in the end. An analytical summary is, as the name suggests, analyze any given topic. Some students might mistake an analytical essay for a summary, which it apparently is not. It requires a deep understanding and concentration on how the author composed the book or poem. It elaborates on why that song exists, or the overall theme in the movies as well as the message they are conveying. Most importantly, an analytical essay also shows exactly why all of the above, together, form a bigger picture that made the work a masterpiece.

Your job is to answer all those questions and convince the audience of your standpoint. Then, you can narrow the focus from there by going from the general information to a more specific focus. Use evidence supporting your claim, and your paper will be excellent.

Essay Outline Template for a Critical Essay

This type of essay focuses more on the pros and cons of something. The idea behind this essay is to point out to the audience of what is good or bad about something. This should not be confused with an analytical essay, however. The latter focuses on the meaning or intention behind the work. A critical essay focuses on whether the work is well-written or not. This templates will help you to come up with how to analyze the work and study each of its elements. That way, you can focus on one thing at a time, and point out the flaws of the work as well as its excellence. Then, you can bring the essay to a satisfying closure.

Essay Outline Template for an Argumentative Essay

Students get to deal with this kind of essay quite often. They need an outline template for these essays to write them well consistently. For this type of essay, one needs to persuade the audience that one’s opinion about the topic is right. However, it is not a persuasive essay. You need to defend your ideas with credible information. Below, we will give you a template to help you structure your argument in a convincing and easy-to-follow manner. Plus, this template helps put together an introductory paragraph, come up with arguments, refute the opposing views and their arguments, and finish off with a powerful conclusion.

It is worth mentioning that an argumentative essay should also present an opposing view. That way, your paper will not appear as biased. However, it is still necessary to refute the contrary claim with more concrete facts.

Essay Outline Template for a Compare and Contrast Essay

Unlike the previous two types of essay, this one takes two subjects or ideas and focuses on their similarities and differences. Many students underestimate just how difficult writing this type of essay is. It is indeed easy when your ideas are well-thought out. But otherwise, you will corner yourself. Again, we do not want that to happen.

In this essay, you need to have a clear sense of objective. What is the purpose of this essay? Are you trying to clear a misunderstanding? Are you trying to prove that one thing is better than the other? Are you trying to send a message? Realizing your objective at all times is crucial as it helps you manage your ideas and structure them. This is an excellent essay outline template for a compare and contrast essay.

Essay Outline Template for an Expository Essay

An expository essay is a demonstration of your knowledge about a topic. It is not unlike a book report. There are many approaches to organizing your ideas in this type of essay. Still, it is best to start with an outline, and you are good to go. This essay outline template will help you explain your topic and back it up with evidence, facts, or analysis.

Essay Outline Template for a Persuasive Essay

In a persuasive essay, your task is to convince the audience of your viewpoint. Prove to them that you are right. In a way, it is similar to an argumentative essay. The only critical difference is that there is no need to cite concrete facts. The topic will often be something one can discuss based on merely one’s opinions alone. It is allowed to try and convince your audience by appealing to an authoritative voice or their feelings.

We have a great outline template for essay such as this, and you could use it to help you organize your ideas and draw a powerful conclusion. Also, this template has an excellent hook for your essay.

Essay Outline Template for a Reflective Essay

For a reflective essay, it may be required to recall an event, a person, or an object. You need to describe your experience related to the things upon which you reflect. This type of essay is quite easy in comparison with others because it does not require any research. In fact, some students find it more exciting than other kinds of academic writing because they get to talk about themselves, which many people enjoy doing. Plus, there is no need to argue about anything. You write down whatever you want. Just make sure that it is not a chaotic stream of consciousness, that it is meaningful and comprehensible, and you are good to go!

Such an essay does not need to have a formal tone. Still, there are steps to follow accurately if you want to write up a good one. That is why we have this essay outline template for you. It is designed so that you could formulate a hook. Plus, it also helps come up with good descriptive body paragraphs that immerse the reader. Finally, it helps you draw a powerful conclusion that impresses the reader.

Essay Outline Template for a Cause and Effect Essay

In this essay, you need to write about an event. Here, your task is to explain how something happens. Therefore, it is useful to go over the possible causes that lead to a result. With that in mind, a logical link needs to be established between the causes. This essay outline template provides you with just that.

Essay Outline Template for a Process Essay

This type of essay focuses more on explaining how things work. Some students often confuse this with a cause and effect essay since both share some similarities. The only critical difference is that this type of essay resembles an instruction manual. The key to writing this essay explains things thoroughly. Describe the process in a way that even a beginner would understand. Divide the process into parts. Then, bring everything to a closure.

Essay Outline Template for Research Essay

The most challenging essay is a research one. It usually consumes more time than any other type of essay does. This is because it is necessary to collect data. This is the kind of essay that is not only important for your grades but also for your writing skills and knowledge of the topic.

You need some time for the necessary research before commencing to writing. This essay outline template will be useful for organizing your ideas. Moreover, it assists you in coming up with the background information about the topic, not to mention the arguments.

How to Move from an Essay Outline Template to an Essay?

The most obvious advantage of having an outline ready is that it guides your writing. You can always change and reorganize something in your outline before you start writing. Doing it correctly is much harder when you need to organize long paragraphs in your rough drafts.

Taking some time to write an outline saves you more time when you write later on. You can put your thoughts into words freely, and you can always refer to the outline to see if you are on the right track. You can keep track of your writing and avoid getting stuck.

Now that you are aware of how to structure your essay outline templates, you just fill in the blanks, and there it is.