Coming Up With Good Ideas Before Writing An Outline For An Expository Essay

Writing an expository essay can be one of the most difficult ones to master. You have to investigate a specific idea or topic and come up with evidence to prove your conclusions about the topic to be true. The outline is an important part of any writing assignment but even before that there are things you should know before you start it. Step one is to know what goes into a good expository outline. Always start there first. Here are a few good ideas to have before starting your outline.

Good Ideas

• Have your thesis statement ready
• Know how to structure the essay
• Combine your thesis statement with evidence to conclude

Have Your Thesis Statement Ready

Your thesis statement should be clear and concise and located in the first paragraph. This is a very important element of the paper itself. The thesis statement should boil the whole point of the assignment down to a single sentence explaining the assignment’s purpose. Once you have this, you build from it, providing supporting evidence. This one sentence will be what the whole paper is built around.

Know How to Structure the Essay

The structure is particularly important in assignments like this one. You have to have a clear introduction, body, and conclusion. If it is not clear which is which then the reader will get lost. Furthermore, your body paragraphs must be clearly separate from one another yet each should be completely about one specific idea or piece of evidence. Without this clarity, your body becomes a messy free-for-all. That being said, the paper should also progress like a story, with a clear sequence that allows readers to follow your train of thought to every stop in order.

The conclusion is very important. It will stick in the reader’s mind as it is the last thing they will read. Use your thesis statement to give you an idea of where to start. Then add in the summary of the evidence you provided and ideas that you expressed to pull it all together.

This kind of essay takes more work than some of the others. As long as you start off with the above ideas then you will be on your way to a good start on your paper. Each element is equally important so don’t skip over one of the ideas listed to save time. All of this will give you a great start to an outline as you will know what you are talking about, how to structure the outline, and therefore the paper, and how to give a strong conclusion.