Writing the Best Outline Ever!

When writing a paper of any length, it is vitally important that the ideas being included in the assignment are kept in a clear order. Without structure, ideas tend to be repeated over and over while other components vitally important to the completion of the assignment are completely ignored. Having a well structured outline will help you as a writer maintain order within the paper.

· All outlines start with an introduction. For most of the papers that you will write in both English and History, the introduction should introduce the main ideas of the paper and should include the thesis.

· When structuring your paper/outline, break the order down by main ideas. These main ideas should match the concepts that you have included in your thesis. Each main idea should be represented by a Roman numeral.

· Within these main ideas, you will also want to include facts you are using as supporting reasons. You will also want to include the quotes you have found to support your main ideas.

· The paper needs in end with a conclusion. In the conclusion, you will want to review the material that you have discussed within the rest of the paper, but without being repetitive.

Here is the format that you want to use to start working on your thesis. You should write on this actual assignment and save it, or email it to yourself so that you can work on it at home and at school.

Topic of the assignment:___________________________________________________

I. Introduction

A. First sentence:

B. Thesis:

II. First Main Idea

A. Supporting reason

1. Quote or fact to support main idea

B. Supporting Reason:

1. Quote or Fact to support main idea

III. Second Main Idea

A. Supporting Reason:

1. Quote or Fact to support Main Idea

B. Supporting Reason

1. Quote or Fact to support Main Idea

IV. Third Main Idea (if you have one!)

A. Supporting Reason

1. Quote or Fact to support Main Idea

B. Supporting Reason

1. Quote or Fact to support Main Idea

V. Conclusion