Mastering Essay Outlines: A Guide to Structuring Your Argument Effectively (Full Transcript)

Speaker 1: Before diving headfirst into writing, with the material you've gathered while researching the topic, you can map out the rough structure of your essay in an outline. This will make it easier to get started and keep you on track. Creating an outline involves writing quick summary sentences or phrases for every point you will cover in each paragraph, giving you a picture of how your argument will unfold. So my topic is about the development of braille, which is the raised thought reading and writing system used by visually impaired people. Want to learn how to create an outline for your essay? Then stay tuned. Hi, I'm Jessica from Scribbr, here to help you achieve your academic goals. At the stage where you're writing an essay outline, you should already have an initial thesis or argument. In our case, that is, the invention of braille helped transform blind people's social status in the 19th century. Once you have an idea of your overall argument, you can begin to organize your material in a way that serves the argument. At this stage, you probably have a lot of different ideas and potential sources. Start by trying to group your ideas together and identify a few broad themes. So this essay, our ideas can be roughly divided into three main themes. The situation of blind people before braille's invention, the invention and spread of the braille system, the consequences of braille's invention. They all support and build up to the overall argument. Under each theme, plan out exactly what points you want to make. Each point should be clearly related to your thesis. Remember, an essay doesn't just list everything you know about a topic. It's about building a coherent argument. To get there, you should clearly say what you want to say in each part. So for example, when we discuss the invention and spread of braille, we want to make two key points to advance our argument. One, that existing tactile reading systems at the time were not effective enough. And two, that braille was more successful because it was designed specifically for blind people's needs. When you have your material and arguments organized into themes, consider what order they should appear in. Is there an obvious starting point for your argument? Or do some points need to be set up by discussing other points first? Is there one subject that provides an easy transition into another? Since this essay is about a series of events, we're taking a chronological approach, which means discussing events in the order in which they occurred and explaining how they are related as you go. To show why braille was so important, we need to set up our argument by first describing the situation for blind people before braille's invention. This provides a logical transition to the invention itself and how it spread. Finally, we make our argument about the consequences for blind people's status. This is just one of the many ways to structure an essay. Check out this article to see examples for other structures. After planning out the ideas for each paragraph and putting them into a logical order, it's time to think about the analysis and evidence you'll use to support your points. Take a look at part two. How did the invention of braille start? Existing tactile reading systems were not suitable for everyday use. To support this claim, we'll discuss the two systems that came before braille and why they were not good enough. When you're done outlining your essay, we're moving on to the writing part. Woohoo. Watch this video next to learn how to write an introduction. I'll see you there.