Writing a college essay eventually becomes a pillar for any college student, whether they want to or not. Because of this, writing an essay is a crucial skill that we slowly acquire, and we’ll cover what you need for your college essay outline to create the best assignment possible.
Font and Spacing
The standard rules for a college essay are to write it in 12pt font, usually using a font like Times New Roman or Arial, and the margins should be 1′ from each side. The spacing is usually 2, and there shouldn’t be any spaces between paragraphs.
Read Through the Rubric
The rubric for any assignment is one of the most important parts of it because it tells you what your teacher expects from your assignment. It’s best to read it at the beginning because if you get to the end of your assignment, you might realize that you couldn’t use websites as sources and now you have to go back and change this. The specific requirements will help guide your college essay outline and allow you to get a better grade. Try to read through rubrics early, preferably a few weeks before an assignment is due, so that you can ask any questions and your professors will see that you are interested in the class.
Define a Topic
Now that you know what you’re expected to do, you can focus on a topic. The topic usually comes from guidelines from your professors, and remember to identify whether your essay should be argumentative, informative, persuasive, or a combination of these. You can use Litero’s AI chat to get ideas for a topic or approach or just to discuss the scope of the topic. It’s best to choose a topic that you like to make the research process easier, so try to take advantage of any freedoms the topic gives you.
Create a Thesis
With a defined topic, your next step is to write a thesis. The thesis will be at the end of your introduction, and it will be the basis of your college essay outline. It is a statement that outlines the points or arguments you’ll make, allowing your reader to be prepared. For example, if the prompt is to provide a solution for dropout rates in Southern T”as, then your thesis could be something like:
Expanding access to student resources, improving existing services, and promoting community outreach programs can help reduce the dropout rate in Southern Texas among high school students by giving them better support and opportunities.
This statement provides three main points at the beginning that address the need to solve this issue, but you can always start with the topic first and then explain your points. The order isn’t always important; focus on the prompt and on creating an objective and solid statement.
Body Paragraphs
In this section, you’ll expand on the points or arguments you outlined in your thesis and provide evidence and support for them. Each paragraph needs a distinctive idea that separates it from the rest; this means your readers won’t get confused when they move from one paragraph to the next. This is the basic structure that your paragraph should follow:
- Transition sentence: you can’t just end a paragraph and immediately begin another one; give a closing sentence that flows into your next point.
You may have to cover the opposition to your argument in your college essay outline, and this is an opportunity to consider what others say against your topic, solution, points, etc., and then highlight the strengths of your argument.
Citations
Essays usually need citations to show where you got your information from, and this is an important part of your college essay outline because it helps you organize your points. Citations should follow the specific format your teacher stated, and the most common ones are MLA, APA, and Chicago. There are many citation guides online, and you can always use Litero’s citation tools to input the information from a source and receive the in-text citation and the information you’ll need for the works cited page in any format you need (it works even if you realize you’re using the wrong format and need to change it).
Introduction and Conclusion
We like to ask you to leave the introduction to the end because that way you’ll know exactly what’s in your essay and can write a good and appealing introductory paragraph. Your college essay outline should begin with a hook, something that catches the reader’s attention and makes them want to read your essay. Then, you need to provide some context about your topic; if your essay focuses on a specific source, like analyzing the themes in a novel, introduce the source, author, and main arguments or story. After this, add your thesis statement. The basic outline should be this:
- Hook
- Context for your argument/topic
- Overview of the topic and points you’ll make
- Thesis
Your conclusion will follow a similar pattern. You should restate and rephrase your thesis and then include an overview of the points you’ve just made in your college essay outline. End your conclusion with a memorable ending that makes the reader reflect on what you wrote. If you need help with either the introduction or conclusion, you can use Litero’s functions to write these sections based on your points, giving you a complete overview of your essay’s main points.
Edit and Proofreading
The final step for your college essay outline is to edit and proofread. Here, you should use a tool like Litero’s grammar check to make sure your outline is free from mistakes and flows. Try to proofread after giving yourself a break from writing your essay; this way you’ll be better prepared to identify errors or gaps. It’s best to address issues while in the outline stage and not when you’ve got your whole essay written!