Essay outline: [Essay title]

Course

Due

Length

Citation style

The prompt

Pasted exactly as given, to check every section against.

Thesis

One sentence a reader could disagree with.

A thesis works when it:

  • Makes a claim someone could argue against, not a statement of fact or a topic

  • Is specific: it says what is true and why, or how

  • Can be defended with the sources you have, in the length you have

See a weak thesis made strong

Topic: Phones in schools.
Fact: Many schools have banned phones.
Arguable: Schools should ban phones during the school day, because constant notifications cut into the two things that protect teenagers' mental health most: sleep and time with friends face to face.

Introduction

  • Hook:

  • Context:

  • Thesis:

  • Roadmap:

Section 1

  • Claim:

  • Evidence:

  • Source:

  • Analysis:

  • Link to thesis:

See an example section

Claim: Phones at school cost teenagers sleep, even though they are only used during the day.
Evidence: Most students said that conversations begun in class carry on in group chats after midnight.
Source: Student Council survey, 2024, p. 3.
Analysis: The habit doesn't end at the last bell. A thread started at lunch is still open at bedtime, so the phone use of the day sets the sleep of the night.
Link to thesis: If daytime use drives night-time use, a school-day ban protects sleep, the first of the two things the thesis names.

The evidence says what happened; the analysis says what it means. Without that sentence, the paragraph only reports. The survey is invented.

Section 2

  • Claim:

  • Evidence:

  • Source:

  • Analysis:

  • Link to thesis:

Section 3

  • Claim:

  • Evidence:

  • Source:

  • Analysis:

  • Link to thesis:

Optional: Section 4

  • Claim:

  • Evidence:

  • Source:

  • Analysis:

  • Link to thesis:

Counterargument

  • Strongest objection:

  • Concession:

  • Rebuttal:

Conclusion

  • Thesis, restated:

  • Synthesis:

  • Closing:

Sources