Structure of

Argumentative:
Outlining
WHAT IS OUTLINING?
Outlining is the road map for the essay. American writer Tom Wolfe said, “By
writing an outline you really are writing in a way, because you’re creating the
structure of what you’re going to do. Once I really know what I’m going to write, I
don’t find the actual writing takes all that long.”

Critical thinkers use outlines to organize their ideas and check the organization of
their drafts throughout the writing process. Outlines represent an important
element of the writing process not only for English essays, but also for essays in
history, philosophy, economics, political science, etc.

As the “road map” of the essay, outlines should do the following:

 Provide the thesis and most important details of the essay.

 Demonstrate a clear, logical organization of main ideas and supporting
details.
 Include topic sentences but not every sentence in the essay/paragraphs.
WHY OUTLINE?
Just like we need a road map when traveling to an unfamiliar destination,
good writers create preliminary or rough outlines after they have generated
enough ideas through prewriting to organize and develop their essays.
Strong, thorough prewriting should develop more ideas than you can actually
use in your essay so that you are able to select the most relevant and
convincing ideas for your essay.
Once you have settled on a thesis statement and your main supporting ideas,
you can write a formal outline, creating the “skeleton” of your essay. Looking at your ideas
this way can help ensure that:

- Your main points are on-topic and directly support your thesis.
- Your main points are logically organized.
- Your most important ideas are emphasized and your less important ideas
are subordinated.
- Your main points have sufficient and relevant supporting evidence.
Outlines also help writers:
- Make the writing process easier since you have a road map for your essay
to follow.
- Break through writer’s block—for people who struggle with writer’s block, it helps to first
set up a structure with lower stakes and less pressure.
- Save time writing your essay since you have a clear, focused plan to follow for your essay.
- Ensure each part of your essay relates to the essay prompt.
 HOW DO I DO IT?
- Put the thesis statement at the top: it should be polished and be a complete sentence.
- Use Roman numerals (I, II, III, IV, V, etc.) to indicate the main points/topic sentences which should be
written
in specific phrases or complete sentences (this is the “P” or Point of PIE).
- Use capital letters (A, B, C, D, E, etc.) for the major supporting details; typically, writers should have at least
two main supporting details for each point/topic sentence (the “I” or information of PIE providing evidence
and the “E” or explanation of PIE providing analysis).
- Use numbers (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc.) for sub-details clarifying and specifying your main supporting details.
Argumentative essay outline
Writing an argumentative essay entails five basic steps:
researching the issue, stating your position on the issue, arguing
for your position, rebutting objections to your position, and
resolving the issue. The outline of such an essay might look like
this:
 Explanation of the problem
 Stating your position
 Argument supporting your position
 Rebuttal of expected criticisms
 Resolution of the issue
Explanation of the problem

This very first step in constructing an extended argument or writing an

argumentative essay is to become thoroughly acquainted with the
complexity of the issue at stake. Your main concern shouldn’t be that of
defending the position that you may already have on an issue; your goal
is to discover which of the available positions on the question is the
most valid one. It is likely that researching the question may cause you
to discard your original position.

Excellent preparation involves looking at all sides of the coin. Not only
does this lead you in determining which position to defend, it also
familiarizes you with the possible arguments for or against that
position. It also familiarizes you with alternative positions on the
problem and the reasons that are supporting them. Most important,
you’ll understand the major criticisms of your position and the
arguments supporting it, which you must successfully rebut as part of
your essay.
Stating your position

Before presenting your argument for your position, it is a good idea to

indicate why the question at issue is an important one. The very fact
that you are writing an argumentative essay suggests that there is an
important unresolved or open question to be addressed.

After you have carefully discussed the significance of the issue, you
should state your position on it right at the start of your essay. This
should be done similarly to the way a prosecutor does it in his or her
opening statement at the beginning of a trial. Your research has already
led you to the conclusion you’ll be defending, so you should declare it
as quickly as simply as possible. If it is a problem to be solved, you
should make it clear that you believe your proposal will help solve it.
There is no need to spend a lot of space up front addressing the
complexity of the issue. The complex nature of the question will
become sufficiently clear as you present your argument in support of
your position.
Arguing for your position

The section in which you argue for your position is the most critical part
of your essay. Here is where you’ll present the argument in support of
your stated position. The argument for your position should look like a
considerably expanded version of a standard-form argument. Typically,
you should use one paragraph for each premise in your argument so that
the reader is less likely to be confused about the parts of your
argument. Remember that everything you say should help support the
position, so you shouldn’t include extraneous material, even if it would
make the essay more entertaining or colorful.

Set forth the strongest evidence you have in support of your conclusion,
making all your premises as explicit as possible and arranging them so
that they flow from one to the next in logical way. Use examples
sparingly so that the reader is less likely to confuse an illustration with
a part of the argument. Also, if possible, try to make your argument a
deductive one, to increase the relative strength of the argument.
Rebutting Objections to Your Position
The fifth criterion of a good argument, the rebuttal criterion, deserves
a special status. A good argument should provide an effective rebuttal
to all serious challenges of most arguments. This is the most neglected
feature of most arguments. Almost any arguer can find relevant and
acceptable premises and what appears to be sufficient number of
premises to support a conclusion, but such an argument would not be
good one unless it could also effectively answer the criticisms of those
who challenge its merit. You should include effective rebuttals to the
strongest of those criticisms as a part of your essay. If you do not have
an effective response to them, then you probably should not be
defending that position. You should have discovered this during the
research phase of the argumentative essay assignment.

Since only one position can be the most defensible position on the
question, you should also be able to identify significant flaws in
arguments supporting alternative positions on the issue. However, since
it may not be possible to land a knockout blow against each of those
alternative positions, you should at least make it clear that the
argument for your position comes closer to successfully meeting all the
criteria of a good argument that the arguments for the alternative
positions.
Resolving the issue
Since you’ll have stated the conclusion of the essay at the beginning,
you probably don’t have to state it again at the end. However, you
probably will want to show how the position you have defended
resolves the question, solves the problem, or settles the conflict, which
was the main impetus for writing the essay. You might also point out
how the argument successfully meets all the conditions of a good
argument, including the effective rebuttal of criticisms of your
argument, the position it supports, and the arguments for the strongest
alternative positions. Finally, you may wish to suggest areas related to
the question where further research may be usefully conducted; but do
not leave the reader with any doubt about where you stand on the
issue.
 It can be difficult to create a formal outline without some help. Here is a first
EXAMPLE step towards creating a more formal outline. Use this template and answer
the guiding questions. After, revise what you produce into a formal outline.
EXAMPLE Paragraph 2:
EXAMPLE Paragraph 3 and the conclusion:
 This is a template to help you on the first step towards making a formal
outline. Adjust for how many body paragraphs you decide to include.
PRACTICE Please note: If your instructor has asked you to create a formal outline,
you are not going to turn in this template. This template is designed to
help you generate and organize the ideas you can then put into a formal
outline.
PRACTICE