Stage 2, Part 2 of the Academic Writing Guide

Producing a Sentence Outline

Planning a Sentence Outline

So far you have analysed your title and searched for suitable sources, as well as producing an annotated bibliography to help you assess their usefulness. In the process you have given a lot of thought to your thesis statement and what you want to argue. In this next stage of the Academic Writing Guide you will produce a plan for your essay, while continuing to focus on your argument. Good planning can help you present your evidence in the best possible way. This is the last stage that deals with pre-writing, as you will begin drafting your essay in the next stage.

A sentence outline is the plan for your essay and instead of being in note form it generally consists of full sentences. Writing in full sentences makes the next stage (writing the draft) an easier and faster process. A sentence outline gives you a step-by-step overview of your essay and is something you can return to while writing if you lose track of what to say next. It can also help you develop your introduction and conclusion and make the connection between them clear, and should help you decide how to present your evidence in the best possible way. Your sentence outline should be written in clear, simple language. It does not have to be too detailed, but should include:

your argument (summarised in the thesis statement).
a sentence or two detailing what you will include in the introduction and in the conclusion.
a sentence to explain the focus point of each paragraph.
a sentence that gives your own interpretation/analysis of each point and counterpoint.
an indication of where you will use your supporting evidence.

Constructing a Sentence Outline for a 1,500-word Essay

Sentence outline for genetics & race essay

QUIZ

Notice how both the structure and the argument are developing for the essay and how this draft sentence outline draws on the work done in the previous stages of the Academic Writing Guide (analysing your title, research skills, and annotated bibliography).

REFLECTION

Stop and reflect on what you have learned here. How will what you have learned here support your continued essay writing development? Are there any skills you have identified at this stage that you can do well or need to improve on?

Writing Introductions and Conclusions

As part of a sentence outline it is important to include a draft version of your introduction and conclusion to help you understand what your central argument will be and how it will be argued.

Introductions

Listen to the video entitled 'What do I put in an introduction' (4 minutes), where the University of Sussex Royal Literary Fund (RLF) Fellow talks about what to include in the introduction to your essay.

(To access the transcript click the YouTube logo at the bottom of the video. In YouTube click ‘more’ in the grey box below the video, then click the ‘show transcript’ button so that you can listen and read at the same time).

QUIZ

Access this PDF of the video transcript. Listen again and write a key term that you hear into each of the 10 gaps. Answers here.

TASK

Open this link https://www.rlf.org.uk/resources/introductions-what-they-do/ to the RLF site. Scroll to the bottom of the page and read the 3 sample introductions. As you read notice what they are doing and how successfully they are doing it. Begin thinking about what to include in your own introduction.

Conclusions

Listen to the short video entitled 'What do I put in a conclusion' (3.5 minutes).

QUIZ

Access this PDF of the video transcript. Listen again and write a key term that you hear to into each of the 10 gaps. (You can do this direct on the online form or print it off and write in your answers). Answers here.

TASK

Open this link https://www.rlf.org.uk/resources/conclusions-what-they-do/ to the RLF site and read about what a good conclusion should and shouldn’t do. Start thinking about the relationship between the introduction and conclusion in your own essay.

The Manchester Academic Phrase Bank contains hundreds of useful phrases to use in your essay. You don’t need to paraphrase them, and their use runs no risk of plagiarism. Using the phrases give your essay a more academic style and helps you create strong topic sentences (more about paragraphing and topic sentences in Stage 3). Focusing on the headings across the top of the page and in the menu on the left hand side can help you think about the structure of your essay and what you are doing in each new section or paragraph.

Open these links to find academic phrases for use in the introduction and the conclusion of your essay, for defining your terms, and for referring to sources:

Introducing the Counterargument, or Alternative Perspectives

Being aware of counterarguments is like defending yourself against attack. Your argument is stronger when you acknowledge other points of view and explain why you are not persuaded by them (a process known as the rebuttal). You don’t need to give them equal coverage, and you probably won’t cover all of them, but by identifying them you demonstrate that you know your subject. It is important to consider what counter arguments or alternative perspectives might exist at this stage, to support your planning process. You may decide that you need to read more, or re-evaluate some of the sources that you have read and consider whether you have enough support for these arguments/perspectives.

Thinking about the order, and relative importance of each topic, how do you decide where to place your counterargument? It can be powerful to present the counterargument in your introduction, especially if you are arguing against the most commonly held view. In a discursive essay it’s common, however, to place the counterargument after the main points that support your thesis, but before the conclusion. It may prove confusing for your reader if you present some points in support of the thesis, then the main counterargument and then more points in support of your thesis. Think about your own essay and decide where the best place for the counterargument(s) is/are. The organisation you choose should be whichever one best showcases your ideas.

TASK

Access this link to read more about counterarguments and to see an example essay on the topic of climate change https://writingcenter.fas.harvard.edu/counterargument

For their essay the writer has produced this thesis statement: Climate activism that focuses on personal actions such as recycling obscures the need for systemic change that will be required to slow carbon emissions. They are promising to make the case that personal actions will not solve the climate crisis and may actually make the problem more difficult to solve.

Thinking about how thoughtful people might disagree with their claim/thesis, the writer anticipates the following counterargument: by encouraging personal actions, climate activists may raise awareness of the problem and encourage people to support larger systemic change. So the writer includes this counter-argument in their essay and provides a rebuttal (introduced with the word ‘although’):

Counterargument

Some experts argue that it’s important for individuals to take action to mitigate climate change. Lowery (2020) argues that personal actions to fight climate change, such as reducing household trash or installing solar panels, matter because change in social behaviour can lead to changes in laws.

Rebuttal

Although Lowery may be correct that individual actions can lead to collective action, this focus on individual action can allow corporations to receive positive publicity while continuing to burn fossil fuels at dangerous rates.

Using the Turnitin Report to Improve Your Work

Turnitin is an online system for handing in written assignments used at many universities. If you have access to the Turnitin Draft Check tool you can use it before submitting your work to make sure you have referenced your sources correctly.

Turnitin will put your draft through an originality checking process which compares the text in your document against a vast database of online sources and then present the results as an online Originality Report. You can see what Turnitin has highlighted and check that all of the highlighted parts are presented accurately. The feedback this report provides is a useful aid to help you identify any unoriginal text or highlight ways in which you have not used your sources well, and can be used to improve referencing skills and paraphrasing.

Turnitin also produces a Similarity Index. This is a score which represents the percentage of matched text in the Originality Report against the volume of overall text contained in the submitted document. Both the Originality Report and the Similarity Index can help you identify whether you have used your sources well in your essay, and whether you need to think more about the way you have or haven’t cited them.

Watch this video (4 minutes) which explains and demonstrates how to use and interpret your report.

Having a copy of the similarity report will help you to see if you need to act on anything in this stage. For instance, you might need to paraphrase the information you have made when note-taking better. Completing this task will also help you to become more familiar with the student Draft Turnitin site and can help you have useful conversations with your lecturer.

Over to you

If you are using the AWG to help you write a discursive essay of your own, take time to produce a sentence outline.

Using the sub-headings from the sample essay sentence outline (reproduced below for reference) as an example, create a new sentence outline for your own essay that includes:

a short introduction that includes background information, your thesis statement and a plan of what will be discussed in the essay.
a series of sections that make up the main body. In each section you need to briefly write the main point(s) you want to make, as well as showing how you are going to prove or support these points, with reference to your source material (in your annotated bibliography).
a section that details a counter argument or alternative perspective to the argument(s) you have made in the previous sections. This also needs to be supported by source material.
a conclusion that re-states your main argument and the points you have made to support it.

Click here to access a pdf of the sentence outline for the example essay.

BACK TO STAGE 2 PART 1

CONTINUE TO STAGE 3