Ah, the outline. A crucial stage.

You Can Do This!

Outline is due on Mon. May 30, 2022.

Use this electronic template and re-arrange it as you see fit:  CHY4U_CCA_Essay_Step5_2020-21

Don’t treat this as: “I’ll write a few things now and put the detail in later.” No! Put all the details you have into it NOW. It’ll save you time in writing your essay. It will also get you some good marks!

Writing the outline is a process. I write little comments to myself about what is missing, what is needed, what is not done well (yet). Then I got back and fill them in, bit by bit.

See Google Classroom for video.

Samples

CHY4U_MsG_Essay_Outline_Oct_2020 (this is Ms. G’s revised essay outline for Oct. 2020 – the samples below are for the OLD format of the essay)

CHY4U_MsG_Essay_Outline_Draft1_2020 (this is my first draft of my outline as of May 19 – I will be making a lot of changes to it)

CHY4U_MsG_Essay_Outline_Draft2_2020 (May 28)

Ms. G__Step5_Essay_Outline_3rd_draft_2019 (it’s actually my final outline)

Process

Here are Ms. G’s process steps for outline draft 1.

1. I took all my info from the previous process steps and put it into the outline. For the points, I simply took all 10+ of the examples I used in the thesis worksheet. For the examples, I took what I already had from previous steps, and that gave me about 8 examples (6 details from step 1, 2 examples from step 2). Note: since I KNOW my notes were in my own words I could simply copy and paste from my notes. If your notes are NOT in your own words, be very careful not to copy and paste because you will be plagiarizing. That will get you ZERO.

2.  I noted which examples needed more detail or needed to be improved. I actually had to do a bit more research after the thesis worksheet as I realized that some of my examples were really weak, or I didn’t really understand them well enough at the time.

3. I began the connections to thesis (very basic at first), including HTC guideposts (not just repetitive mention of con’t-change/cause-consequence). I am not happy with mine right now – they are very basic and repeat the word “pattern” too often. It is normal for this area to be weak at first. That’s why doing multiple drafts of the outline will be helpful.

4. I finished up filling in the details, including making sure I had some primary source evidence. I still have more primary evidence I could use.

5. As I went along, I added in all my citations. This will save a lot of time in the future. If you don’t put citations, you won’t get marks! It should be pretty clear by now that evidence has to be cited.

6. Little things: a) write in sentences in past tense in formal academic English. This will save you time when you convert your outline into your essay draft. b) always include dates. c) explain who people are – don’t just name them (see below). Use transition words where possible to create flow. It will help in the essay and save you time later.

For outline draft 2, I tidied up my outline and added the following:

1. transition words between examples and sometimes at the start or end of sub-topics

2. some more HTC-related terminology (though I have a lot more to go – I’m going to add in some historical perspectives in the next draft).

3. topic sentences. I turned my sub-topic headings into topic sentences.

4. I noticed that one of my examples was a repeat so I deleted it.

5. I made sure all of my sentences were in past tense and used formal academic language.

Here are some previous outlines:

MsG_Sample_CHY4U_Essay_Outline_Draft1_2017-18 (Boko Haram)

MsG_CHY4U_Essay_Outline_May_2016

Feedback Comments: 

Small and easily correctable:

• need dates – this is a history essay
• need page numbers in citations for books

More time needs to be spent on: 

• deep connections to thesis
  • they are NOT meant to be mere statements
  • they need to be explained
    • use your HTC guideposts here to help you deepen the connections
• brief explanations of who people are
  • don’t just say their name
    • must include their position, title, relevance – can often be done by simply inserting it between commas
      • E.g., Bal Ganghadar Tilak, an Indian nationalist who believed in more radical methods of resisting the British government than the Indian National Congress, made a famous speech about Indian activism in 1907.
      • E.g., Charles Darwin, a British naturalist and developer of the theory of evolution by means of natural selection, was highly influenced by the writings of Malthus and Lyell.