Beat the Block: Making a Game Plan

Your Guide to an Outline

Last week we established that making a game plan is a great way to get started, but now you are staring at your assignment trying to decipher how to go about that. While you may have it engrained in your head that the first thing you need to do is make a thesis, that is not where you always have to start. Don’t get me wrong, a thesis is essential, but it is not always the most efficient way to organize your thoughts. Instead, I want you to copy your prompt onto your document. Yup, copy-paste.

So often, the rubric and/or prompt of an assignment gets ignored. Usually, these assignments will include several questions under the main prompt. Let's be real, your professor provides these for a reason. The answers give you exactly what you need to fully answer the prompt and max out the points you can receive on the rubric. Therefore it is important that you answer each of these questions in your paper. Plus it will provide you with all the content you need to write the essay and your outline.

For example, your teacher provides the assignment:

In a 2-4 page paper answer the following: What is a problem that students face academically? What is a method to fix this problem? What would your advice be to students facing this problem? Use examples to support your answer.

Now, instead of a detailed step-by-step outline, you can simply think about these questions one by one. In this first step, don’t narrow down your answers to one thesis. Write down everything you think of. Then try to answer the following questions for each one (as you can see I organized mine by color in the picture to the right). If you are unable to answer each question on one topic, that topic is a no-go. Eventually, you will see your potential topics and thesis statements narrow themselves down. Soon enough you’ve narrowed down your “potentials” to a few topics that you feel comfortable writing about. Then, all you have to do is pick the one topic you think you could write about the best, and boom, you know where your essay is going and how you’ll get there.

Depending on your required essay length, you may want to revisit each question and point to add more details. If you are completing a research essay, you will want to add an example from your sources under each question (we will touch on research in a future post). Before you know it, this rough skeleton has complete ideas and examples under it and can easily be turned into a full-length essay complete with references and specific examples. You’ll be surprised to see that after thinking the whole essay through, you will know exactly what your thesis and your conclusion will be with no re-writing necessary.

Using the prompt to your advantage results in an organized essay that is focused and aimed at answering exactly what the teacher or professor is looking for. A few extra minutes of preparation can equal hours saved in the editing and revising process. So what are you waiting for? Go get started on that essay, and if you need further help book a session and I can walk you through the process step by step. Go get working!

-Erin Bitinaitis

M.S. Psychology

Better than Books LLC