Rough Outline of Essay 1

The previous pages in this module describe possible outlining techniques for comparing and contrasting items in academic writing.  Now, it's time for you to apply these concepts to your own work.

For this assignment, I'd like for you to build an outline for the Comparison Essay that's due in week 3.  You can choose any outline format that feels most comfortable to you: Roman Numerals, bullet points, a table format like the UNC website illustrates, etc.  Your points don't have to be in complete sentences, but do need to be detailed enough so that I can tell the difference between the items in your list.

Regardless of which outline structure you choose, I want to be able to tell the following from your submission:

• which 2 specific types of searches you'll be comparing (from the list of options on the essay assignment page, linked above)
• what your chosen dream career or volunteer opportunity is, that you're using for search terms
• whether you're using a point-by-point or topic-by-topic approach to organizing your essay
• what your thesis statement is.  This is just a draft, but make sure to include it...which of the two search options is preferable in searching for this subject, and why? 
• where your thesis statement will appear.  For an essay like this, it makes the most sense for the thesis to appear either in the introduction or in the conclusion; either way is fine with me.
• how many specific points of comparison your essay will use.  (generally, 2-4 is appropriate for an essay of this length, but arguments can be made for more or less in specific cases).

The work you submit should be an OUTLINE.  Just answering each of the bullet points above will NOT be sufficient for completing this project.  The answers to these bullet points will be embedded throughout your outline content.

Please keep in mind all of this is just a draft.  You're welcome to change and adapt this work as your essay evolves in the coming week. 

Want to see what this might look like?  Check out a couple of previous students' work on this assignment.

If you have a question about the essay assignment while you do this planning, please do ask them in the Comparison Essay Discussion Forum.