Karen Gaffneyoutline for Essay 1Name: ______

Karen GaffneyOutline for Essay 1Name: ______

Author A: ______

Author B: ______

Which of the 3 directions are you headed in for your overall argument (circle one):

1)that one is better (more effective, persuasive,etc.) than the other

2)that they share something important (describe that one important thing they share: ______)

3)that they differ in something important (describe that one important difference: ______)

Points of comparison(areas of support that you can talk about with both authors):

(If you choose #1 from above, these should be 3 specific things you think the first author is doing more successfully than the second. If you choose #2 from above, they should be 3 specific aspects of that one important thing they share. If you choose #3 from above, they should be 3 specific aspects of that one important area where they differ.)

Point 1: ______

Point 2: ______

Point 3: ______

Read the thesis you wrote. Does it include all of the above information? (both authors; overall argument; points of comparison) Revise your thesis as needed.

When you feel confident that your thesis includes everything it should, ask someone else in class to look at it and double-check it has everything, and revise again as needed. Then, please make sure that I get a chance to look at it as well and give you any additional feedback. Revise again as needed.

When your thesis has everything it needs, then you’re ready to create what I call a topic sentence outline. We will discuss this, but you’ll follow the directions below and create topic sentences on the back of this sheet. You’ll start by filling in the boxes with your authors and supporting points. Then, create topic sentences for each supporting paragraph.

TOPIC SENTENCE = TRANSITION + AUTHOR + POINT OF COMPARISON +

CONNECTION TO OVERALL ARGUMENT (not necessarily in that order)

(Note: Your topic sentence for your very first support paragraph won’t have a transition because there is no body paragraph coming before it.)

Important Note:Author A paragraph should only focus on Author A.

Author B paragraph should focus primarily on Author B, but it should make some explicit connections back to Author A in order to follow through with your argument. Your topic sentence, though, can focus just on Author B.

First, write your Author’s last name and a key word for the point of comparison in each box. Follow what you wrote on the front side of this sheet.

Then, next to every paragraph, write a topic sentence that can open that paragraph. If you have time, on a separate sheet, start to list examples you can use in each paragraph.

Topic sentence: ______

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