The document provides guidance on outlining an essay, including developing a thesis statement, presenting reasons and evidence for a proposed solution, anticipating and addressing counterarguments, evaluating alternative solutions, and restating the advantages of the proposed solution. It emphasizes that the outline is a working document that can be changed during the drafting process to best organize ideas. Students are assigned to combine the outline elements into a single document and post it for feedback.

1. +
Class 38
EWRT 1A

2. AGENDA
+
REVIEW
OUTLINING YOUR ESSAY
DRAFTING YOUR ESSAY

3. +
With your purpose and goals in mind,
make a quick scratch outline that
includes the following:
 a clear statement of the problem
 your thesis statement, announcing the proposed solution and
forecasting your reasons for it
 your argument for the solution, giving reasons and support
 anticipation of counterarguments and a response to objections readers
might have about the proposed solution
 your evaluation of alternative solutions

4. + The Counterargument
 You anticipated objections for your homework. Now choose
the two or three most important ones to acknowledge,
accommodate, or refute.
 Write down objection 1
 Acknowledge, accommodate, or refute the objection.
 Write down objection 2
 Acknowledge, accommodate, or refute the objection.
 And so on.

5. +
Consideration of alternative solutions
and their disadvantages
 You identified alternative solutions for your homework. Now choose those
you will discuss in your essay. Write out each solution and discuss the
disadvantages of it compared to your solution.
 Write out alternative solution 1
 What are the disadvantages of this solution?
 Write out alternative solution 2
 What are the disadvantages of this solution?
 Write out alternative solution 3
 What are the disadvantages of this solution?

6. +
Restatement of the proposed solution
and its advantages
 Briefly
remind your reader of the problem
and your proposed solution and its
advantages.
 Then,
remind the reader of the
consequences of failing to solve the problem.

7. +
Remember
 Your outline will of course reflect your own writing situation.
Once you have a working outline, you should not hesitate to
change it as necessary while drafting and revising. For
instance, you might find it more effective to hold back on
presenting your own solution until you have discussed
alternative but unacceptable solutions. Or you might find a
better way to order the reasons for adopting your proposal. The
purpose of an outline is to identify the basic features of your
proposal and to help you organize them effectively, not to lock
you into a particular structure.

8. +
HOMEWORK
 Post #44 Put all of the parts we wrote today into a single
document. Read it aloud to make sure it is in a logical order.
Change the order of your paragraphs if that makes sense to
you. Post your draft.
 Study the rest of the vocabulary words.