This week, you will begin the process of organizing your thoughts and support points for your critical response essay by creating an outline. Outlines are useful when developing your thesis statement and support paragraphs, and they can be used as the roadmap for your essay once you start drafting it.

Prior to beginning work on this assignment,

• Read Chapter 3: Section 3.3 Generating Ideas
• Read Chapter 3: Section 3.4 Organizing Ideas
• Read Chapter 5: Section 5.2 Persuasive Writing
• Read Chapter 6: Section 6.4 Argumentative Writing
• View the ENG121 Week 2 Assignment: Outline (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. video
• Review the Sample Outline
• Review the Guide to Writing an Introductory Paragraph and Outline

This week, you will begin the process of organizing your thoughts and support points for your critical response essay by creating an outline. Outlines are useful when developing your thesis statement and support paragraphs, and they can be used as the roadmap for your essay once you start drafting it.

For the assignment this week, select one of the following essays. You will use this essay in your outline, rough draft, and final paper.

• Fifteen Takes on California
• Wendell Berry’s Wisdom
• Free Spirits: A Legacy of Wildness
• Tim Gunn and a Leaky Shower: Welcome to My Life, Little Guy
• To Scratch, Claw, or Grope Clumsily or Frantically
• Kentucky Writers in Kentucky
• The Audacity of Voice
• Call and Response—Taking a Stand
• Mother Tongue

Once you have selected your essay, please download and complete the Critical Essay Outline Template.

In your Outline Template,

• Determine what is most important in the essay you selected and summarize the main argument.
• Convert brainstorming ideas into a workable outline as part of the writing process.
• Use appropriate academic writing tone, style, correct grammar, spelling, and sentence mechanics.
• Apply structural components of outlining format to continue essay development.

The Critical Essay Outline

• Must be 1-2 properly formatted double-spaced pages in length, or 250-500 words (not including title and references pages) and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center’s APA Style (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. resource.
• Must include a separate title page with the following:
  • Title of Critical Essay Outline
  • Student’s name
  • Course name and number
  • Instructor’s name
  • Date submitted
  • For further assistance with the formatting and the title page, refer to APA Formatting for Word 2013 (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site..
• Must utilize academic voice. See the Academic Voice (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. resource for additional guidance.
• Must include an introduction with a workable thesis statement. Your introduction paragraph needs to end with a clear thesis statement that indicates the purpose of your paper.
  • For assistance on writing Introductions & Conclusions (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. as well as Writing a Thesis Statement (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site., refer to the Ashford Writing Center resources.
• Must include at least five informal bullet points that represent the support paragraphs and other arguments that will be developed into the week three rough draft.
• Must document any information used from sources in APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center’s Citing Within Your Paper (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site..
• If any outside citations are used, then the outline must include a separate reference page that is formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center. See the Formatting Your References List (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. resource in the Ashford Writing Center for specifications.