Was Alexander the Great a ‘great man’?

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ENGLISH 1301
Viengvilay Oudonesom
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Thesis and Formal Topic Outline for Essay #3
WHAT TO SUBMIT DEADLINE
One MLA-formatted document with your thesis and outline
– Save the file as a Microsoft Word document (.doc or .docx).
– Save the file with the following file name: LastFirstName_E3outline (e.g., DoeJan_E3outline)
See class
calendar
Objectives
• Practice doing the “Planning” step of the Writing Process
• Think about and plan the parts of your essay
• Develop a thesis for your essay
• Brainstorm reasons to support your thesis
• Brainstorm supporting ideas, examples, and/or details for each reason
• Create an outline for your essay on an approved issue
• Learn how to create and properly format a Formal Topic Outline
For this assignment, you will create a topic outline for Essay #3. The outline is a blueprint or layout of ideas
for the essay. The outline is not the essay. The topic outline should not have sentences or paragraphs. The
outline should be on an approved issue from the List of Approved Issues. You must have a clear thesis that
takes a position on the issue. Your task is to create an outline for the introduction, body paragraphs, and
conclusion of your essay.
The outline should contain your own words and ideas. In the outline, do not use sources, and do not use
information that is not part of common knowledge. If you want to include information that you do not know or
that will come from research or sources, then describe the type of information you want to include. Do not put
information that is not part of common knowledge in your outline. For example, if you are writing an essay
about whether marijuana should be legalized and you want to include a statistic about the number of people
who are jailed for marijuana-related offenses, then write, “statistic about the number of people who are jailed
for marijuana-related offenses,” in the outline. Do NOT put the specific statistic (e.g., 28% of people in jail are
there for marijuana-related offenses) in the outline.

Steps to Take
I. Preliminary work: Steps to take before you start your outline
A. Review the issue for your essay. Your issue should be from the List of Approved Issues; this
approved list is provided in the Issue Proposal assignment. Your issue also should be the same
approved issue that you used for your Issue Proposal. You may not change issues without prior
permission from the professor.
B. Brainstorm some ideas about your issue. What is your position or viewpoint on the issue? If you were
trying to convince someone to agree with your position, what reasons would you give? Jot down the
major reasons you have for your position. You should have at least four major reasons. Jot down
some supporting ideas, details, and/or examples that you have for each reason. You should have at
least two supporting ideas, details, and/or examples for each reason.
C. You do not need to submit your brainstorming sessions. You only need to submit the thesis and
outline.
II. Put your document in MLA format, and type your work. Include a title. The title can just be “Essay #3
Thesis and Outline.”
III. Develop a thesis for your persuasive essay. Under the title of your document, label and type the thesis.
IV. Under the thesis, create a formal topic outline with the ideas from your brainstorming sessions. An
outline template is provided at the end of this document.
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V. Put your topic outline in the required format:
A. Formal topic outlines should contain major words and phrases, NOT sentences and NOT paragraphs.
B. Each line of a topic outline should be brief; just use some words and phrases.
1. There should be no sentences.
2. There should be no paragraphs.
C. Use the alphanumeric system (Roman numerals, letters, and numbers) to number your ideas. Use the
template provided at the end of this document.
1. Start with capital Roman numerals, then move to capital letters, then move to numbers, then move
to lower case letters, and so on. See the sample template in this document.
2. Use the correct number or letter at the beginning of each line.
3. Properly indent each line.
VI. Include the following content in your topic outline:
A. The first section must outline the introduction for your essay.
1. List an interesting way to start the essay or hook your reader.
2. List the significance of the issue (why the issue is important or why people should care).
3. List possible background information about the issue. Background information may include
a. Clarification of the issue,
b. Identification of different viewpoints on the issue,
c. Historical, legislative, judicial information, and/or
d. Current related events.
B. The middle section must outline the body paragraphs.
1. The persuasive essay must have at least four major reasons to support the thesis, so list at least
four reasons in this section.
2. Under each major reason, list at least two supporting ideas, examples, and/or details.
C. The last section must outline the conclusion.
1. List possible ideas or details that you may include in the conclusion.
2. List an interesting way to end the essay.
VII. In the outline, do NOT use information from research, do not use information that is not part of common
knowledge, and do not use information that needs to be cited. Do not use sources in the outline. Instead,
use this assignment as a way to brainstorm and layout your own ideas for your essay. Later, you can
conduct research to add source information to your essay. Outlines that use sources, do not properly cite
sources, and/or do not meet source requirements may not earn credit.
Originality
To improve our writing skills, we must practice writing. All parts of your work, including the thesis, must be
written specifically for this class. You may NOT use work or parts of work that have been submitted to another
class, institution, publication, or venue. Work that has been previously submitted will not earn credit.
Academic Honesty
Some of the major goals of this class are to help you improve your writing and to help you better articulate
your ideas. The outline should be original work written by you. To earn credit, the outline must consist of your
own ideas, words, and phrases. If your submission is a result of academic dishonesty, you will earn a zero, a
failing grade for the submission and possibly for this course. For example, if the submission has plagiarism,
even if it is just one phrase or sentence, you will earn a failing grade. Any work that includes, in whole or in
part, artificial intelligence (AI) content – such as but not limited to AI assisted writing, AI generated text, AI
paraphrasing, chatbots / bots, text spinners, etcetera – is considered a violation of academic integrity. Using
websites that offer to write or help you write text is a form of scholastic dishonesty. The use of an artificial
intelligence program (i.e., Google Translate, Grammarly, ChatGPT, etcetera) to create content is considered a
form of academic dishonesty. Take pride and responsibility for your work, and do it yourself.
Grading
This assignment is worth 100pts. Here are some grading considerations:
• Have you presented your work in a professional manner? Professional presentation includes putting your
paper in MLA format, placing the thesis below the MLA-formatted header and title, and placing the outline
below the thesis.
• Have you created a topic outline and properly formatted your outline?
• Have you included a thesis statement?
• Have you included a sufficiently detailed outline that has all three sections (the introduction, body, and
conclusion)?
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• Have you included at least four major reasons or ideas?
• Have you provided at least two supporting details and/or examples for each major reason?
• Have you created original, academically honest work?
• Please note that in order to earn credit, work must be done on an approved issue. The Issue Proposal
assignment has the List of Approved Issues. If you submit work for an unapproved issue, the work may
earn zero credit.
• A submission that uses sources, information that is not part of common knowledge, or information that
needs to be cited may earn zero credit.
• A submission that contains excessive sentences, paragraphs, an essay, or other work may earn zero
credit.
Note: Please view the next page, which has the sample template for the thesis and outline. Also view the
sample topic outline in the course notes.
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Sample Template for a Formal Topic Outline
The following is an example of the format for a thesis and formal topic outline. Use this sample as a template
for your work. Please add an MLA formatted header and title. Double space the whole document.
Use specific information in your outline. For example, do not just put “hook” or “background information” in
your outline. Specify the hook and type of background information that you are going to use. See the sample
outline on the course website.
________________________________________________________________________________________
THESIS STATEMENT: Write your one or two sentence thesis statement here, before you start the outline.
I. Introduction (Contention)
A. Interesting hook
B. Significance of issue
C. Background information (Background information may include clarification of the issue; identification of
the different viewpoints on the issue; historical, legislative, judicial information;
why people should care; and/or current related events)
D. Possible place for thesis when writing essay
II. Body (Confirmation)
A. Major Reason #1
1. Supporting idea, detail, or example
2. Supporting idea, detail, or example
a. Explain example
b. Support example with evidence
3. Supporting idea, detail, or example
4. Supporting idea, detail, or example
B. Major Reason #2
1. Supporting idea, detail, or example
2. Supporting idea, detail, or example
3. Supporting idea, detail, or example
C. Major Reason #3
1. Supporting idea, detail, or example
2. Supporting idea, detail, or example
3. Supporting idea, detail, or example
a. Explain example
b. Support example
c. Support example
4. Supporting idea, detail, or example
D. Major Reason #4
1. Supporting idea, detail, or example
2. Supporting idea, detail, or example
3. Supporting idea, detail, or example
4. Supporting idea, detail, or example
III. Conclusion
A. Emphasis of main idea of essay
B. Possible review of main points
C. Interesting ending, end with a bang!
Remember:
• Do not use sentences and/or paragraphs in a formal topic outline.
• Provide enough words and phrases in each category to make your intention clear.
• List at least four major reasons (e.g., A, B, C, and D) in the body section. If you have more than
four, you will have more lines in the body section of the outline (e.g., You may have an E and F).
• List at least two supporting ideas, examples, and/or details for each major reason.
• Do not use sources, information that is not part of common knowledge, or information that needs
to be cited in the outline.
• Submit your work in MLA format. The outline should be double-spaced.