Argument essay outline

Purpose of this paragraph: To develop your argument. This is normally one paragraph, but it can be longer depending on the evidence presented. For the purposes of this class, keep this to 1 to 2 paragraphs.
Topic sentence: The topic sentence provides details for examples to help your reader understand why you are inserting the evidence that supports your claim. Your topic sentence is closely aligned with your argument and works to introduce evidence to support your assertions.
Explain your topic sentence: Provide clarification of your topic sentence here if you see a need.
Evidence introduction: Insert your evidence with a brief introduction (As Dr. Smith stated, “…”)_ or in a full sentence (To better understand the issue this data will help to illuminate…)
State the evidence: What supporting evidence will you include to support or explain your topic sentence? You can paraphrase or quote your sources directly. This can include reasons, examples, facts, statistics, quotations, or paraphrases.
Explain evidence: How should your readers interpret the evidence you just gave them? Don’t leave the information hanging without noting why you inserted the evidence. You will want to be as direct as possible with your readers regarding the meaning of the evidence inserted as tied to your claim. This statement can be an opinion and is typically about one to three sentences in length. End this paragraph with a concluding sentence that reasserts the point of the topic sentence and helps your readers to see the overall claim you are making in the paper.