Paragraph Outline Example
This is a paragraph outline of the persuasive article “Toxic Soup Redux: Why Environmental Racism and Environmental Justice Matter after Katrina,” by Julie Sze. The main purpose of the example is to show you what a paragraph outline might look like. You don’t have to read the article to get the point, but if you want to it’s only 10 paragraphs, 1742 words, about 2 pages (3 with footnotes).
This is one way of doing the outline. There are others. It’s not so important that your outline look just like this one. (And note that it’s for you; abbreviations are fine as long as you will remember what they mean.) What is important is that you get the basic information. This includes all the main ideas in the article, and the hierarchy of ideas (what’s the single overall idea, which are main ideas and which are supporting ideas).
First read the article
Before trying to do any of the steps below, you should read the article through at least once for basic understanding. Then go back and review, following these steps.
Step 1: Identify the thesis
Thesis: The concepts of environmental racism and environmental justice are more important than ever for understanding Katrina, specifically, and, generally, the situation of poor people and people of color around the nation with respect to health and the environment.
Step 2: List main points
Here are the labels I’ve given to the sections (the writing on the right, next to the brackets, in the handwritten example below).
Env Racism an important concept
We must understand environmental impacts on poor African Americans
Env Racism/Env Justice perspective is useful
Influential elements downplay this perspective
Essential to apply this perspective to Katrina and in general
Step 3: Describe relationship of each main point to thesis
Explains topic and why ignored
Gives thesis human dimension
Support for thesis
Shows why thesis matters
Restate thesis
Step 4: Summarize each paragraph
I’ve scanned a handwritten version so you can see what it looks like while it’s being created. Scroll down for a more readable, typed version.