Building an Outline
Having decided on the sentence outline, Ben is ready to create the basic skeleton for his paper on the benefits of constructing environmentally friendly homes. He begins by centering the title of his outline on the paper, which is, by no surprise, 'The Benefits of Environmentally Friendly Home Construction.'
Ben's decided the first paragraph of his essay will explore the lower utility costs associated with owning a 'green' home. Next to Roman numeral number one, Ben creates a complete sentence to identify the main idea of the paragraph. We often refer to this as a topic sentence. 'Installing energy-efficient appliances in our homes leads to a more environmentally friendly home and can greatly reduce utility costs.'
Great! He's set a direction for this first paragraph, and now he needs to add specific details from his research. Ben will go down to the next line on his page, indent five spaces, and write his first specific detail next to capital letter 'A.' 'According to ENERGY Star, homeowners could save up to $180 each year by utilizing an environmentally friendly programmable thermostat (RESNET, 2012).'
Ben included a specific and relevant detail and even remembered to cite it. He'll skip to the next line again and this time indent ten spaces to insert number 1, or his take on the meaning of the detail. We generally refer to this sentence as analysis. Ben has interpreted his detail as: 'Making environmentally friendly choices during construction when it comes to installing appliances has lasting economic benefits for homeowners.'
kkk
Full sentence outlines are commonly used in traditional essay planning
When making an outline for your own papers, it's generally a good idea to provide two specific details with at least one sentence of analysis for each of the essay's body paragraphs. This can be added to during the drafting process later, but the ratio seems to lay a solid foundation for student essays.
So in order for Ben to complete a sentence outline for the first body paragraph of this essay, he'll need to identify at least one more specific detail, labeled 'B,' followed by another sentence of analysis. He does that by touching on the importance of those new, spiral bulbs we see in stores today. 'The front porch light is one of the most used lights in the house; therefore, installing a compact fluorescent light bulb (CFL) in this location can help curb energy costs (RESNET, 2012).' Once again, Ben follows this detail up with a sentence of analysis: '1. A few simple changes to our home furnishing purchases can change the way we spend and impact the environment.'
There you have it! Ben is well on his way to completing a full sentence outline for his paper on environmentally friendly homes. Using the thesis he constructed to guide the rest of his research, Ben will repeat the steps he took in Roman numeral number one to fill in details and analysis for the rest of his paper.
Ben is not the only one who learned from the mistake of poor planning. Ben's dad Bob did his homework this time too, and with the help of the Capable Construction Company he's ready to build the home of his dreams.