Higgins/Kovacs
English III Honors
Topic Sentence Outline
Overview: The purpose of the topic sentence outline is to help you organize your major ideas
before you proceed to write the first draft of your research paper. You may not stick to this outline for
the duration of your research project, but at the least, you will begin to draft your essay with a
general sense of what major points you need to prove in order to write an effective essay.
Guidelines: Please make sure that your outline adheres to the following guidelines:

It includes a thesis statement. The thesis statement should express the main idea of your
paper. It should be one sentence. Putting the thesis statement at the start of the outline will
help you to make sure that each topic sentence relates to the thesis in some way.

Every topic sentence should be a complete sentence. The topic sentences should relate to some
aspect of the thesis you intend to prove. How many topic sentences do you need? Well, the
answer to that question varies from paper to paper. But, since no paper should include
paragraphs that are one page long, and because the research paper must be 7-10 pages in
length, 12-20 topic sentences seems like a reasonable estimate. The purpose of the topic
sentence is to state the main point of your paragraph. The topic sentence therefore directs the
discussion in the paragraph. In other words, the discussion in the paragraph should match the
thrust of the claim in the topic sentence. Everything in your paragraph must fit under the
“umbrella” of the topic sentence. Think of the topic sentence as a mini-road map to the
paragraph.

As you consider how to frame out your paper by crafting a topic sentence outline, you should
keep in mind the evidence from your note cards that you intend to use. Include 1-2 pieces of
evidence beneath each topic sentence. There should be a reasonable connection (discussion
will help of course) between the gist of the topic sentence and the nature of the evidence.

Your outline should end with a rephrased thesis statement, which should begin the final
paragraph. Do not use exactly the same words. You will not use the conclusion to
summarize all the points you made in the paper. The rephrased thesis at the end of the paper
should reflect a synthesis of the ideas and a newfound clarity about the subject gained over the
course of discussion. In other words, the rephrased thesis statement is the idea from your
thesis statement, differently phrased.
Partially Complete Outline
Below is a partially complete outline that is intended to give you a sense for how to begin drafting your
topic sentence outline. Notice there are twelve questions for twelve body paragraphs; some of these questions have
the matching formulated topic sentence to give you a sense of how to create them.
1. Begin by writing a thesis statement. Think critically about your essential question. Then, try to construct a
thesis statement that not only answers your essential question, but provides the reader with a sense for how you
are going to answer that question as your essay unfolds over the next 7-10 pages. See the sample below.
2. Brainstorm questions related to your thesis statement. Think logically about your thesis. What points will
you need to prove in order to support your thesis? Jot these points down first in the forms of questions. Then, turn
your questions into topic sentences. Note: If your thesis does not generate any questions in your mind (or if it
tends to raise too many), chances are it is too broad.
3. Rephrase your thesis. This rephrased statement will serve as the topic sentence of your concluding
paragraph.
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The following is a sample of a 14-paragraph topic sentence outline with 3 of the topic sentences and thesis statement
written for you. The outline does NOT include any evidence. You MUST include the evidence that will be used to
support each topic sentence.
Thesis: The publication of Michael Lewis’s Moneyball in 2003 led American baseball executives to abandon
subjective assessments of player talent in favor of empirical analyses that are still widely used today.
1. Introduction (including above thesis)
2. Who is Michael Lewis?
TS: Before he wrote Moneyball, a book that would forever change the dynamics of professional baseball, Michael
Lewis worked in finance.
3. What is the story behind Moneyball?
4. What is the thesis of Moneyball? What evidence does Lewis use to support his thesis?
TS: In Moneyball, Lewis argued that “small market” baseball teams could compete with marquee franchises by using
statistics to identify college players and free agents who would play at a high level for less money than big name
players.
5.
6.
7.
8.
How did baseball executives evaluate player talent before the publication of Moneyball?
What were the strengths of the traditional, subjective assessments of player talent?
What were the weaknesses of the traditional approach?
Recognizing the weaknesses of the traditional approach, how did baseball executives begin to evaluate
player talent differently after the publication of Moneyball?
9. What are the strengths of the empirical measures that became popular in 2003?
10. What are the weaknesses, if any, of the empirical approach?
TS: Relying on non-traditional criteria has enabled club owners to identify talented players who expect to be paid
less than marquee players who put up big numbers.
11. How, on a practical level, do baseball executives use statistics to evaluate player talent today?
12. Since 2003, are the same kinds of statistics being used, or are executives focusing on different facets of a
player potential?
13. What are the implications of the popularity of empirical measures for the future of baseball?
14. Conclusion (beginning with below statement)
Rephrased Thesis Statement:
American baseball executives define “talent” differently than they did a decade ago partly because of Michael
Lewis’s argument for a statistics-based approach to player evaluation in Moneyball.