Tips to Make Outline of CSS Essay
The outline of a CSS essay wields enormous significance to the piece, no matter examiner asks for it or not specifically. Because it makes the mind of an examiner regarding the relevance and quality of the material. As it is the very first interaction with the examiner, aspirants must write it carefully and deftly. As all other parts of the CSS/PMS essay require in-depth knowledge regarding the topic, the outline also requires practice as well as the guidance of an able mentor. Usually, to ace this subject, I will advise aspirants to make approximately 100 outlines during the preparation journey. Here, for aspirants, I am providing some tips to learn the art of making outlines of a CSS/PMS essay.
So, let’s start without any further delay:
1. Art as well as Scientific Method
Making an outline of a CSS essay is an art, but can be learned through the scientific method. Every outline is further divided into more parts. Mostly, these parts are common in all types of essays. Aspirants should keep these structural components in their minds while they are preparing the essay material to remember. It will help them out make outlines for various essay topics.
2. Is the help of a Mentor Mandatory?
It is not like you can’t learn outline making or writing CSS/PMS essays without an able mentor. The thing is that without them you need to do stupendous work to learn. It is a proven fact. An outline is one of the three most important parts of the essay. The other two are the introductory paragraph and the conclusion.
Out of all these, outline seeks the most guidance to learn. Moreover, while choosing a mentor for it, one should remember that it is not routine essay learning. It is quite different from the routine type of essays. Aspirants must choose the person having the relevant knowledge.
Also Read: How to Make Outlines for Different types of Essays
3. Components of Outline of a CSS Essay
An outline consists of two main components. One is the main points and the other one is the sub-points. There are some common main points used in the outline which are the Introduction, Definition, Cause, Impacts, Recommendations, and Conclusion. All main points are further divided into sub-points with the given combination of words. To be different from other aspirants, one should categorize the sub-points by using various categories for a better understanding of the examiner.
For instance, social impacts, economic impacts, political impacts, and administrative impacts are some commonly used categories.
4. Different Markers for Topics
Aspirants must choose different color markers for the main points and the sub-points. And, the only markers you can use in the examination hall are a Black marker and a Blue marker. Moreover, they can enhance the prominence of writing beauty by capitalizing each word except helping verbs and prepositions of course.
5. Tips regarding Main Topics
As the main topics of the outline are relevant to the essay topic, they must be written carefully after taking time. I will recommend you write a rough draft or outline on the back pages of your answer sheet before you finalize it. We can gauge the importance of the outline by the fact that aspirants discuss immediately after coming out of the examination hall and start determining whether to pass or fail on the basis of outline making.
Also Read: Current Affairs Topic of the World
6. Numbers of the Main Points
Ideally, there should be 7-10 main points on the basis of the given topic. Less than 7 points reflect that aspirants have not addressed their knowledge correctly and more than 10 points make the difficult for aspirants to cover them in a given time.
7. Marking the topics of the Outline
Aspirants should mark the main points and the sub-points with the numbers and alphabet. It is advised that the main points should be numbered with English numerals and the sub–points with Roman numerals or small alphabets. Moreover, one other thing should be kept in mind while writing sub-points, you should leave more space from the border as compared to the main points. it will clearly differentiate the main points and the sub-points easily.
8. Categorization of the Argumentative Essays
I advise you to always categorize the sub-points related to the primary topic. These sub-points should not be insufficient in numbers. There is a mistaken perception in the minds of aspirants that every sub-point needs a separate paragraph. You can cover 10 sub-points in 6-7 paragraphs. It depends upon your space and time. The number of sub-points is completely irrelevant to the number of paragraphs.
Ideally, you can apply one sub-point – one paragraph policy on 6-7 main points. In the remaining ones, you can use one paragraph for 2-3sub-points.
9. Sub-points in Specific Main-points
The number of sub-points in recommendations or causes should not exceed 8. But if they are specifically mentioned in the essay topic as a demand then you can. Similarly, aspirants must link the sub-points of recommendations with causes/impacts. You cannot recommend anything unless you discussed it in the issues/impacts/causes of the essay.
10. Appearance of outline
Aspirants should never compromise on the appearance of the outline. They should avoid cutting and overwriting in the outline because a better appearance makes a better impression in the examiner’s mind. Moreover, other recommendations I will ask you to apply are not the poor use of markers, bad sequencing, and inequality of inter-line spaces.
These all things are very harmful to the good impact on the examiner’s mind. Practice makes a man perfect. You guys must practice if you want to ace the examinations.
11. Enhancing its Quality
As we discussed earlier, it is the very first interaction of the examiner, so aspirants must write it carefully and enhance its quality. They should take every measure to convince the examiner of their linguistic and analytical skills. In the relevant sub-points, they should write all report comparisons, case studies, and all available references to make a better-quality of outline.
Also Read: Pakistan Affairs Topics for CSS 2023
12. Avoid Common Mistakes
Last but not least, aspirants should be very careful regarding the common mistakes while writing outlines of essays. Usually, it includes overconsumption of time. They must not spend more than 25 minutes on writing outlines for the CSS essay. Moreover, they should not exceed 15 minutes while writing the outline in the PMS essay.
Time management is not an easy task unless you practice it often.
