Essay outline template

• The question — the topic, the question a reader would actually ask, and why it matters now.
• The thesis — one sentence, plus the assumption it argues against and what would prove it wrong.
• The body — three points, each with a claim, evidence, analysis and a link to the next.
• The counterargument — the strongest objection, where it is right, and where it stops being right.
• The ending — the claim restated differently, what changes for the reader, and a last line that lands.
• Sources — a table of claim, source and whether it was checked.

1. Download, then Import into the editor or open it in any text editor.
2. Write the thesis first. If it takes two sentences, the argument is two arguments.
3. Fill the points with evidence you already have. Anything you have to look up later gets a question mark, not a placeholder citation.
4. Write the counterargument before the draft, not after the feedback.
5. Draft in a separate document. The outline is scaffolding; delete it from the final piece.

Citations. Quorly has no footnote syntax and no reference manager, so the sources table is a checklist rather than a bibliography. For academic work, keep the citations in the tool your course or publication requires and use this only for the argument's shape. The essayists page is explicit about that split.

If the call for submissions gave a hard limit, put it in the template's length section and check the draft with the word counter before you send it. Reading time at 225 words per minute is in the same section, which is the number a newsletter or an editor actually cares about.

• Three-act structure — for fiction.
• Character profile — for the people in it.