Into the Wild Outline Student Example Engl-1A, Rios This is an outline that a student made. (Note: I have made a few additions and changes for clarity.) Questions/directions Type your answers on this side Title: create an essay title that... Just Another Bush Casualty • gives a clue about what your topic is, and also • gets readers interested in reading your essay Introduction 1. “The prevailing Alaska wisdom held that McCandless was simply one more dreamy half- 1. Hook (1 sentence): Grab your reader’s cocked greenhorn who went into the country attention with an intriguing statement or expecting to find answers to all his problems and question. Or, you can start with a quote instead found only mosquitos and death” (72). from the book. (Make sure this relates to the 2. Into The Wild is the story of a young man who thesis.) was seeking an escape from his troubled 2. (Background) Briefly summarize Into the childhood and family tensions. Wild. 3. He found his escape by hitchhiking across the country and placing himself in continually more 3. (Background) Then, explain what the reckless situations. Surviving these situations on reader needs to know about Chris to luck and the good will of strangers, he developed understand your thesis statement. (Give an arrogantly inflated opinion of his own abilities. some general, relevant information about Eventually he landed in the Alaskan bush, where Chris.) there was no luck and no one around to bail him 4. Working Thesis (1-2 sentences): Clearly out. state the 3 main points you will discuss in 4. Chris McCandless was unprepared because he your paper. lacked wilderness skills, adequate gear, and thorough information about the wilderness. Note: your thesis must clearly relate to your three points below. Supporting Point 1 SKILLS 1. Topic Sentence 1: Clearly state the first 1. Chris’ ego seems to have prevented him from point that supports your argument. seeking the skills he needed to survive in the 2. Supporting details: write a short situations he wanted to. paragraph that gives details supporting your 2. He would gather general skills but either fail to topic sentence. comprehend or disregard the level of mastery he 3. Quote: Include one quote that supports needed. your point. 3. “Nuance, strategy, and anything beyond the rudimenteries of technique were waste on Chris.

The only way he cared to tackle a challenge was head-on, right now, applying the full brunt of his extraordinary energy” (111).

Questions/directions Type your answers on this side Supporting Point 2 GEAR 1. Topic Sentence 2: Clearly state the second 1. Chris made it a habit to enter situations without point that supports your argument. proper gear. 2. Supporting details: write a short 2. The failure to include a large caliber rifle, a radio, paragraph that gives details supporting your and adequate clothing demonstrate an almost topic sentence. suicidal recklessness. 3. Quote: Include one quote that supports 3. “Burres also got McCandles to accept some long your point. underwear and other warm clothing…‘but the day after he left I found most of it in the van’” (46).

Supporting Point 3 INFORMATION 1. Topic Sentence 3: Clearly state the third 1. Had he taken the time to do proper research on point that supports your argument. the area he was staying in, he would have known 2. Supporting details: write a short vital details that could have saved his life. paragraph that gives details supporting your 2. For example, if he knew about the annual topic sentence. flooding of the Teklanika river, he may have been 3. Quote: Include one quote that supports able to plan differently. Had he spent more time your point. researching, he may have been able to avoid the potato seeds that caused his starvation. The most important thing you can pack in the wild is knowledge. Throughout the weeks leading up to his departure for Alaska, we see Chris gathering information in various ways. It seems, however, that due to his stubborn desire to do things his way, he disregarded the most fundamental rules of survival: be prepared and have a plan “B”. 3. If he had gotten a map, he could have seen how close he was to several sources of help. Krakauer writes, “Because he had no topographical map, however, he had no way of conceiving that salvation was so close at hand” (174).

Conclusion 1. Krakauer writes that, “McCandless didn’t 1. Topic sentence 4: Restate the main idea conform particularly well to the bush-casualty of this essay. stereotype. Although he was rash, untutored in 2. Summarize your first supporting point. the ways of the backcountry, and incautious to 3. Summarize your second supporting point. the point of foolhardiness, he wasn’t incompetent” (85). Yet his own description of 4. Summarize your third supporting point. Chris, roughly translated to reckless and ignorant, conforms perfectly to bush- casualty. 2. First, Chris did not have adequate survival skills. 3. Second, Chris did not have enough gear. 4. Third, Chris did not know enough about the wilderness to survive in it.