In order to create an outline for an expository/informative essay first, you need to come up with a thesis statement. It is best to write it first and at the beggining of the outline so that you can have easy access to it. Since this is an outline, you'll want to come up with a sentence or two that encompasses the whole idea. The outline should consist of three or two sections: the introductory paragraph, the content/s paragraph, and the conclusion paragraph if there is one.
First, you'll want to think about the introductory paragraph:
1) It should start with an introductory generalization to introduce the topic (something like "In recent years, the topic of has been broadly discussed".)
2) You will want to look for a transition sentence that provides more information about the topic you introduced. It is important to narrow down the idea until you reach the level of specificity of the thesis. You can mention the majour aspects of the topic if your thesis is about one of those aspects.
3) At this point you can either quote the study ("This is what the research *** explores) or not, and then add the thesis. The thesis should contain all the topics you want to assess.
Then you introduce the first content paragraph: Ideally, you should make each content paragraph-oputline per topic you'll assess.
1) You can start with a transition statement to smooth the way towards the topic sentence (similar to the one in the introductory paragraph).
2) Next, comes the "topic sentence" which is a sentence that introduces one of the topics mentioned in the thesis, and the one that will be explored in the paragraph, when you write it.
2) Afterwads should come the evidence to support your topic sentence. Quotations could be a useful tool if the essay is about a specific research. You can write the idea of the quotation and then add "quotation" between parenthesis.
3) Round up the paragraph so the reader has a clear idea of what the paragraph was about. This round up is similar to the topic sentence itself and some authors omit it.
According to many authors, the conclusion is optional in expository/informative. Yet, the way to write one in academic essays follows the inversed structure of the introductory paragraph. Namely, you start being very specific, remindin the reader of the thesis, afterwards you incorporate a broader idea that relates it to a more general topic. Lastly, you incorporate an even broader idea, like a generalization, that enables the reader to connect your ideas to experiences they can easily relate to.
Some people start off by writing the outline of the content paragraphs and then think about the introductory or the conclusion ones. You can choose the order you feel more comfortable with to let your creativity flow.
