Many writers are hesitant to make an outline because they are eager to start writing. However, an outline helps you to organize your thoughts in an orderly fashion without repeating ideas, inserting random sentences or making other common writing mistakes. Put your thesis -- which is your main argument -- at the top of your outline. All material on the outline should relate directly back to the thesis. Your outline will be most effective if it is detailed. Although writing an outline can seem time-consuming, it will actually increase your writing speed because you won't have to pause to remember what you wanted to write next.
In elementary school, many of us struggled to meet page length requirements. The result is that many people still believe that longer pieces are necessarily better. While it's important to make your paper long enough to fully argue your ideas, repetitive sentences and excessive wordiness can actually undermine your message. Eliminate unnecessary words and avoid repeating an idea that you've already covered in a previous paragraph.
Although academic writing is known for its jargon-filled and overly-complex sentences, this approach actually makes your writing less logical. Regardless of what you are writing, keep your sentences as short and simple as possible. Ask yourself if a reader of normal intelligence who is unfamiliar with the topic could read your paper and understand your ideas. If the answer is no, you must simplify your writing. The only exception to this rule occurs when you are writing to an educated audience. In this case, you can assume some background knowledge, but should still keep your writing as simple and crisp as possible.
Paragraphs separate one idea from another, so each paragraph should have a distinct thesis sentence. All the sentences in each paragraph should relate back to this thesis as well as to the main thesis of your paper. If you're making an argument that is unusually long or complicated, don't just randomly separate the argument into paragraphs. Instead, break the argument down into sub-points and give each sub-point its own paragraph.