Outline

I. Intro
A. Thesis: no pets other than fish should be allowed in dorms
B. Background info: policy at Ohio Wesleyan
II. Small size of dorm rooms
A. size of rooms is not conducive with keeping caged animals
B. made for 2 people, not an animal too
C. cite specific measurements
III. Cleanliness and noise levels
A. would cause problems
B. dirty, smelly
C. roommate/neighbor conflicts
IV. Fish are suitable pets
A. perfectly acceptable option for a pet
B. colorful, cheerful, inexpensive, small
C. decorative
D. ideal pets for college students
V. Counterargument: Pets give companionship
A. something to give attention to
B. students spend too much time on school work, jobs, and social life
C. not enough time to devote to pets
VI. Counterargument: Pets help build a community feeling
A. give feeling of closeness
B. noisy, smelly, dirty
C. would actually cause annoyances
D. pets do not contribute to a feeling of close community
VII. Conclusion
A. keeping pets other than fish is a bad idea
B. small animals would be smelly, dirty, and noisy
C. they would cause conflicts
D. fish are good pets for college students

One thing that I could improve upon in my essay is to work on the organization so that the ideas flow well. I am going to combine and change some of the paragraphs in order to make the essay more effective. I also want to work on having a clear thesis statement for each paragraph so that the main idea is clear and easy to understand.