Research Paper: The Outline

Why create an outline? Aids in the process of writing Helps you organize your ideas Presents your material in a logical form Shows the relationships among ideas in your writing Constructs an ordered overview of your writing Defines boundaries and groups

To Start: Brainstorm: List all the ideas that you want to include in your paper. Organize: Group related ideas together. Order: Arrange material in subsections from general to specific or from abstract to concrete. Label: Create main and sub headings.

Alphanumeric outlines An alphanumeric outline uses Roman numerals, capitalized letters, Arabic numerals, and lowercase letters, in that order. Each numeral or letter is followed by a period, and each item is capitalized:

Sample alphanumeric outline Thesis statement: E-mail and internet monitoring; is it really an invasion of the employees' rights in the workplace? I. Why do over 80% of today's companies monitor their employees? A. To prevent fraudulent activities, theft, and other workplace related violations. B. To more efficiently monitor employee productivity. C. To prevent any legal liabilities due to harassing or offensive communications. II. What are the employees privacy right’s when it comes to EM/S (Electronic Monitoring and Surveillance) in the workplace? A. American employees have basically no legal protection from mean and snooping bosses. 1. There are no federal or State laws protecting employees 2. Employees may assert privacy protection for their own personal effects.

Note that each category above has at least two subcategories.

BASIC OUTLINE  FORM   I. MAIN IDEA A. Subsidiary idea or supporting idea to I B. Subsidiary idea or supporting idea to I 1. Subsidiary idea to B 2. Subsidiary idea to B a) Subsidiary idea to 2 b) Subsidiary idea to 2 II. MAIN IDEA A. Subsidiary or supporting idea to II B. Subsidiary idea to II C. Subsidiary idea to II III. MAIN IDEA

IMPORTANT!!! It is up to the writer to decide on how many main ideas and supporting ideas adequately describe the subject.  However, if there is a I in the outline, there has to be a II; if there is an A, there has to be a B; if there is a 1, there has to be a 2, and so forth.

Outlines provide a summary showing the logical flow of a paper. They are useful because: help the writer organize their thoughts before getting bogged down in word choice and sentence structure; show which ideas need illustration or elaboration; and help the writer decide on an organizational technique for the report, whether it be logical, chronological, or categorical in nature.

Preparing and Using Outlines Using an outline can help you organize your material and can also help you discover connections between pieces of information that you weren't aware of when you first conceived the plan of your paper. It can also make you aware of material that is not really relevant to the purposes of your paper or material that you have covered before and should therefore be removed.

The Final Outline A Final Outline should enhance the organization and coherence of your research paper. Material that is not relevant to the purpose of your paper as revealed in your outline should be excised from the paper; if portions of your outline seem weak in comparison to others, more research may be required to create a sense of balance in your argument and presentation.

Try to bring related material together under general headings and arrange sections so they relate logically to each other. An effective introduction will map out the journey your reader is about to take, and a satisfactory conclusion will wrap up the sequence of ideas in a nice package.

Specifics Your outline must be alphanumeric Most word processors have settings to achieve this Your introduction must contain your thesis, as well as any other general information that is important for your reader to know Each subtopic should get its own section While you do not need to write full sentences, you cannot simply have a single word or brief phrase

The MLA handbook suggests the following "descending parts of an outline":

The following sample of a topic outline is also taken from the 1994 MLA Handbook: