How to outline your research paper in 3 easy steps

You have a new task: you must read a main text, cite 3 secondary sources and write an analytical article with an introduction, thesis, supporting arguments and a conclusion.

You probably have a lot on your mind when it comes to developing your ideas and articulating them into a brilliant document. However, before going through the library door, he must write an outline containing the core of his ideas shortly.

I won’t try to convince you of the need to write an effective schematic, I just hope I can convince you to give it a try and see that it works for yourself. Fortunately, it’s an easy thing to do, especially when you follow these 3 steps:

find your thesis

You may get bogged down in every aspect of building your article, but there are really only three things you should be concerned with: finding your argument, making your case, and organizing your supporting evidence.

Essentially, you are just presenting an argument, which is your thesis. This single statement alone will decide the entire direction of his work.

How do you come up with one? Writing about what interests you most about your text or main topic. It doesn’t matter if you have no interest in what you are studying, with a little effort you can find something worth writing about.

Put your research together

Next is the construction and presentation of your supporting evidence. During the course of his research, he is likely to find a lot of sources that are interesting and add new dimensions to his work, but that have little to do with his thesis. He will also find fonts that are more relevant to his topic but less interesting. Is it okay to add interesting things to your work?

The answer is that it’s fine, but you should stick mostly to relevant content; should be the bulk of your role. If you want to add some more controversial stuff feel free to, sometimes it can really add to your presentation. But remember that direct, precise, and relevant writing always works well, while writing that goes off on a tangent sometimes works well.

Also remember that your supporting paragraphs don’t stand alone but work together. He must think about how they logically connect to each other and how they build on his thesis.

Let’s make sure we don’t confuse you. When you start writing your outline, you won’t have any research, so just write down what you want to include. When you have completed your research and found good reference material, plan how you will use it in your work with your outline.

the final touches

You are almost finished; you just need to check your schematic to make sure you have these elements:

1. The warm-up of your thesis. Write a general background that illustrates where you are coming from and why your argument makes sense.

2. How you present your thesis and move towards your first statement of support. This crucial area is where you start to really engage the reader.

3. Each of your paraphrased supporting statements into one or two prizes.

4. The closing point (leave the reader with a thought) of your conclusion.

Now, with your outline complete, start writing! Use this document as your beacon, and you’ll see better results and a higher score in less time.

Thank you for reading!

Robert Lowndrey