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HOW DO I PREPARE A FORMAL OUTLINE FOR A RESEARCH PAPER?
by Kathy McLain, M.A.  

There are several different methods for creating an outline for a research paper. Because the research paper is sometimes longer than the short essays students write, students do not know how to create an outline for a longer research paper. It may help you to recognize that a research paper is similar to a short argument paper in that there are usually anywhere from three to five major supports for your thesis statements. However your major supports are now explained in a whole section (one to three pages) similar to a short essay in English 101 or 102 rather than a paragraph. Each major support (section statement) should be followed with several supportive paragraphs similar to the way in which you would organize a short argument paper.

No outline can be created without the student deciding what the thesis statement will be. The thesis statement is the conclusion to your research question. Once you have a thesis statement, you can begin your outline.

An outline can sometimes be created by putting the thesis statement in front of you and then brainstorming all the reasons why this statement is true or valid. Remember that most students are not writing a report; instead they are defending, validating, or supporting their argument. Simply asking yourself, "Why is this thesis valid?" and then jotting down all the possible reasons the thesis may be defensible can give you a good start on an outline.

 
Thesis Statement:
Tobacco companies have created advertising campaigns designed to entice teenagers to smoke.

Brainstorming list: Note the following items are not in logical order as yet.

Reason: Tobacco companies created advertising campaigns to appeal to teenagers.
Reason: Through research the tobacco companies have learned that the earlier a smoker starts the longer he or she is likely to smoke.
Reason: Tobacco companies have offered a lot of promotional freebies that would appeal to teens, such as T-shirts and jackets, to further promote tobacco products to adolescents.
Reason: Research alerted tobacco companies that they needed to target younger consumers.
Reason: Tobacco companies created some cigarette products to appeal to teens by creating new brands that by name or chemical content of the tobacco would appeal to adolescents.
Reason: Tobacco companies created advertising characters to appeal to teenagers.

Revised Brainstorming List in Logical Order

Reason 1: Through research tobacco companies have learned that the earlier a smoker starts the longer he or she is likely to smoke.
Reason 2: This research alerted tobacco companies that they needed to target younger consumers.
Reason 3: Tobacco companies created some cigarette products to appeal to teens by creating new brands that by name or chemical content of the tobacco would appeal to adolescents.
Reason 4: Tobacco companies created advertising campaigns to appeal to teenagers.
Reason 5: Tobacco companies created advertising characters to appeal to teenagers.
Reason 6: They have offered a lot of promotional freebies that would appeal to teens, such as T-shirts and jackets, to further persuade adolescents to smoke.
 

Another method for creating an outline is to take your research notecards and put a heading on each card. Using the heading try to sort out what types of information you have into piles related to possible support sections for your thesis. As you organize your notes, you may start seeing in these notecards the answer to the question, "Why is my thesis valid?" Even if you don't use this method to begin an outline, at some point you will want to correlate your research notecards with your thesis statement.  For example, with the above list of supports for the thesis, you may want to sort your research notecards so that they correspond with each of the sections as a way of further developing your outline and further organizing your research sources.

After you have begun to get your "Why is my thesis valid?" reasons in some sort of logical order, you can then begin to start formalizing your outline. Most outlines use the Roman numeral system, although some instructors may ask you to use the decimal outline format.

Roman Numeral Format

I.
II.
		A.
		B.
			1.
			2.
				a.
				b.

The next step in creating an outline is to start assigning Roman numerals to major sections.  After assigning Roman numerals to major sections, which are the major reasons why your thesis is valid, you must begin to develop each section as though it were a separate argument paper using the capital letters for the paragraphs in each section and the Arabic numerals to explain what details will be used in each paragraph.  The more work you do with your outline, as long as it logically supports your argument, the more likely you will actually sustain an argument in your paper.

I.	(Introduce the issue or problem in research paper and state the thesis statement.)
		A.	Use capital letter headings to explain what points you will cover in your introductory section.
		B.
II.	(Use the Roman numerals in your research outline to represent the major reasons why--section statement--the thesis is valid.) Through research tobacco companies have learned that the earlier a smoker starts the longer he or she is likely to smoke.
		A.	(Use the capital letters in the outline to state what you will do in each paragraph to support the section statements.)
		B.
				1.	(Use the Arabic numerals in the outline to tell what details you will include in each paragraph of a specific section to support the section statement.)
				2.
III.	This research alerted tobacco companies that they needed to target younger consumers.
IV.	Tobacco companies created some cigarette products to appeal to teens by creating new brands that by name or chemical content of the tobacco would appeal to adolescents.
V.	Tobacco companies created advertising campaigns to appeal to teenagers.
VI.	Tobacco companies created advertising characters to appeal to teenagers.
VII.	They have offered a lot of promotional freebies that would appeal to teens, such as T-shirts and jackets, to further persuade adolescents to smoke.
VIII.	(Conclusion should restate section statements and show how the section statements prove the thesis is logical. Be sure to restate the thesis in the conclusion. Also, do not introduce new materials in your conclusion.)

Often students can't write a research paper because they do not have a good outline.

When typing an outline using Roman numerals, be sure that the periods after the Roman numerals line up because the number of spaces to type different Roman numeral characters varies. If you do not line up these periods following the Roman numerals and the Roman numerals themselves, your outline will not be spaced correctly at other levels. The sections after the capital letters and the Arabic numerals will not line up.