How to Develop an Outline I. A preliminary outline A.

How to Develop an Outline
   Good morning, everyone. Today, we will continue our discussion on how to write a research paper. The focus of our lecture this time centers on how to develop an outline of a research paper. 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.
   First, before we start writing a research paper, we must make sure what kind of materials should be included, and hence developing a preliminary outline is a must. A preliminary outline might be only an informal list of topics and subtopics which you are thinking of covering in your paper. Sometimes, however, an instructor might require that a preliminary outline be submitted at the beginning of your work; then your instructor might suggest ways in which the work needs to be further developed or cut back. Your instructor might also see that you’re trying to accomplish too much or too little for the scope of the assignment he or she has in mind. Then, how to pin down a preliminary outline?
   To develop a preliminary outline, we need to follow two fairly simple steps: first, write down ideas or code words in a rough list and second, give order to the list by arranging items into major and minor ideas. How you finally organize your thesis is a matter of your work habits and the nature of the subject.
   After finishing the preliminary outline, you need to revise it during the process of research. You need to bear in mind that the preliminary outline can be revised as you discover new material and get new ideas that ought to go into your paper. Writing a research paper is recursive, which means that you will look back over your paragraphs, adjust your thinking, and move forward again.
   The outline expands or shrinks throughout the gathering of data and the writing of drafts. With that in mind, ask yourself the following questions to evaluate your overall plan: first, what is the role of my research? Am I reviewing, discovering, interpreting or theorizing? Second , what is my thesis? Will my notes and records defend and illustrate my proposition? Is it convincing evidence? Third, how specialized is my audience? Do I need to write in a non-technical language or may I assure that the audience is knowledgeable in this field and expects in-depth discussion of substantive issues? Your answers will determine, in part, the type of materials needed. Plus, most word processing programs have outlining features with automatic formatting that make it easy to create and revise outlines. It is a good idea to keep copies of old outlines in a computer folder in case new versions of the outline lead you in false directions that you will later have to abandon. Keeping track of your outlines can avoid going astray.
   A final outline should enhance the organization and coherence of your research paper. Instructors sometimes require that a final outline be submitted along with the final version of your paper. Materials that are not relevant to the purpose of your paper as revealed in your outline should be eliminated 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. Outlines can be organized according to your purposes. Are you attempting to show the chronology of some historical development, the cause-and-effect relationship between one phenomenon and another, the process by which something is accomplished, or the logic of some position? Are you defining or analyzing something, comparing or contrasting one thing to another or presenting an argument with one side or both? In any case, try to bring related materials 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.
   Finally, you need to choose an appropriate final outline form. Outlines appear in a topic, sentence or paragraph form. Avoid mixing the forms within a given outline. With the topic outline, every heading is a noun phrase or its equivalent, a gerund phrase, or an infinitive phrase. This form is the most popular and establishes precisely the main areas of investigation. Its weakness is brevity because the incomplete headings can hide any organizational problems. A sentence outline includes full sentences that you would transcribe into the draft. Some outline entries can serve as topic sentences for paragraphs, thereby speeding the writing process. In addition, the subject/verb pattern establishes the logical direction of your thinking. A paragraph outline is written with every section as a paragraph or as full paragraphs under noun headings. The dangers of the paragraph outline are twofold: you may try to write the paper when developing only an outline or your may carry weak underdeveloped outline paragraphs directly into the rough draft.
   Now, to sum up in today’s lecture, we have reviewed the process of writing an outline of a research paper. First, we need to prepare a preliminary outline that includes topics and subtopics to be covered in the paper; second, the preliminary outline should be revised during the process of writing so that our thinking could be adjusted now and then; the revision of the outline arrives in the finalized version that enhances the organization and coherence of the research paper. OK, this brings us to the end of today’s lecture. Thank you for your attention.