Creating an Outline!

Use the information in this blog post to help you create an outline for your research project.

Why create an outline? There are many reasons; but in general, it may be helpful to create an outline when you want to organize the information you collected in order to present it in a logical way. For research papers, an outline may help you keep track of large amounts of information. For creative writing, an outline may help organize the plot and help keep track of character traits. Many people find that organizing an oral report or presentation in outline form helps them speak more effectively in front of a crowd. Below are the primary reasons for creating 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

How do I create an outline?

• Determine the purpose of your paper.
• Determine the audience you are writing for.
• Develop the thesis of your paper.

Then:

• 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.

Remember: creating an outline before writing your paper will make organizing your thoughts a lot easier. Whether you follow the suggested guidelines is up to you, but making any kind of outline (even just some jotting down some main ideas) will be beneficial to your writing process.

Resources

There are several resources in the Student Work folder on Dropbox.  You can also use THIS WEBSITE as a guide to walk you through the outline, step-by-step.  HERE is a link to the rubric that I will use to grade your research project.  Take a look at the rubric to make sure your work will earn you the highest possible grade.  

You may use any of these resources to create your outline.  You can also search Youtube for videos on how to create an outline for your research project.  You may choose to type it up in Evernote, or you can write it out in your journal.  

Once you are finished drafting your outline, use THIS LINK to submit it for a grade.  

Looks like someone forgot to brush their teeth this morning!