Writing a Research Paper Outline

Whether you are writing an essay as a school assignment, for a contest, or to compete for a scholarship, it is crucial to create a research paper outline. This outline helps to make your essay writing process seamless by organizing your thoughts. Writing a research paper outline will make your academic and career life very easy regarding project writing.

In this article, we will take you through the process of making a good research paper outline, regardless of whether your paper is short or lengthy. You can write this outline for assignments like essays, reports, and other school projects. If you need professional guidance, talk to us via our customer support staff. We will be glad to help.

What is the typical outline of a research paper?

As a beginner student, before writing your research outline, you first need to answer the question, “What is the typical outline of a research paper?” In our understanding, an outline of the research paper is a visual aid that represents the writer’s thoughts and organizes them.

Once you have a topic sentence, you can highlight your points on what needs to be in your paper. You can organize them into paragraphs, for instance, the five-paragraph essay that consists of an introductory part, a body part, and a conclusion. This will ensure that the essays flow smoothly for the readers of your paper.

How to Write a College Research Paper Outline

Immediately after identifying your topic of discussion, determine the kind of research paper you’ll be writing. Some standard essay formats include argumentative, comparative, and descriptive essays. These three essay structures are very similar.

The following are steps that will help you write a research paper outline.

1. Decide on the kind of essay format you will use

Most research papers for beginner College and high school students consist of an introduction, body parts one, two, three, and a conclusion paragraph. Essays with 5 paragraph formats are either argumentative or descriptive essays.

2. Choose your topic

If not restricted to base your paper on a particular topic, choose an exciting topic that you can easily understand and provides room for argument. In your research paper outline, list down all the ideas you would like to talk about in your paper. If your class instructor provides a topic, ensure you make your paper more engaging and exciting.

3. Conduct research

Gather as much information as you can regarding your topic of discussion. You can get notes from online libraries, school libraries, magazines, journals, books, etc., to support your arguments. Two or more sentences should support each argument. Your research paper requires a complete investigation to be completed.

Organize your outline

You can use decimals, alpha-numeric, or full sentences when organizing your research outline. Alpha-numeric outlines are commonly used. Alpha-numeric uses capital letters, small letters, roman numbers, and Arabic numerals to organize the information in an outline. It provides fewer notes than complete sentence outlines.

When organizing your outline, you should also consider using a parallel structure. Begin each part of the research outline with the same kind of verbs or nouns.

5. Include primary sections

The primary sections of a scientific research paper outline should include an introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

Ensure you briefly write your introductory sentence. This sentence is one of the determinants of whether the reader will read the rest of your paper or not. Make your introductory sentence exciting and engaging to the reader. In the last line of your introduction section, write your thesis statement.
Write your ideas and provide two to three supporting sentences, cites, or quotes.
When determining your thesis, choose one that you can argue with. Make it short but significant.
Outline a paragraph to support every point stated in the thesis. Start with a topic sentence for each paragraph, then address points in the thesis.
When concluding your paper, begin by restating the thesis statement. Ensure you summarize your paper by including the ideas or at least two to three complete sentences.
Finish writing the conclusion with a call to action.

Determine compare/contrast essays

The structure for a compare and contrast essay consists of an introduction, a paragraph to discuss similarities, a paragraph of differences, and a conclusion paragraph.

Think about advanced organizers for more extended essays

When you are required to write longer research papers, you may develop each thesis point through several paragraphs. You can introduce these paragraphs through an extended essay advanced organizer, headings, and subheadings.

Language use in research paper outlines

One of the critical things that contribute to a thriving research paper is language use. The poorly used language will score your low grades, while a better choice of language will score you high.

Here are the four language-related things you need to consider when writing a research paper outline.

· Coordination

Consider the weight of every point that you write.

The first, second, or other subheadings of your choice should present the significance level as each other.

An example of coordination is

Introduce the Covid-19 outbreak in the UK, US, and China
Show vaccination figures in the affected areas
Give an outline stating the dangers posed by Covid-19 compared to other illnesses
The diseases that are likely to result from the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Parallelism

Be harmonious with grammatical form

Parallelism is the repetitive use of a particular grammatical form in a sentence, point, or sub-point. If you begin your initial point with a noun or verb, the other subpoints should also begin with nouns or verbs.

Here is a parallelism example

Begin a debate on vaccination. Talk about: Why Covid-19 vaccination is highly advocated and why some groups are against it.
Discuss different areas, and focus your paper on the different arguments from those against vaccination

· Subordination

Make your workflow from general to specific points

Subordination refers to splitting general points from specific ones. You can begin the main headings with a general point and then narrow them down to specific points as you write your subheadings.

A subordination example is

Outline dangers posed by Covid-19 as compared to other infections
Resulting in illnesses from the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
Untreatable cases of other diseases after patients got the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

· Division

Split your information into sub-headings

You should divide your points into two or more subpoints. You can write as many subheadings as you can under one heading bearing in mind that the information will be formatted into a paragraph when you start the actual writing.

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Research paper outline generator

On onlinenursingpapers.com, we can help you discover the most effortless research paper outline generator process. Generating a five-paragraph paper outline helps and guides you through the whole essay writing. For a research paper outline generator, you need to state your idea and give two arguments for and one against.

Basic Research Paper Outline Template

The research paper outline template consists of short or extremely detailed notes depending on the instructions given by your professor. If you are not given instructions, you can opt for a template that works best for you.

Below is an example of a basic research paper outline template

Example: The Covid-19 and the vaccination debate

INTRODUCTION

Definition of Covid-19 diseases
The recent rise of Covid-19 infection in areas with low rates of infection.
Figures: Average number of cases per year in recent years. Relate to vaccination

DANGERS OF COVID-19

Signs, symptoms, and timeframes of infection
Risk of death, including statistics
How Covid-19 is spread?

PREVENTATIVE MEASURES AND RISING ISSUES

Vaccination procedures in different areas
The debate on vaccination discusses both sides: why vaccination is recommended and why there are individuals against it
Different areas. Focus your discussion on those against Covid-19 vaccination

SPECIFIC CASES OF NOTE RELATED TO THE VACCINATION DEBATE

Outbreaks in the UK, USA, and China
Vaccination figures in affected areas
The rise in the number of cases in non-vaccinating areas

COVID-19 AND OTHER INFECTIONS

Dangers caused by Covid-19 as compared to other diseases
Issues that can arise from the Covid-19 virus
Fatal cases of other illnesses after a patient contracted Covid-19.

CONCLUSION

Summary of arguments of various individuals and groups
Summary of figures and relationship with recent vaccination debate
Concluding statement based on collected data
Which side of the argument is correct?

Outline for a Research Paper MLA

When writing a research paper outline MLA, you are required to start by explaining your heading. Each heading should discuss an accurate, simple, and relevant idea to make your reader hooked to your paper. Research paper outline MLA helps eliminate possible errors provides better information and helps you complete your task on time.

Research paper outline APA

When writing a research paper outline in APA, you must pay attention to font size, spacing, typeface, structure, headings, subheadings, numerals, margins, etc. This all depends on the instructions given and your personal preferences for APA citation formats. We would advise you to follow the standards for APA format to write your research paper outline. For example, the standard APA font size is 12-point typeface Times New Roman, double space.

Are you struggling to write a Research Paper Outline?

Do you need an expert to coach you on how to write a college research paper outline? Here at customnursingpapers.com, we have a team of experts that will take you through a thorough research paper outline writing process to help you learn the skill of writing. Writing an outline might look like a huge task for beginners, but once you learn how to, you will become a master.

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