Strong outlines focus on addressing the research question, organize sources and evidence into themes and arguments, and then organize themes and arguments to logically build towards conclusions.
Step 1: Identify the information you want to use from your sources
- What key information, issues, theories, approaches, evidence, and/or arguments will you use in your paper?
Step 2: Identify relationships, links, and common themes
- What relationships and links do you see between the information you want to use from each of your sources?
- What common themes and arguments can you build from the information and evidence in your sources?
Step 3: Arrange themes and arguments
- How can you arrange your themes and arguments hierarchically and sequentially so that they logically build towards evidence-based conclusions about your thesis statement?
- These will represent the paragraphs of your research paper
