PSYC 363 - Cognitive Psychology

An outline is like a blueprint for writing: it helps you develop the big picture and structure for your papers. Outlines list the themes that you plan to use to address your research question, along with their corresponding articles and evidence, and then organize them into an order that will logically build towards your conclusions and answer to your research questions. 

Step 1: Identify the information you want to use from your sources to answer your research question

• What key information, issues, theories, approaches, evidence, and/or arguments will you use in your paper?

Step 2: Are there relationships, links, and common themes  between any of your sources ?

• 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: List your themes and organize your articles under each theme. 

• What are the main themes, ideas, and arguments you plan to present in your paper to answer your research question?
• What articles will provide information about and help you build arguments for each of these themes?

Step 4: 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

For more help developing your outline, contact the Writing Center and make an online appointment to meet with one of their consultants.