Research Paper Format Guidelines: How To Compose An Outline

Your research paper has to have a few things in each section of the research paper.  In the introduction you need your thesis statement and the reason or purpose of the topic that you are doing.  The body has to have at least three strong arguments that you used to back up your topic and your conclusion gives an overview of the argument.  And this is all the information that you will need to compose an outline for your research paper. Outlines do vary so I will give you general information that you can use but if you have to do it a certain way make sure you have the correct format before you start your outline.

How To Compose An Outline

These are the parts that you are going to outline in your research paper.  I would suggest checking out Explorable or using Microsoft Word templates to compose your essay.  Here are the parts that you need to include in your research paper.

• You title and thesis always go at the topic of your outline.  This helps you remember what your research paper is about and helps you from going off topic.


• You can outline your abstract but most people don’t but it could help you in writing your paper later.


• Start with your introduction, you want to write down everything that you think should be in it.  You can do full sentences, or just key words when outline but full sentence cut your writing in half for your paper.  You want to think of a good opening sentence and then think about how you can introduce the topic of your thesis to the reader.


• The body paragraph will all be outlined in separate sections on your outline.  Each section will tell you the main point and the evidence or facts that you have to support the argument of your topic.  You should go into detail in this part in case you don’t have enough information, you can add to it.


• The conclusion part of your outline can be done various ways.  You can propose a question to the reader, give them an overview of the topic, tell the reader about new information found during your research, request a call to action or open the door for more research.  These are just some of the ways you can end your research paper.  If you don’t know which one to choose then you can consult other research papers or your school book for answers.

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