The Research Process

Creating an outline assists you with organizing your ideas, and help you to remain focused while writing your paper. 

An outline will also help with:

• Presenting your ideas clearly
• Overcoming writers block - it will show you where you're going and what the next step is
• Getting you back on track should you find yourself straying from the subject
• Showing the relationship between your ideas
• Knowing what direction to research and what areas of the outline need additional sources

1. Identify the research topic/question: this is the main point of your paper. 

2. Identify the subtopics: your introduction will describe all of the subtopics and the rest of the paper will expand on those. The number of subtopics  you use depends on the amount of information that you are trying to cover. 

3. Identify points within your subtopics that will support your main point. 

(adapted from the University of Southern California Libraries)

Alphanumeric Outlines: the most common type used

• starts with Roman numerals - I, II, III, IV, V,...
• then uses Capitalized letters - A, B, C,...
• then uses Arabic Numerals - 1, 2, 3,...
• and last uses Lowercase letters - a, b, c,...
• If you need to subdivide beyond this use Arabic numerals in parenthesis - (1), (2), (3),...

Here are some examples courtesy of The Purdue OWL. 

               Don't let the outline ruin your paper.

As you investigate and learn more about your research topic, your analysis may take another direction. Feel free to reorganize the outline. Relax and enjoy the learning process.