Regardless of the nature of your research, if you are writing a paper an outline will help you to not only organize your thoughts, but also serve as the template for your entire paper.
An outline for a research paper is a visual reminder to include all of the pertinent details of your research into your essay or paper.
Then under your name, on separate lines, double-spaced, and flushed against the left margin, type your teacher’s name, your course code, and the date. If you have a long title, double-space between lines of the title. Do not put quotations marks before and after the title.
If your teacher prefers the first page of your essay not be numbered, you will begin numbering with page 2. Do not underline the title, or put a period at the end of the title.
The USC Guide to Making an Outline will also help you.
The chief components to an outline are: Relatively straightforward, right?However, the part to remember is that each part serves a specific purpose and how you arrange information in your outline will drive how your paper reads upon completion.The Introduction is one of the most important elements of any great research paper, and interestingly enough, often written LAST.Use clean, good quality 8 1/2″ x 11″ white paper, one side only.Leave margins of your essay 1″ (2.5 cm) at the top, bottom, left and right sides of each and every page. Exception is made for page numbers which are placed 1/2″ (1.25 cm) from the top upper-right hand corner, flushed to the right margin.If you used any sort of data validation, this will typically follow the methodology and literature sections.This is where you will highlight your results and mention other variables that you’ve uncovered in your research.FBI would be all in capitals as it is the acronym for Federal Bureau of Investigations.When using an acronym, especially an uncommon one, you must indicate what the letters stand for at the first occurrence in your essay.Example: The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) is nearly finished converting from using standard desktop PCs to blade PCs.If a Title Page is a requirement for your assignment, begin on a new page. Otherwise, center each line and double-space every line on a blank page: name of school (optional), title of paper in upper and lower case, course code, course name (optional), teacher’s name, your first and last name, and date.