Students regularly ask for help in preparing an outline for a research
paper in either MLA paper format or APA paper format. They should
be happy to learn that there is just one
formal outline format regardless of which style guide they use.
This page will deal exclusively with the presentation outline,
the one submitted along with the completed paper. The APA and
MLA paper format elements that
students need to observe in their presentation outlines are listed
here.
Presentation outline distinctives
The presentation outline is different from the working outline
used in preparing the research paper. The presentation outline:
-
Uses formal
outline procedures and symbols.
-
Reflects the writer's final, post-research formulation
of his/her thesis statement.
-
Omits notes about the information sources.
-
May be either a full-sentence
or a topic
outline.
The one characteristic both types of outlines have is that they
both outline the support for the thesis statement
rather than indicating aspects of the topic.
Outline must be an outline
The research paper outline should indicate only the main
points the paper discusses. The actual discussion should be
reserved for the paper itself.
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The typical research paper outline presented with the final paper
has two levels of detail for most points: the Roman numeral
points, corresponding to the writing skeleton™ points, and
the A-, B-, C-lettered points that summarize the evidence for
those points. There is rarely a need for a third level of detail identifying
each piece of evidence.
If, however, a significant portion of a paper consists of analysis
of a viewpoint and refutation of it, writers may wish to
use the third level to show the controversy.
The opposing opinions should be summarized objectively,
without indicating the writer's position, like this:
Learn
the steps for turning a working outline into a presentation outline.
Sentence outline or topic outline?
I require my students to work with sentence outlines in the research
paper planning stages because the sentence displays relationships
between ideas.
By the time students are ready to submit a paper, it is too late
for a sentence outline to improve the paper. However, when an outline is a required part of the final paper
presentation, I recommend students submit a sentence outline unless the instructor specifies outwise.
My theory is that instructors who require an outline with a paper
aren't going to read the paper. In that case, students are more
likely to get a good grade from a good outline, even if the paper
is weak, than from a good term paper accompanied by a poor outline.
MLA and APA considerations
Although style guides like APA and MLA don't
explain how to write a research paper outline, they do specify
a format that must be maintained throughout the paper.
The outline must follow the style guide with respect to:
Teachers who require a research paper outline, whether in APA
paper format or MLA paper format, should tell students where in
the layout they wish the outline to appear and how the outline
page is to be numbered.
