The research paper outline
2 ways to build a presentation outline

Occasionally instructors require a formal outline along with the final draft of students' research papers. Below are two ways of building a formal research paper outline.

One is the typical student approach (the dumb one I used all through school) of making a formal outline from the final draft of my term paper. The other is the smarter way of tidying up the working outline.

I'll start with the smart way of preparing the outline for presentation with the research paper.

Build from the comprehensive plan

Students who built a comprehensive plan for their research paper from a writing skeleton™ and add their research findings to it in a computer file, as I recommend, have very little work to do to build their research paper outline for formal presentation.

They simply make a copy of their completed working outline (source data and all) as their presentation outline basis. Then they follow this procedure:

1. Revise the thesis statement to reflect the research.

If the writer started out thinking that diagramming is the best way to learn English syntax and ended up thinking that diagramming is the best way only for students with extensive reading background, the writer must revise the working thesis before the presentation outline work begins.

2. Revise the supporting points to reflect the revised thesis.

The supporting points will become the Roman numeral points of the presentation outline.

Writers revise the supporting points primarily as a check on whether the working outline points make sense with the revised thesis. Often writers start with a very forthright statement and decide after researching that a more nuanced statement is required.

Note: Students are advised to make a copy of the outline thus far in a separately named file before continuing with the outline revisions. That file will contain information necessary for composition which will be stripped out of the presentation outline.

3. Identify 2-5 significant pieces of evidence for each supporting point.

Students should choose from their evidence summaries those that do not overlap. If several writers say the same thing, the writer has ONE piece of evidence from several authors.

The significant pieces of evidence become the Arabic lettered points for the outline.

4. Remove the source citation data.

The paper is going to include all the source information in detailed and nuanced form. It is neither necessary or desirable to put it in the outline.

When the first four steps are done, the result should be an informal outline that accurately indicates the content of the final paper.

5. Format the outline formally.

The informal outline can be made formal easily by prefacing the main points with a Roman numeral followed by a period and prefacing the supporting points by a capital letter followed by a period. The periods for each level should align vertically. Decimal tabs make that easy.

Or create outline from scratch

Creating the outline from a finished paper is not difficult providing the organization is clear. Here's how to do it:

1. Write the thesis statement in final form reflecting the research.

2. Summarize 2-5 supporting points for the thesis statement.

These are the Roman numeral points.

3. Identify 2-5 significant pieces of evidence for each Roman numeral point.

The evidence must not overlap. If several writers say the same thing, that constitutes ONE piece of evidence mentioned by several authors.

4. If necessary, summarize a significant point of conflict between proponents and opponents of a position as two points at a third level, which will be marked with Arabic numerals.

5. Format the outline by putting a period after each level symbol and lining up the periods for each level symbol vertically. Decimal tabs make this process relatively painless.

Students who use this method of creating a research paper outline from the finished paper may find that they have overlapping points or inadequate evidence. (Often they make that discovery when their graded papers are returned.) Using a writing skeleton to help plan the paper would have helped prevent those problems.

Learn more about preparing a research paper outline to be presented with an APA or MLA paper.