6 steps to prepare an outline for your academic papers

by John Mark Academic Writing Help

Have you ever lost your way home while coming back from somewhere? Well, the same situation may happen while you prepare your academic paper as well. It’s rather common for students to lose direction while working on an elaborate paper. This is why the eminent experts who offer affordable papers stress on the importance of preparing an outline.

Here are the steps that the renowned experts on online paper help services follow to prepare a clear outline.

1.      Know the purpose of presenting an outline

Ideally, preparing an outline for your academic paper should have a purpose, such as to inform, or reflector entertain. In this case, the experts on affordable paper writing services recommend that you must consider what you want to accomplish through your outline.

Ultimately, it all depends on the kind of academic paper you're writing. This, in turn, allows you to focus on what the paper will offer to the reader. Generally, the purpose could be to inform the reader or share the writer's reflections with the reader.

2.      Brainstorm to present your argument or primary ideas

Take note of the ideas, crucial bits of research, and any pertinent questions you might want to answer. Basically, write down everything you would like to incorporate in your outline. You can always discard some of the (less important) ideas later. Presented below are some ways to organize your thoughts:

·         Create a mind map.

·         Free write as ideas come to you.

·         Jot down your thoughts on index cards.

3.      Club the ideas together 

Review the ideas you have gathered while brainstorming, keeping the related ideas in the same group. It’s alright if you have plenty of information at first. You can always eliminate the ideas you think is unnecessary to include.

These groups will ultimately become the main arguments of your assignment paper. So, narrow these groups down until you have the arguments you want to focus on.

4.      Develop your working thesis

Once you have derived the right ideas and thoughts about your purpose and audience, you will be able to come up with a thesis statement. Impactful thesis statements elaborate on the main focus of an academic paper and mention an arguable claim. A thesis should not be more than a sentence in length.

Make sure your thesis offers sufficient detail. In other words, you must avoid stating that something is “effective” and instead emphasize what makes it "effective."

5.      Write topic sentences for each paragraph

Dedicate different sections or paragraphs to discuss each the idea, so that each paragraph consists of one main idea. This provides a visual/organizational clue to the reader that different pieces of details are being presented.

Your topic sentences have to set the direction for the paragraph. You need to ensure they serve as a “road map” to let the reader know what the main topic will be. An ideal topic sentence will be directional, informative, and interesting.

6.      Begin your outline’s first level

Once you come up with the topic sentences, you will have clarity on the ideas you will be elaborating on. You can now determine how to organize these paragraphs in the first level of the structure. You can use capital Roman numerals to divide the elements in this level (I, II, III, IV, etc.).

Don’t be apprehensive of experimenting with the order of the paragraph. You may discover that as you develop your paragraphs while writing the paper, they relate with the other sections of the paper.

These steps will eliminate any confusion you may have for preparing your outline. 

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Created on Jul 3rd 2019 07:55. Viewed 412 times.

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