How to Outline and Organize a Research Paper or Writing Assignment

Hi, everyone.  This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel and in today's video I'll give you some tips on organizing and outlining your writing assignment.

I did a video a little while ago that shows the step by step process of writing a research paper, but what I don't cover in detail, is how to outline and organize the paper itself.  This video may not structure your paper for you, but it should provide some tips to get you started.

There are really two types of writing: creative writing and analytical writing.  Most of the assignments that you will receive fall into the category of analytical writing.  When I was in undergraduate, I used spend A LOT of time working on a really creative introduction, literary writing, and snazzy transitions between concepts.  It turns out, I was spending my energy in the wrong place.  

This is my second time going through graduate school, but during my first master's, I had my husband read and edit some of my writing.  He gave me some blunt advice that was distilled from several years of brutal writing training in law school.  Be clear, be concise, and make your organization super obvious.  I remember thinking "What?  Where is the magic in that?"  And the answer is -- there is no magic.  And in most cases, the more "magic" you put in your writing, the less clear and straightforward it is -- and therefore, the less good a paper it is.  I will talk a little more about HOW to be clear and obvious in a minute.  

But first, why is it important?  Well, turns out teachers and professors are human too.  And they do not live inside your head, nor are they mind readers.  So, if you have some brilliant analytical argument, you need to spell it out as clearly and bluntly as you possibly can, so that your professor understands it.  In addition, flowery language and run-on sentences only prevent easy understanding.  Professors generally have a rubric that helps them grade the paper with certain points that you have to cover.  DO NOT DO ANYTHING TO HIDE THESE POINTS.  In fact, the more signposts that you can use to make it clear that you are covering those points, the easier it will be for the professor to give you a good grade.  And what is the best way to ensure you have covered all of those points?  Using an

Outline

Making an outline is crucial.  Unless you are a crystal clear thinker who can offer an off-the-cuff well-reasoned argument without taking a breath, you shouldn't attempt to write without an outline.  Why?  Because without one you will ramble, you will write in stream of consciousness, and you will miss major points that are required in the instructions.  How can you make your organization structure obvious, if you don't have an organization structure at all?  The outline provides you with one and keeps you on task.  It's really just a listing of all of the things you will be discussing in the order that you will cover them.  So,

How Do You Make an Outline?

I can think of 4 ways.  

• Instructions - The first thing to do is look at the assignment.  Usually, the bones of your outline are already embedded in the instructions.  Say your instructions are this:
• 
  
  
• You can see the professor has already basically structured your paper for you.  So, since you will always have an introduction and conclusion, your initial outline might look like this:
• Introduction - 1/2 pg
• Definition of term - 1/2 pg
• Biopsychosocial Spiritual Framework - 1 pg
• Definition
• Relevance to SW practice
• Understanding a specific population or social problem - 1 pg
• Conclusion - 1 paragraph
• Now you just need to fill in the details of this outline before you start writing.  If your instructions are more detailed, I would paste all of that directly into your outline.  What if you don't have such detailed instructions?  Then you may want to try the 2nd method, taking your outline from an
• Exemplar - I'm pretty new to this idea, but lots of classes seem to use these.  These are examples of outstanding papers written by past students that the professor is willing to share with the class.  I don't like to read the papers all the way through since I don't want to unwittingly influence the content of my paper, but what I like to do is use their organizational structure.  After all, the professor seemed to think this was an excellent paper, so the organization must have been pretty good.  So, I will note paragraph by paragraph what the writer is doing and then use that structure for my own paper.  Okay, so you have no detailed instructions and no exemplars?  You can always search the internet for the 3rd method,
• Sample Outlines - for the kind of paper you are writing.  If you have been assigned an "Exploratory Paper" for example -- and you haven't a clue about how you should organize your paper, look up "Exploratory Paper Structure" or "Topics."  Based on what you find online, you should be able to start to put together an initial outline with broad topic areas.  And finally, you can always start an outline with your own
• Original Thoughts - You probably have some ideas about what you want to cover, right?  Theoretically, at this point you've done a little reading on the topic.  So, maybe you know you want to do a definition, a history of the term, a section on theories, and then maybe two real-world applications.  So, your outline might look like this:
• Introduction
• Definition
• History
• Theories
• Real-world Applications
• Application 1
• Application 2
• Conclusion
• Two quick things about original thoughts:
• Zero - What if you have zero original thoughts on the topic?  Well, you need to do some more reading on this topic before you attempt to put together an initial outline.  You have to have SOME information to work with before you begin to create a structure.
• Too Many - But what if you have too many thoughts?  How do you start to organize all of those ideas into a coherent structure?  I like to use something called Mind Mapping.  I have a video on Mind Mapping, which explains the process and how to do this on an iPad, but really you can use a piece of paper, a whiteboard, a spreadsheet, or a word processing document.  The idea is to get all of your ideas down on paper and then start sorting them into related topics.  Once you've completed your Mind Map, you should have a sense of what topics you want to include in your outline.  The next step is to 

Flesh Out Your Outline

Okay -- so now that you have an initial outline, you need to flesh it out.  How do you do this?  Well, what are you going to talk about in each paragraph?  What points do you want to make?  What quotations, research, examples, metaphors, real-life experiences, etc. back up your points?  Start filling them in.  Let's say this outline that you created is for a paper on Lobotomies.  Whatever details you want to put in for the definition or history, you should include in your outline.  If your outline is kind of sparse, well, you need to do some more reading.  But now that you have an initial outline, every interesting piece of information that you find as you read will have a place to go.  Cut and paste or type in all of these into your outline.  And remember to make notes of your sources, so that you can give them credit.  I have a video on using a spreadsheet to organize your citations and references, if you are interested.  Using a spreadsheet also gives you a way to tag all of your citations by outline section, so that you can plug them all into your outline later.

And finally, just a couple of suggestions on how to be clear, concise, and structurally obvious, which were the instructions that I got from my husband all those years ago.  Your introduction is really just a narrative view of your outline.  You should give a statement or quote about why the topic of your paper is relevant or interesting.  Then jump right into, "In this paper, I'll discuss outline topic 1, outline topic 2, outline topic 3, and outline topic 4."  Very straightforward -- you are letting your professor know exactly what you will be covering.  Then, in order to make the structure even more explicit, use headings and subheadings if you can.  Say you are doing real-life applications.  In the paragraph that opens that section, say, "We will look at two real-life applications, application 1 and application 2."  It's not magical, it's not glitzy, it's just clear, organized, well-explained writing. 

And just a handful of other tips for concise and clear writing:

• Paragraphs should be 4-8 sentences long depending on how long your sentences are.  There should be more than 1 paragraph per page.
• Try to make your sentences in active voice rather than passive voice, so "In 1998, Smith found . . ." rather than "Studies have shown."  
• Focus on finding good active verbs.  They help to drive the paper forward.
• Err on the side of shorter sentences over longer ones.  You want Hemingway rather than Faulkner.  And finally,
• Use words you understand and have used before.  Professors can tell when a student has jumped head first into a thesaurus.

And that's it!  I’ll do a video soon on some of the tools you can use for creating an outline.  Comments are always appreciated and thanks for watching!