Writing a Formal Sentence-Outline

The purpose of this assignment is to ensure that you can organize their ideas to answer a specific research question before they begin the drafting process. For this assignment you will prepare a detailed three-page, formal sentence outline which is in correct MLA format. Through this assignment you should demonstrate the ability to support a thesis, establish order and relationships between key ideas, relate ideas to the thesis,and clarify the relationship between major and minor points of research.

Requirements:

§  At least 3-page formal sentence outline.

§  MLA format

§  1 draft + final copy

§  Font 12, Times New Roman, double spaced

    Why write a research outline?

• Saves time and effort in the actual process of writing.
• Helps you organize your ideas
• Presents your material in a logical form
• Shows the relationships among ideas in your writing

How to write a reserach outline?

1. Identify the topic. The topic of your paper is important. Try to sum up the point of your paper in one

sentence or phrase. This will help your paper stay focused on the main point.

2. Identify the main categories. What main points will you cover? The introduction usually introduces

all of your main points, then the rest of paper can be spent developing those points.

3. Create subcategories. After you have the main point, create points under it that provide support for

the main point. The number of categories that you use depends on the amount of information that you

are going to cover; there is no right or wrong number to use.

By convention, each category consists of a minimum of two entries. If your first category is Roman

numeral I, your outline must also have a category labeled roman numeral II; if you have a capital

letter A under category I, you must also have a capital letter B. Whether you then go on to have

capital letters C, D, E, etc., is up to you, depending on the amount of material you are going to cover.

View & Listen to a tutorial on the Outline

View & Listen to a tutorial on the Thesis Statement

The completed outline could look like this: MLA style research outline

Opinion paper outline

Cause-and-effet paper ouline

Compare-and-contrast paper outline

Sample research outline and paper

Sources:

http://rexrose.com/DMAC/MLA%20Outline%20Format.rtf 

http://depts.washington.edu/psywc/handouts/pdf/outline.pdf

http://www.trhs.weber.k12.ut.us/hatch/my%20local%20web%20files%203/Portfolio/documents/powerpoint/5_paragraph_essay_format_vision.pdf