Research: 3 Times to Outline
Outline Your Research Essays or Papers: The Prewriting Stage
Outlining, or planning the structure of an essay or research paper, is part of the prewriting stage of essay writing. Prewriting is often neglected in writing a paper, but it can make a big difference in the success of the essay.
There are three times you can outline papers or essays:
Outline before you research.
This prewriting essay outline shows the main topics that you expect to research for your paper. For example, if you are studying the bombing of Pearl Harbor, you could expect to find information on the geography of Pearl Harbor, the Japanese forces, the US forces, the state of the war, the attack itself, and the effects of the attack. This time the outline helps direct the research.
Outline after you research.
After you have researched information for your paper, it’s time to sort the information and structure it in some logical way. This essay outline will probably be more developed and quite different from the first outline. The prewriting outline you write here will act as the blueprint for the first draft of the paper or essay.
Outline after the first draft.
Outlining a research paper or essay is usually considered a prewriting activity, but it can also be used to revise. After an essay is written, put away the first outline you wrote and don’t look at it for this next task. Reread the essay or paper and outline what you actually wrote. At this point there are probably two essays: the research paper you planned and the research paper you wrote. Probably, these essays don’t match up, because it’s hard to write everything exactly right on the first try. Now, take out the first outline and compare. The comparison will give you a place to start revisions on the research paper.
Need more on teaching writing under the Common Core Standards?
