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Effective Strategies to Outline your Research Paper

Writing a research paper is one of the most critical and challenging tasks in academic writing. Writing a research paper demands originality, competitive research skills, and the ability to organize your argument in a coherent discussion. Research writing is both challenging and mentally draining because of the energy, thinking, and writing which goes into writing research papers.





Not everyone has good research skills, especially the beginners who are new to academic writing with zero to no knowledge of how to structure their paper. Thankfully, in today’s digital age you have access to countless platforms that provide an essay writing service. These platforms have their trained and experienced professionals ready to deliver you a well-researched piece of writing.


However, it is also necessary that you learn the tips and tricks of research writing yourself. Even if you find the task overwhelming, there is nothing to worry about. We are here to ease you through the process of research writing. It’s all a matter of little practice and familiarity with the format. The rest becomes a smooth process for you to follow.


When starting the research paper, the first and foremost task is developing a comprehensive outline. Having your research paper outline available before writing can do wonders for you. It allows you to smoothly formulate your arguments, transition from one point to another, and cohesively connect your arguments. In the following section, we have outlined for you some necessary strategies using which you can develop comprehensive outlines for your research paper.


1)Select Your Topic


Always start by selecting your topic. Thoroughly brainstorm for ideas. Read some past academic papers to help you with choosing a competitive idea. Evaluate the relevance and significance of your idea in relevance to your academic level.


2) Gather all your rough ideas on paper


Once you are done with brainstorming and choosing your target topic, the next step is to organize your scattered thoughts. For that purpose, you must write down all your desired subtopics in whatever sequence you want. For example, when I do my paper I immediately note down all the rough ideas and pointers I can think off. Once you have your ideas noted, the next step is to arrange them.


3) Organize Your Ideas


Research writing is a hierarchical process where every step must be followed in sequence. So, once you have your ideas gathered on one page, you can start organizing them one by one. Start with the general sub-topics and slowly transition to specific subtopics. You can also organize your ideas into different sub-groups to discuss them in more detail. Pay attention to what topics you should discuss first and what topics can provide more detail and evidence to your research questions. Eliminate any irrelevant or redundant ideas while organizing. Make sure all of your subtopics are in-coherence with each other.


4) Create all the Necessary Headings


Research writing is all about creating suitable headings and filling the content accordingly. Once you have your ideas organized, creating headings usually comes under proposal writing. Carefully outline the aim, significance, problem statement, theoretical framework, methodology, research questions in separate headings and fill them accordingly.


5) Format Your Outline using Bullets


To keep your main-heading and subheading separated, it is advised to break them down into bullets. You can use different bullets for different heading levels. For example, you can use Arabic numerals for level one headings. Level two headings can be outlined using the numeric sequence. Whereas the level three headings can use roman sequencing with their sub-units outlined with regular bullets etc.


Here you go with some of the key strategies to sketch impactful outlines for your research paper. Follow every step precisely and carefully. Make sure you have all your target elements arranged and good to go, before beginning with your research writing. Good luck.


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