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How Should I Compose The Essay’s Outline?

No matter your research nature, you should create an outline composing an essay to serve as an entire essay’s template, and organize your thoughts. The research essay’s outline is your visual reminder to make sure you included all research details in your essay. This is a skeleton of the real essay to guide you via your entire process of writing. 

Firstly, you should divide your paper into several components (Intro, Main Body, and Conclusion) to assist you in staying better organized and eliminate the risk of necessary data being unintentionally omitted or forgotten. Moreover, if you break the paper into the mentioned above sections, you will address individually specific parts and diminish the possibilities of feeling overwhelmed.

How to Compose the Research Essay’s Outline?

The outline’s structure would be similar no matter if you are composing something more general or a scientific essay. It is interesting that the research outline’s structure is identical nearly to the research essay template. 

Here are the main elements to add to the outline:

Sounds clear? Nevertheless, you should keep in mind that every section features a specific target, and the way you arrange data in the outline will drive the way your essay is read upon completion. 

The Intro is one of the essential great research essay’s elements. Interestingly, it should be written often at the final step of writing the essay as long as its target is to grab the reader’s attention. It is possible to do it by presenting the topic to the reader and utilizing the thesis as a chance to hook the reader’s attention. 

The Main Body is the heart of the entire paper. It consists of multiple subsections and fast-reach paragraphs. It lets you build upon the thesis statement by giving facts to back up your claim. This part must elaborate on the opening statement and give an insight into the ways utilized to make the research. It includes answers to the questions and investigative points.

You might always wish to consider utilizing the literature overview. This is reached by documenting all literary sources utilized to back up your hypothesis and theories. The essay’s topic and the chosen literature must be adjacent. 

If you utilized any kind of information validation, it might typically follow the literature and methodology sections. You are supposed to emphasize the results and specify other variables that you have not covered in the research. You may select to utilize tables or graphs, but keep in mind that you should explain them to the readers.   

Finally, you should compose the Conclusion. The conclusion should never offer new data. However, it must summarize the key points that are addressed in the essay. It is a must to restate the thesis statement here and specify any further investigation. 

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How to Format the Research Essay?

There are plenty of sources you might use for research essay examples. Composing a great essay supposes not only just adding too many citations into the text and hope for the best. If you want to pass the grade, you should make sure all the sources are properly cited, the research paper is properly formatted, and thoroughly research the topic. Here is a guide for you to help compose the finished essay that looks and reads like a professionally written paper. 

Formatting the research essay

1.Essay

Utilize good quality, clean 8 1/2″ x 11″ plain white essay, if it is 1 side only.

2. Margins

Let the margins of your paper be 1″ (2.5 cm) at the bottom, top, right and left sides of every single page. One inch is about ten typed spaces. The page numbers that are placed 1/2″ (1.25 cm) from your top upper-right hand corner, and flushed to your right margin, are the exception. 

3. Title page

The title page is not important for a research essay unless your teacher specifically requests it. The MLA Handbook gives the general guideline on how to compose a research essay and document sources. It goes without saying that you will have to follow your teacher’s guidelines. 

Suppose there is no title page; you might start one inch from the first essay’s page top and begin to type your name, which is flushed against your left margin. Then, on the separate lines, under the name, flushed against your left margin, double-spaced, you should type the name of the teacher, the date, and course code. 

If the teacher likes your paper’s first page not to be numbered, it would be better for you to start numbering with the page 2. 

After the date, you should double space. Center the paper’s title on a new line. With a long title, double-space between the title’s lines.  

Example

Smith 1

John Smith

Mr. J. Thompson

NGR-4A1-01

15 February 2012

Abortion: Pros and Cons

The title should not be typed in capital letters. Avoid using quotation marks after and before the title. You should not emphasize the title and never put the period at the title’s end. Proper names of places and people, as well as necessary words, must be capitalized in your title. However, conjunctions and prepositions are depicted normally in the lower case letters—for example, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. The same rule should be applied to subheadings and headings too. 

You would better follow the same rules for the acronyms that you would be composing in your paper. For example, NATO will be completely in the capitals because it is your acronym for North Atlantic Treaty Organization. When utilizing the acronym, the uncommon one, in particular, you should indicate which of the letters should stand for the initial occurrence in your paper. Example: The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has created a plan to fight global warming. 

If your teacher requires you to add the Title page, start on a new page. Utilize a format that your teacher prefers. Otherwise, you should double-space every single line and center every line on the blank page: school name, essay’s title in the lower and the upper case, the code of the course, course name, the name of your teacher, your first name and surname, and date. 

Your title page should look like that:

Abortion: Pros and Cons

NGR-4A1-01

Mr. J. Thompson

John Smith

15 February 2012

Here are the things you should NEVER do:

TITLE OF ESSAY: “Abortion: Pros and Cons”

COURSE CODE: “NGR-4A1-01”

TO MY TEACHER: “Mr. J. Thompson”

FROM YOUR STUDENT: “John Elliot Smith”

ASSIGNMENT DUE DATE: “Friday, February the fifteenth in the year 2012”

It is not important to explain or depict the Title page by adding such words: Course Code, Title, Due Date, From, To. Just add the minimal data, and that will be enough.

4. Numbering paragraphs and pages

You should number the pages throughout the paper consecutively in your upper-right corner, flush it against your right margin, then add ½ inches from your top. According to the MLA Handbook, you should type your surname just before your page number in the case your pages are misplaced. For instance, on page 3 of your paper, you should add: Smith 3

Page numbers should be composed in Arabic numerals. You should not add anything fancy in order to decorate the page number. You should not enclose it between asterisks, parentheses, hyphens, or underline it and precede it with “P,” “Pg,” or “Page.” Do not add a period after your number. In other words, you should not utilize any of the next things:  

PAGE 3, Page 3, Pg. 3, P 3, pg. 3, p. 3, #3, ~ 3 ~, – 3 -, * 3*, (3), “3”, 3, or 3.

Simply write: 3

Never add the period after your page number.

Suppose you submit your paper to your teacher through email. In that case, they might prefer you number every single paragraph consecutively referencing points through adding [1] at the beginning of your initial paragraph, [2] right before your second paragraph, and etc. You might also submit the electronic documents. This system might facilitate the sources’ citation by defining a specific paragraph for your reference very fast. 

5. Spacing between the lines.

If your paper is printed, typed, or handwritten, the entire paper must be double-spaced between the lines together with a one-inch margin on every side for your teacher to add comments. 

Spacing Between Words

Generally speaking, you should leave 1 space between the words and 1 space after every single colon, semi-colon, or comma. Usually, 2 spaces are supposed to be at every sentence end if a sentence finishes with the exclamation mark, the question mark, or the period. Despite the fact it is acceptable to leave 2 spaces after a period, it is okay to leave just 1 space after each punctuation mark. Nevertheless, you should never leave some space in front of the punctuation mark. For instance, do not write like that: op. cit. or “Why me?”

6. Indentation

Suppose a handwritten paper is okay for your teacher; make sure you double-space every single line and start every paragraph with one inch from your left margin. Utilize the width of the thumb to guide you.

If you utilize a word processor or a typewriter on the computer, indent five spaces or ½ inch at every paragraph’s start. You should indent the set-off quotations ten spaces or one inch from your left margin. 

Your teacher might provide you with an opportunity to either indent or not indent your paragraphs. However, you should remain consistent throughout the whole paper. 

If you decide not to indent, you will begin every paragraph flushing to your left margin. It is important for you to double-space between the lines and quadruple-space between your paragraphs. If you do not indent your paragraphs, it will be complicated for your reader to view where every new paragraph starts. Therefore, you should use quadruple-space between paragraphs. The set-off quotations must be indented ten spaces or one inch from your left margin.

7. Automatic Hyphens and Right Justify

You should not right justify the entire paper and never format hyphens automatically if you type your paper using a word processor. Justify your paper or leave justify and add the hyphens by yourself. Use left justification because it does not leave big gaps between the words.

8. Titles of Journals, Newspapers, Magazines, or Books

If utilized within the essay’s text, titles of the complete length, the works like books, plays, or novels must be underlined—for example, Lord of the Rings.  

Add the quotation marks with shorter works’ titles like papers, chapters of the books, journals, magazine articles, and newspapers. For example: “ The Way out of Global Warming Is Found!”

For every word, all title citations, except articles (“the”, “an”, “a”), prepositions (like “over”, “under”, “on”, “in”), and conjunctions (like “however”, “but”, “because”, “and”) must be capitalized, unless they appear at the beginning of your subtitle or title. For example: “And Now the Way out of Corruption Was Found.”

You will better look into the dictionary if you are not sure if the word is utilized as an adverb, a verb, a noun, conjunction, or a preposition. For example, the word “near” might be either a preposition, a verb, an adjective, or an adverb, depending on the specific context. 

9. Writing a Paper All in the Capital Letters

YOU SHOULD NEVER TYPE OR WRITE ANYTHING CAPITALIZED, EVEN IF IT SAVES YOUR EFFORT AND TIME BECAUSE YOU SHOULD NOT UTILIZE THE SHIFT THE KEY REPEATEDLY OR YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO DEFINE WHERE AND WHEN IT WOULD BE BETTER NOT UTILIZE CAPITAL LETTERS. SOME PEOPLE CAPITALIZE EVERY SINGLE LETTER SINCE THEY DO NOT KNOW HOW TO COMPOSE SENTENCES IN LOWER- AND UPPER-CASE LETTERS PROPERLY WHILE THEY STUDIED IN THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL. oTHER PEOPLE CAPITALIZE LETTERS TO SOUND MORE IMPORTANT. THE READING PROCESS OF THE TEXT ALL IN CAPITAL LETTERS IS SLOWED DOWN AND MIGHT BE VERY ANNOYING TO THE READER. KEEP IN MIND THAT THE TARGET OF WRITING ANYTHING IS TO HAVE A GREAT COMMUNICATION. THE VAST MAJORITY OF PEOPLE ARE NOT USED TO READING THE ESSAY WHICH IS COMPLETELY CAPITALIZED. THERE MIGHT BE EVEN MORE PROBLEMS BECAUSE WORD PROCESSORS TREAT THE WORDS WITHOUT SPACES AS ONE WORD.

10.  Table of the Contents

A research paper or a short essay does not require the Table of Contents. If the research paper or written report is not very long, it might be useful to add the Table of Contents that shows your page number in which every section starts. If you write a lengthy document, check out the following order for placing specific items in the Table of Contents:

Foreword, Acknowledgements, Intro, Main Body (Parts I, II, III), Conclusion or Summary, Explanatory Notes, Afterword, Appendices, Glossary, Contact Organizations, Endnotes, Index, Bibliography.

The Table of Contents that is less involved might just include the following parts: Intro, Main Body, Conclusion, Works Cited.

11. End of Paper

No special fancy symbol, phrase, or word is required to denote the paper’s end. All you need is to put a period at the last sentence’s end.

12. Keeping Paper Together

You should staple the sheets of paper in your upper left-hand corner. If there is no staple available, you should utilize a paper clip. Do not fold or pin the paper. Unless your teacher specifically requests, you should not give the paper in the plastic jacket, the binder, the folder, roll it up with the elastic band, or tie it with a string or ribbon. You should not spray cologne or perfume on the paper. Do not hand in the term paper or research essay in loose sheets, even with the sheets neatly placed in the folder or envelope or if they are numbered. The paper’s condition is the respect indication for both your teacher and you. So make sure it is the best you can ever do. 

Final Note on the Paper

The topics utilized for every research essay are very different from each other. Moreover, even the identical topics would appear to be original based on the author’s educational level and viewpoints. Despite the topic, you were assigned or your grade level, the research essay outline might assist you in creating a great paper. It must consist of a bulleted list of headings and subheadings, so make sure you included as many details as possible. If you cross out every section once you finish, you will easily stay thorough. 

Check out the sample of the research essay outline:

Intro

1. The intro or a quick overview of the issue or topic.
2. The utilized methodology.
3. The thesis statement.
4. The complete review of each source utilized and every corresponding literature.
5. A short explanation of your research relevance.

Main Body

1. Thorough and detailed data concerning your main points of your claim.
2. Utilize many paragraphs here. Every paragraph must represent various points.

Conclusion

1. A short summary of every single fact or point mentioned in the main body.
2. The thesis statement reiteration.
3. Closing thought or remark. 

People also ask about:              

            The typical research essay structure is the sequence of the intro, main methods, results, and your discussion. Every section must address a different objective. 

            The first section is the Cover or Title page. It is followed by the Statement of the Issue or the Intro. The third part is the main body which is followed by the methodology. The last but not least section is your conclusion.  

           Every research essay’s basic parts are the Cover Page, the Abstract, the Intro, Background, Methodology, Results, the Conclusion, and the Appendices. 

Firstly, you should try to understand the task. Select the research essay topic. The number three-step is to conduct the research. Then, you should elaborate on the thesis statement. Step five would be to create an outline. Then, you should compose the first draft. Generate the intro, main body, and conclusion.