Research Writing Topic – Organizing

It is important to take the time to plan and organize your thoughts and ideas before writing your first draft. Creating an outline will save you time and effort in the long run. By developing an outline, you will already know that your paper has a strong framework, and the outline can serve as a map to help you stay on-topic as you write. In this topic, you explored three different types of outlines: an informal outline, a topic outline, and a sentence outline. Formal outlines offer more structure and organization.

In your own outline, you made a plan for elements within the introduction, body, and conclusion sections of your research paper. The purpose of the hook is to grab the readers' attention. The conclusion ties up loose ends and leaves the readers with an important takeaway, which can be a call to action, a reflection on a lesson learned, or a connection to everyday life.