You Can Use a Free Sample to Compose a Term Paper Outline
Many sites that help students with their school work, have samples the student can use. Use them to help get ideas from and how to compose their work. Some also show with samples how to outline a paper as well. But even if they do not, it is still possible to gather an outline from a sample. This is how.
- Read, then Reread
- Break it Down
- Compose Your Outline
Read, then Reread
To start, read the sample paper. When finished, then reread it again, this time examining each section; Intorduction, Body, and Conclusion. Each section has its own elements that the writer used. Looking for these elements will show the student how to write their own outline. Or more realistically the basics of it. The actual “How to” comes next. But getting these basics is important to do the next step; as they are what will be built off from.
Break it Down
Now that the elements have been found, the hard part starts. Breaking it down to see not only the elements, but how they were designed. Being that an outline is a design to build the paper off from. Basically, this is reverse engineering the term paper. Where did the writer put each element, and why are the questions the student is looking to answer. Starting with the introduction, how did the writer lead it into the body? What steps did they take to lead it?
Next is the body, how did they break their subtopics up and what qualified their use? This is important, because when the student starts their outline, they need to break their topic into parts (subtopics) and define them. What type of images, graphs, and/or charts did they use, and where were they placed? Where did they use what references, and how?
Last is the conclusion. Looking through this, find how they ended any open thoughts, and how they closed the paper. What elements were used to accomplish this? Did they use a final chart, graph, or image? All of this plays a part in the outline.
Compose Your Outline
Now with all this information, the student can begin their own outline. Start by giving an overview to help plan the outline. Then go to the Introduction and outline that. Followed by the body, and what parts will have what in them and why. Ended with the conclusion, bringing the paper to fruition.
