* Template: Research & Writing: Getting Started

Narrowing your Research Topic

Where? A region? Another Country? In the United States?

Time Frame? A time period? Last 5 years? Last week?

Perspective? Is this an opinion paper? What is your position? Evidence?

Purpose? What are you trying to prove? What is the purpose? Who is your audience you are writing to?

Population? Men? Women? Teenagers? Children? Who are you writing about?

Anything Else? What detail is missing?

Getting Started: Making an Outline

1. Identify the topic

The topic of your paper is important. Try to sum up the point of your paper in one sentence or phrase. This will help your paper stay focused on the main point.

2. Identify the main categories

What main points will you cover? The introduction usually introduces all of your main points, then the rest of paper can be spent developing those points.

3. Create the first category

What is the first point you want to cover? If the paper centers around a complicated term, a definition is often a good place to start. For a paper about a particular theory, giving the general background on the theory can be a good place to begin.

4. Create subcategories

After you have the main point, create points under it that provide support for the main point. The number of categories that you use depends on the amount of information that you are going to cover; there is no right or wrong number to use.

By convention, each category consists of a minimum of two entries. If your first category is Roman numeral I, your outline must also have a category labeled roman numeral II; if you have a capital letter A under category I, you must also have a capital letter B. Whether you then go on to have capital letters C, D, E, etc., is up to you, depending on the amount of material you are going to cover. You are required to have only two of each numbered or lettered category. 

Finding Helpful Keywords

Research question example: How has communications improved through the use of social media in the past five years?

Next step: Finding related terms to your key concepts.

Using the chart below, fill in your key concepts their synonyms.

What Type of Source do I Need?

Broadening your Research Topic

Where? In the United States? Another Country? A region?

Time Frame? Last week? Last 10 years? A time period?

Perspective? Is this an opinion paper? Is it a literature review? A general research paper?

Purpose? Who is your audience ? What is the question you are answering? What are you trying to prove? 

Population? Women above 65? Older adults? Adults? Who are you writing about?

Anything Else? What details can be added to expand your topic?