A paper outline is the next step in your research process. This document will be shared with you closer to the date of the proposal deadline as well, but it's always useful to store a copy here for your perusal!
At the bottom of the page, you can find a blank research paper outline template you can use to kick start yours!
The paper outline is due in week 5 of the program.
This document will describe our expectations for the outline of your research paper. This is an essential step in the process of writing a successful research paper and something that you’ll both need to work on individually and with the guidance of your mentor.
The goal of an outline is for you to think through what your final paper will look like, and create a structure that you can fill in over the next few weeks. Good outlines are detailed, clear, and with specific next steps for each section of your paper.
Please include all of the following sections (as applicable) in your outline before submitting.
Please restate your research question here. Feel free to update it from your previous submissions. You should be iterating on the question to make sure it aligns with your current thinking.
This is the core section of your outline. Think through what major sections you’ll have in your paper. Under each of these sections, write 2-3 lines about what you will argue or write in that section. We give examples of sections below!
In addition to outline the content, write at least one clear next step that you’ll need in order to work on that section (e.g., I’ll need to read XXX papers, or I’ll need to clean XXX part of the data)
Along with the outline, you are asked to turn in a set of proposed "milestone submissions" for the following 3 weeks. Please look at the page in the handbook on Milestone Submissions for more information!
In this section, answer the question whether your paper plans to analyze quantitative data. If so, which data set will you analyze? Do you already have access to this data set?
At this point, if you are doing a quantitative data set analysis, you need to have identified the data set you’ll use before submitting the outline. If not, then you may consider switching to another type of paper. Data cleaning takes time!