Examples of a full sentence outline for a research paper

Your sentence outline should, if done thoroughly and carefully, represent almost a first draft of your research paper. Once you’ve written it, the paper will practically write itself. You’ll just be filling in the blanks, so to speak—providing specific examples and other support to flesh out and prove the ideas you’ve already sketched out.

The basic idea of a formal outline is that different types of letters or numbers (I, A, 1, a, i) represent different levels of the hierarchy of your paper, and sub-levels are indented below main levels. For example: (If you’re using Microsoft Word, you might find yourself getting frustrated by its “helpful” approach to formatting lists.

On a new page, write your first main point. This is the thesis for that section of the paper. Make a list of the points you have to prove to prove that point. Just as with the main points, these should be complete, declarative sentences—statements you can prove or disprove.

Research Paper Outline Format. Research paper outline format are of two types: 1) Where the basic information about each point of research is included in the outline and is numbered. 2) A full sentence outline is also done in a number system but with a one sentence statement added about each section.