Outlines

I'm currently sitting in our Student Union Building, listening to the hum of an industrial vaccum and the people below the balcony playing pool. Chapel let out early this morning and I have ended up with a magical 30 minute window before my next class, so I figured I should at least draft a blog post.

I don't know about you, but I write a lot of papers in college. A lot. I'm under the humanities branch, so that makes sense, I guess. But what really makes it a lot is that my department policy is a research paper for every History/PoliSci class we take. Long story short, I write a lot of 10 page research papers. 

As I was scribbling out my outlines for the semester, I thought it may be helpful to show you. I used to follow the normal method that most people will teach you how to do, but they were never really helpful to me. They were hard to fill out, made my writing choppy, and were utterly unhelpful in reaching high page numbers.  And then I had a professor ask for questions instead of an outline... and he changed my paper writing world forever. The result has been half outline, half mind map, and all helpful.

*As a disclaimer, this method does not work for everything. It dosen't line up well with the three part thesis that you were taught in high school and it's not really super great for things like compare/contrast papers (although it does work). That being said, it's a history paper's dream outline.* 

Research papers, by nature, don't really lend themselves to the three part thesis (you know the "such and such a thing has x, y, and z and i'm going to show them to you" kinnd of thesis.) They are about a subject, why you should care about it, and in most cases, an argument for a single conclusion or opinion.Which makes them hard to fit into the normal outline method. 

Enter the question method, which essentially gets all those things on the table, while making it really easy to hit high page numbers. Because all reasearch papers start with a question: "what was the impact of smallpox on Colonial politics?" "Why the heck did Abraham Lincoln's body get toured around the North before he was buried?" (See history can be fun), and then go about answering that question, which ultimately leads to a series of smaller questions, this method uses the actual flow of writing a research paper as it's outline form. It was probably one of the biggest ah-ha moments I've had in all of college. 

Since I didn't get this until really late into my college career, I wanted to share it with you in hopes that it helps you way sooner. 

ok, so the nitty gritty. 

this is a normal outline format (just for comparison purposes) 

And here is the Question Format Outline: 

It looks really different, and like it would produce less information, but I promise, it covers way more. The best way to do it is to start just after you've done some piliminary research, get as many questions out as you can and then fill in as you go. That way it guides your research and your writing. (Multitasking forever) 

This is the early form of one of my papers. This is just essentially a brain vomit of everything I know/want to know about this topic and question with a little of what I already know thrown in. 

Here is another one from this semester that's a little more filled out. (and two pages long, I apologize) 

Even more details and quotes can be filled in as you go, if you in-depth outlines are your style. 

The questions per page not only make sure you really cover what you need to, but they also ensure that you have enough information to cover your page limit. 

I hope this helps you! Good luck on your finals weeks!

XO, 

Jessica