Brainstorming and Outlining Your Research Paper

          As a tutor in the writing center, I’ve met quite a few people who have found themselves having a hard time coming up with ideas for an essay. Your professor might leave it entirely up to you to come up with a research topic to write about (relating to whatever subject is being covered in class), and you just have no idea where to start. Where do I start?! We’ve covered so much already! Today, I’m going to walk you through some quick, easy ways to come up with a research topic and from there, how to outline your paper.

            First, let’s try to review what your professor has already talked about in lecture. Skim through your notes and see what been discussed or what chapters have been covered so far. For example, let’s say your class has been focusing a lot on Edwardian England and your essay has to be a research essay about some aspect of life in that era. It seems extremely vague at first, but if you check over your notes or reading, some topics may start to jump out at you. The first topics should be very vague to start with. From there, you narrow it down to something much more specific.

            Some general topics regarding Edwardian society might be: economics, courtship, marriage, childrearing, entertainment, employment, education, travel, or politics. That is a great place to start. When you come up with a list of general topics, write them down on a piece of paper with room to begin branching out more specific ideas from them. From there, choose which of those topics interests you the most. It’s always a good idea to choose a topic that you find intriguing. Otherwise, you’ll be bored with your paper and more likely to procrastinate. If you have to write a paper, may as well have fun with it, right?

            From there, let’s say you picked courtship, marriage, and childrearing. With these three topics, you can make a theme for the research paper: family life in Edwardian England! Bam! You have a theme and some vague topics. From there, take each of the topics and break it down even further. How can you get more specific about each one of these? On your pieces of paper, you should have each of these written down with a few branches coming out to write down your ideas. For courtship, how might you develop this further? You might say: rules of courtship, duration of courtship, who makes the decisions in the courtship? Do this same exercise for each of the vague topics. It’s ok to come up with some of the same ideas related to the different topics. For example: rules of marriage and rules of childrearing. That being said, you might not necessarily say “duration of marriage” (unless of course, you find that idea interesting and want to research the average duration of Edwardian era marriages).

            Now that you have some even narrower topics, you can choose to continue to go even more specific, or you may choose to begin to outline your paper. Some professors may want you to get super specific, while others may want you to be more general. It’s always best to run your ideas by your professor first to make sure you’re on the right track. After checking with you professor, you need to decide whether or not you have enough topics to meet the requirements of the paper. If you don’t, keep brainstorming using the same technique until you have enough.

            When you get to the point where you have enough topics to cover, it’s time to begin to outline your paper. The first paragraph is always the introduction. With this type of paper, I would suggest working on introduction, as well as the conclusion, later on as opposed to starting with it right away. You might find it easier to write the introduction and conclusion if you write the body of your paper first. Begin by creating a basic outline of your paper by simply writing a sentence or two about what each paragraph will be about. For example:

Paragraph 1: introduction. Thesis statement and summary of paper.

Paragraph 2: Courtship. Rules of courtship in Edwardian England.

Paragraph 3: Courtship. Duration of courtship in Edwardian England

Paragraph 4: and so on…..

Once you have your outline put together in the order you want, you know exactly what it is you need to research. Take thorough notes and be careful to record all your sources. Don’t forget to include your works cited page in the appropriate format at the end of the research paper as well to cite your sources within the body of your paper whenever necessary. Another thing to note: Transitions are important! Be sure to use a transition between topics to help the paper flow from one subject into the next seamlessly. When all this is done, wording your introductions and conclusions should be a bit easier. Both the introduction and conclusion should include a succinct description of your research paper as well as your thesis.

I hope these tips help and I wish you luck on your next research paper!

By Aurora Lopez, FCC Student, WRC Tutor